Motorhome Cooking on Electricity – Andrew James Hob
We’ve been on a campsite in Croatia for the past two weeks (yes, I know, it’s a hard life), and haven’t used any gas the whole time we’ve been here. The fridge is running on 220V (included in the ACSI discount camping rate), we’re using the site showers, heating water with a travel kettle and are cooking with an Andrew James electric hob.
The fact we’ve not used any gas means we don’t need to worry about running out and being forced to move. As we have refillable LPG bottles (I installed a GasIT system), we can’t just swap over bottles, so in some circumstances it’s more convenient for us to use electricity for cooking than good old LPG.
And that’s the kind of reason we like having an electric hot plate. If you thought of it purely in terms of how much gas you’d have to save to pay for the device, and to account for the space and weight, you might just stick to gas. But we also have the option to cook outside on it (Zagan has an external 3-pin 230V point, but we could just use an extension cable). And we can use it in countries where there is no LPG but where we’d normally stay on a camping site, like Morocco. And it also just feels good to be getting the best possible value from campsite facilities, as we are here!
When we set off on this trip we had a choice of the hotplate, or a Remoska electric oven, which we used on our last trip out. The Remoska was included with the purchase of the van, but this time it stayed at home and the hob came with us. The decision was purely due to the fact we also have a double skillet (see photo), which functions as an oven for us, and combined with the hob we find it more flexible than the Remoska. If we’d more room/weight, we’d have both.
The single hob we have consumes up to 1500W, so approx 7A maximum. We’ve come across a small number of campsites which only provide 4A, but haven’t had a problem using it on this trip.
We’ve found the single hob to work well for us, although it does have the downside of being best suited to one-pot meals. You do have the option to use both electricity and gas of course, so if you felt the urge/had enough pans/were good at juggling, you could go full-on Gordon Ramsey and knock up a four-potter! Or even get a two-hob version (which we also have at home), and start your own bacon cob business on t’road?
Links to all the stuff mentioned in this post below, all tried and tested by us.
Cheers guys, Jay
I bought a Tefal induction hob recently for a similar reason – great bit of kit. I like the adjustable power setting for when EHU amperage is quite low. But even on a low setting it boils a pan of water within a few minutes.
As pointed out yesterday in my post I am selling my only used once Tent, however I have bought many items from ebay and Aldi and Lidle which I will be keeping hopefully to use in the future in a Motorhome:- Fine Elements Electrical Single Hot Plate/ Table Hob, 1500 Watt, White :- can be bought on Amazon – I bought mine from Aldi or Lidle and along with other..many other items like Microfibre Travel Towels,,hiking gear/Bike gear ..the quality is great and the prices even better…I have a room full of gadgets and gizmos ready to go…This is one of my fav gadgets :-Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Day Pack.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Summit-Ultra-Sil-Day-Pack/dp/B002ZHS6JS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460648467&sr=8-1&keywords=Sea+to+Summit+Ultra-Sil+Daypack This was a god send on my European Coach Trip.
We also have a Mr D thermal pot. It has taken a bit of getting used to and I admit to a couple of early disastrous meals! However, I can now knock up curries, Indian and Thai, stews and soups without too much trouble. It uses about 5-10 minutes of gas/electricty when it has come to a boil and then you put it to bed in its container and leave for 4+ hours. Longer if you want. Sometimes I just need to reheat it if left to ‘cook’ for 6 hours. We have found it really useful if out for the afternoon, or have a bit of a journey ahead. It has earned its space in our tiny campervan, along with Mosky (Remoska cooker). I would have to add that as vegetarians, I haven’t cooked meat in it, but the website assures that it is possible. The key is to heat everything through to piping hot on that initial boil and if making a smaller amount, fill the small top pot with boiling water. An aded bonus is that you also have a large and small pan for other uses. Apologies if you already have this information! Lorraine
Hi Lorraine. Nope, never heard off the thermal cooker before! Found it now – http://mrdscookware.com/ – will had a look-see again when we’re back in Blighty and consider whether to adjust our cookware! Many thanks, Jay
We also have the Mr D Thermal Cooker and bought it specifically for our trip so we can do stews, curries and chillies etc using very little gas. I’ve found it great but when cooking a stew the meat wasn’t tender enough after 5 hours so i just heated it back up to boiling point again and left it for another 5 hours and it was fine. They aren’t cheap but it will earn it’s keep we think!
Hmmmm. I have really enjoyed your early blogs and learned much. Thank you! However, your recent commercial departure devalues and dominates the content despite your attempts to dress it up. Sorry if this seems harsh but we can buy twaddle like MMM if we want to be led by the nose to the till. I trust you read this as constructive comment and don’t take offence! Happy travels.
Hi Hugh
Hmmmmm. The blog’s carried Google Adsense and Amazon Associates links for the past 5 years. The placement of the ads has varied, and the volume has ebbed and flowed over time, but they’ve always been there. What hasn’t changed is the fact we make every attempt to be honest: we only recommend something if it’s proven its worth to us. We don’t want anyone wasting their money on twaddle.
In all of that time, we’ve earned (after costs) less than 40p an hour for the effort we’ve put in to write it. Since we don’t consider writing and maintaining this blog to be ‘work’, we keep going, otherwise we’d pull the plug now through sheer embarrassment. Sure, I agree, we could choose the alternative path of removing all advertising from the site, but that’s our choice I think, and for the time being at least we don’t plan to do that.
Cheers, happy travels fella, Jay
We learn a lot from you and do not bother about ads or whatsoever! Thanks for all your FREE info! And above all your posts are really entertaining too! I love it!
And other travellers/ bloggers who then also add their info in the comments, just great. Also found out about some other nice blogs through yours, thanks!
More than welcome, spreading the love!
Hi ya,
VERY INTERESTING,,I was looking in Argos just last week at a ‘Hot Plate’ (Forget the brand name) & thought how good that would be to make my gas go even further (ask got the Gas it Plus installation).What put me off that one was No Wattage information showen. It’s very seldom I actually go on sites, but the Hot Plate you
have fits the bill for me Perfectly to run off my Generator when on !.
Thank You for giving little nuggets of information (& links) to kit
used on your travels in ‘The Real World’ its a much better field test than the Magazine Turn on-Yep that works-Turn off- Now let’s write a quick account so I can get home for Dinner type of thing, i
find it very useful.
Cheers for now.