Induction cooktop???

jjgarrett0

New member
Alastair D,

Do you have a schematic or more details about your Lithium/Solar setup? I would be interested in learning more about it and how you built it out.
Thanks!
 

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
I have done alot of research on this, and I think for my little pop up, I am going to use butane stoves. I have 2. I can keep the propane for my heater, and fridge, save some space and run butane cooktops. I can keep it inside the camper, open a window and cook away!
 

Happy Joe

Apprentice Geezer
Tried a single "burner" induction hob powered by a small Yamaha generator, tent camping; it worked fine but the space/volume requirements for transport along with another fuel can for the genny was too much trouble; went back to the old coleman propane or the svea 123 for morning coffee (and the tent battery for lights and tunes)... much easier to pack &haul/more efficient use of transport. The inductive pans were not that big a deal.
I would agree; induction cooking is fine when connected to shore power but not a good choice off grid.

Enjoy!
 

Healeyjet

Explorer
We use a two burner Wolf inductuon cooktop in the Cruiser. We have 870 AH of battery bank. We love inductuon in our setup. We don’t have a generator but have the two solar panels and the truck has two alternators. The way we tend to travel we are doing some amount of driving every couple days so between the alternators and the solar panels we have lots of power. We try not to use the AC as it is a bigger draw but we can cool the Cruiser down in 20 minutes using the camper mounted AC and the trucks AC aimed back into the camper.
Can’t say it’s for everyone but in out setup it works perfect. Our cooktop is a 240v so we use an Outback stepup transformer. I am not savvy enough to know if the fact that ours is 240v changes anything with regards to power usage.
Ward
 

mezmochill

Is outside
We use a two burner Wolf inductuon cooktop in the Cruiser. We have 870 AH of battery bank. We love inductuon in our setup. We don’t have a generator but have the two solar panels and the truck has two alternators. The way we tend to travel we are doing some amount of driving every couple days so between the alternators and the solar panels we have lots of power. We try not to use the AC as it is a bigger draw but we can cool the Cruiser down in 20 minutes using the camper mounted AC and the trucks AC aimed back into the camper.
Can’t say it’s for everyone but in out setup it works perfect. Our cooktop is a 240v so we use an Outback stepup transformer. I am not savvy enough to know if the fact that ours is 240v changes anything with regards to power usage.
Ward

Whats the total weight of those batteries?
 

Healeyjet

Explorer
I would say probably 150 lbs a piece so 450 lbs. Obviously of no value to a truck camping rig but in rig of our size they work great.
Ward
 

Trestle

Active member
Using a portable 1500w model. It has 9 settings. #9 is the full 1500 watts, and they go down from there. Very quick, and very controllable. Can boil water, make spaghetti, brown hamburger, and heat the cooked hamburger and sauce between two pans on the one cooktop. It eats less than 10% of the battery bank according to a Victron monitor I have. Water starts to boil on setting 4 inside of 6 minutes. Once boiling I can keep it there on setting 2 with or without the lid for the additional 11-12 minutes it takes to boil the pasta. The induction plate runs a fan for about 45 seconds after you turn it off. I like it so much, I use it in the house when I can. Way better than the other house cooking sources I have used to include gas, propane, electric coil, electric under glass. We paid like $50 for it online, so if it takes a dump it is an easy replacement. We carry a backup portable propane camp cooktop, but have only used it when we wanted to cook fish outside the cabin area.

Setup includes: 4x GC2 flooded golf cart batteries (2 in series, 2 in parallel for a 12v system), 1x 320W solar panel, 1x 2000w pure sine wave invertor, 1x victron MPPT solar controller. Wire runs are short, wires are fat, so as to create as few bottle necks in the input side of the solar system. Batteries are about a year old, and have been doing well. I also run a 1800w Brevelle Espresso machine each morning to steam milk and make espresso for 2x people. We're on phones and 2x laptops most of the day with this setup too, and run a fan and/or diesel heater all night. We've been out for weeks at a time with this system, and only once had to plug into shore power in the Summer due to a loose ground wire at the charge controller. Once we start having shorter days, and things cool down, I will bring a backup portable Honda clone as a backup. The space is similar to the inflatable SUP we will not need in the colder months. I do not yet have the batteries hooked up so that they charge via the vehicle running yet, which (depending upon how much you drive) may eliminate the portable genny backup draw during the shorter days of the year.

My next build will have more solar, more battery, and similar efficiencies so that we can rely less on petrol backup systems, and possibly use 2x 1500w units at the same time (on lower settings).
 

Happy Joe

Apprentice Geezer
Oh, we seem to be on the same hunt. I'd like to hear from those with a portable induction cooker with info like make and model and how you think it performs etc. I have already done tons of research, read many comparison reviews but still cannot figure out which brand to go.

SPT-1300 watt induction cooker
https://www.amazon.com/Spt-1300-Wat...att+induction&qid=1558444268&s=gateway&sr=8-4

shopping


Not optimal for tent camping; unless you going to run a genny anyway... it was an experiment that worked; but not well enough to repeat/become a standard part of the camping gear/replace propane cooking.

Cheap trial unit, purchased to try induction cooking while camping; wish it could actually sense the temperature (it doesn't seem to; regulates by power level instead).
For a cheap unit it works adequately. currently it is dedicated to heating French fry oil.
If getting another I would get a completely glass topped flat unit so that it could be set into the counter top in the kitchen (it makes a very handy, quick, easy auxiliary burner near the existing stove.
1300 watts is a bit low but I have never needed to run it full power.
Build quality is average chinese.

Enjoy!
 

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