Thanks for the data!
2 Duxtops side-by-side perhaps?
Interested in which 3-in-1 microwave you found,

 

2 Duxtops would have been too wide - and wouldn't look good. But I considered it. 😏

3-in-1 is this one. Not too many options that are convection and microwave that fit the space - other options were mostly really questionable manufacturers. I'm happy to report that it works well so far. Significant heat venting out the left side. Rear heat not as bad as I expected. I'm going to need to add some vents to the cover panel on the left side of the galley for the heat. I'm just glad it wasn't the right side that was hot - that's right up against the water heater.

Whole van looks like a tornado went through right now. Doing the AC unit and the galley rebuild. I'll get a galley photo later today.

For grip I've seen people use a silpat type pad on the burner. It'd be interesting to test how much difference the added distance between pan and induction ring makes in cooking.

Love it. I'll order one! I wonder if they have one that's not bright orange... 🤔 😁

 

For grip I've seen people use a silpat type pad on the burner. It'd be interesting to test how much difference the added distance between pan and induction ring makes in cooking.

 

How do you go about securing a microwave. I'm almost there and not sure how to go about it.

 

Maybe do what I did?

Attached an aluminum angle to the steel cover on each side with two pop rivets for each angle. Bolted/screwed the other leg of the angle to the plywood shelf microwave sits on.

Microwave is also inside an 80/20 structure.

 

We’ve had the Empava two burner for over a year now, perhaps 150 cooking sessions, and a lot of washboard and it still works perfectly. Never noticed any issue with pans sliding though we are diligent about leveling the van. Agree on the “background” draw, we added a separate switch for the stove mostly to reduce fan noise from our noisy inverter, on the rare occasions we are using 110 AC for something other than the cooktop. Doing it over I would probably go for a single burner; it’s not really roomy enough for two big pans and I prefer one pot meals when camping anyway. Less to clean up so saves water etc.

 

I'm glad this worked out the way it did. I was avoiding the True Induction based on the known background draw; but I'll take the 50W over 25W background just to get 1500W versus 1000W cooking. As you say, they're both switched off anyway.

Leaves me thinking how unfortunate it is for everyone who's got the Empava: much as they like it and it is working fine, one would never know it's under-powered (and bald-faced lying on the specs) and could work so much better if it met the specs it claims.

I only need one burner so I ordered a Duxtop based on this review. You better be right, homie! Lol.

It'll be hard to give up my old gas stove that doubles as a no mess fire pit (steel wool and ceramic logs). But not dealing with fumes when cooking will be nice. Even with both the slider and the rear passenger door open I get lightheaded standing in the van while something is cooking on the portable gas stove.

The other issue is the sheer amount of wasted heat that gets in the van, much less cooking smells, so I tend to avoid stove top cooking in the warmer months when I don't want the doors open to let out all the cold a/c air. Hopefully an induction burner reduces some of the latent heat, and I might make an exhaust hood using my outbound AC infinity vent fan for cooking smoke/smells.

Cheers.

I'm quite confident in the Duxtop. We used their non-recessed version at home for months while our kitchen was being rebuilt at the house. Got the recessed one when it became available after cracking the glass on the non-recessed (while using it at the house).

Come get our Duxtop; it'll just rot in the garage otherwise. Give me a few bucks or a bottle of wine - or not. I've also got another Duxtop with a cracked top - free for parts with the good one. 😄

Agreed on the cooking: I can get away with doors closed while making a grilled-cheese when it's dumping snow outside; there's the typical smell from me burning things - not much of a cook - but not mandatory to vent too much with the induction. Oh... but a solid grilled-cheese with ham and mustard and nice blackened, greasy outside of the sandwich in between runs on the mountain... oh... the best! 😗

 

We're getting rid of the propane oven / stove-top unit. One less thing to deal with (propane) and the oven was not great - took a long while to get to temperature, temps were really uneven and WAY inaccurate (using an separate thermometer). Also, since I added a microwave, this allows us to combine the microwave and oven with a GE 3-in-1 unit. FWIW, only two pizzas in the 3-in-1 so far and second one was better than any had been in the propane oven - and faster to cook. (Pizza is my reason to have an oven; cookies for my son and his wife. 🤷‍♀️ 🍪 🍕 )

So... that would leave us with just the one "burner" in our Duxtop induction cook-top... and I had to rebuild the galley anyway, so... moving back to a dual-burner unit (like we had in our Sprinter - which had no oven or microwave).

First, I searched a LOT for a 2-burner that would fit the 21-inch wide opening and there aren't a lot of options (on Amazon at least). I would have loved it if I could fit in a vertical unit, but they are just a bit too deep for the galley (less than 19" inside the rails - which I /could/ modify but would be a mess). The Empava unit has good ratings and feedback. Ordered this model and they sent the vertical unit instead. Tried again and they did it again. So I ordered a different Amazon link to the the same model and also ordered the True Induction unit - which was the same one we had in our Sprinter.

There are reviews of the Empava that say it doesn't go full power. And our experience with the True Induction was that it worked well but drew a LOT of power when it was "off" - forcing us to install a disconnect switch in the Sprinter so not to drain the batteries when it wasn't in use).

So when I got the correct Empava and True Induction, I did some tests for the background / "off" consumption and the max draw at "on." In a perfect world, I might have boiled an equal amount of water on each for comparison; but the output numbers said enough.

Empava
25W background
1kW max either side
Indicator for power on left shows 1800
Indicator for power on right shows 1300
Empava claims to be an 1800W unit. It is 1kW max.
Empava is so slick that the pan wants to slide off the unit.
View attachment 180229


True Induction
50w background
1.4kW left
1.45kW right
Pan got noticeably HOT faster than the Empava.
True Induction painted bits have a little bit of "traction" to them and the pan stays in place better.
View attachment 180230


Duxtop
6W background
1.4kW max
Pan got hot about the same as True Induction.
Duxtop has similar "traction" to the True Induction.
If Duxtop made a 2-burner that fit, I would have gone with it for sure.
View attachment 180231

I only need one burner so I ordered a Duxtop based on this review. You better be right, homie! Lol.

It'll be hard to give up my old gas stove that doubles as a no mess fire pit (steel wool and ceramic logs). But not dealing with fumes when cooking will be nice. Even with both the slider and the rear passenger door open I get lightheaded standing in the van while something is cooking on the portable gas stove.

The other issue is the sheer amount of wasted heat that gets in the van, much less cooking smells, so I tend to avoid stove top cooking in the warmer months when I don't want the doors open to let out all the cold a/c air. Hopefully an induction burner reduces some of the latent heat, and I might make an exhaust hood using my outbound AC infinity vent fan for cooking smoke/smells.

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the rundown here. The duxtop seems like it stacks up well. If only the dual burner weren’t ginormous. We will be keeping two single burners.
How did you measure power draw? I ask because when I performed similar tests on a dual burner unit, I saw the duxtop pull 1800w from the “power” burner. Maybe this is different from the dual to single burners?

 

@gregoryx our vans look similar inside right now. My head is spun with everything going on all at once. Getting there though.

 

To be clear, I agree that internally referential numbers are useful, and I am in no way skeptical of the data or decision process. Thanks for sharing it!

I was mostly surprised to have seen differing power draws from a two-burner duxtop vs the one you tested. The lower draw is pretty attraxtive for me, as I intend to run two singles, and only have a 3000w inverter. Not that we’d ever have both on full blast, but knowing a mistake wouldn’t pop a fuse would be nice.

 

Interesting and useful discussion. After only one year, you are pulling out your Greystone range. I was intending to buy the Furrion spiffy looking 17 inch range. My use sounds like yours, pizza, brownies, roasting vegetables. Also you included a single induction unit in your Sept 21 photos along with the 3 propane burners. My guess is you would say the Furrion is no better than the Greystone oven. I only have 3 feet for the galley behind the driver's seat, yours looks to be 4 feet. But my microwave is elsewhere. But keeping a propane 2 burner stove top along with a propane quick connect outlet to use a griddle or similar outdoors seems desirable and even with little battery power left you get to cook. You might say to include an induction cooktop like you did originally. I have already bought a 2 propane stove top with front to rear orientation, so that an induction unit and my sink wouldall fit. To the left of the galley and over the drivers side longways bed I was planning a swing around Lagun table/worksurface. Thanks for your post.

 

I considered the Furrion when I bought the Graystone. Glad I didn't spend even more on it just to come to where we are now. To be fair, I don't think the Graystone performance was bad; I don't expect the same performance from an RV oven that we see in the fancy one in the house. But when adding up all the space spent on oven / cooktop plus propane tank and storage box plus microwave... it's a lot. Even though we made it all fit just fine, I'd prefer more open space than more space taken up by things.

I'd say the biggest influence is probably the alternator-charging of the Transit. In our previous rig - 2011 Sprinter - alternator charging was something like 20-30A at best - in the ~300W range - and that would take a long drive to be useful. We tried bringing a 2kW generator but really hated the noise - especially when running full-blast to charge batteries.

With that previous experience in mind, we put 800W of solar panels on the roof and set them up to tilt - to really maximize charging. And still went propane oven to assure that battery power would never be the issue with cooking. But I had no idea in advance that we'd so easily get 1.5kW from the Transit alternator. Since it works so well, we never bothered to implement the tilting on the solar panels - we always have an easy backup to refill the batteries with an hour or two of engine-run-time.

That recharge option is what encouraged me to abandon the propane and just commit to electric. We're even installing a DC-powered air-conditioner. And now we have the propane locker space free, the microwave oven space free, and adding a 20"x16"x4" drawer to the galley - just by getting rid of the propane oven (and another $500 or whatever).

We will always bring our Camp Chef high-powered propane stove if we think we'll be doing any outdoor cooking. That thing is pretty cool for table-top cooking. But it's just a suitcase space in the garage.

Wow, this is a real eye opener. Imagine the combined waste occuring every day. It must somehow be a few pennies cheaper to manufacture the wasteful version. Thus, maximizing profit for the manufacturer while increasing cost of use for the consumer.

I will have an induction burner, but not one that is built in. I lucked out in that I mindlessly bought a Luxtop, knowing nothing about them. I am very impressed by how quickly it will heat up a pan.

Yeah... no joke, right?

We had the Duxtop on an on/off switch as well - I like to turn pretty much everything off at night - but it's interesting to know that it has such a small background draw. My personal guess is that the folks making these (prolly all made in the same child-labor factory in China) just didn't bother to actually make them turn OFF since no-one would ever ask or check. I doubt it's as sinister as actually trying two options and saving the pennies. Having worked with some of the Chinese wanna-be-raspberry-pi boards over the years, I came to think they just don't understand actual use-cases for /anything/ - only the specs. The try to meet a spec but don't appreciate what the real-world function of anything is. 🤷‍♀️

Funny, if you think about it, to consider that the Duxtop is burning ~140Wh per 24-hour period and we think that's the GOOD one! That's still a lot of burn for something that doesn't even have an LED turned on. But the ~1.2kWh burn of the True? Crazy.

FTR, another reason I am happy to be back with the True Induction is that when the first one we had with the Sprinter had issues, they sent me a couple parts and I repaired it in minutes. I was glad to know there were actual humans in Florida that supported it. No idea how that would play out with Empava or Duxtop. My worst-case example for support is anything made by Sony: they make fantastic products but might as well come with a clearly written notification that you can go jump off a cliff if you want help; they will provide NONE. So I appreciate a not-great product but with good support... by comparison.

 

you can also use a sun oven, there are lots options from folding flat to heavy and bulky. some of the fancier ones have options to plug in if you lose the sun. here is a video that covers a few of them

right now for my van, i'm planning on a 3 in 1 microwave, single induction plate and a sun oven. i might also add small pressure cooker [eg instapot] or water kettle.

i use a sun oven at home all the time [year round], the main downside [besides when there is no sun] is the lack of browning/crisping. when i want that effect i bring the food inside and throw it in the air fryer for a few minutes, however, my sun oven only goes up to about 400 fahrenheit if i had a nicer one that could hit 500+ then it would be able to do most of its own browning/crisping.

 

I can not vouch for which is the best. I did however get a single burner Duxtop.

My wife is a big cook and was leaning towards a two burner. We are both VERY GLAD we got the single burner. Being portable, the two burner would have been too unwieldy and large to move, cook with and store.

If we ever felt the need for two burners ( and this is not likely to happen) then two singles would still be better.

 

Ahhhhh @gregoryx choices, choices.....I saw your full windows build and changed my whole design. Then I saw your adjustable bed and changed my design again.......Now this. 🤣

Anyways, such a helpful post/info/usage review.....I wasn't going to look at it cause I like propane but you join a growing list of folks ditching the propane! Makes me want to try a small induction top with this microwave. I haven't purchased the microwave yet, so thanks for the link & review.

I too am at a standstill, had what seemed like a 'small' head cold for almost two weeks now and I can't seem to get any traction to get anything done on my van. It a mess and I'm stalled out. Glad others can admit same, makes me stop beating myself up with all that is left to get done here.

Looking forward to more of your A/C install. And @Mauronic 's as well. 👍🏾I can live vicariously with your progress at least.

 

Ahhhhh @gregoryx choices, choices.....I saw your full windows build and changed my whole design. Then I saw your adjustable bed and changed my design again.......Now this. 🤣

Anyways, such a helpful post/info/usage review.....I wasn't going to look at it cause I like propane but you join a growing list of folks ditching the propane! Makes me want to try a small induction top with this microwave. I haven't purchased the microwave yet, so thanks for the link & review.

I too am at a standstill, had what seemed like a 'small' head cold for almost two weeks now and I can't seem to get any traction to get anything done on my van. It a mess and I'm stalled out. Glad others can admit same, makes me stop beating myself up with all that is left to get done here.

Looking forward to more of your A/C install. And @Mauronic 's as well. 👍🏾I can live vicariously with your progress at least.

I was pretty stoked with the propane and the oven at first. But after more than a year... meh.

Personally, one burner would be fine; but my missus and daughter like to actually cook stuff, so... two burners. Otherwise, we'd have even more counter-top and just that Duxtop. You're welcome to come pick up the Duxtop if you want it; first come, first served.


After the two fender-bender deals, I was pretty dejected... but I'm eager now to get it back in action. We missed summer; but winter is coming! The galley is really coming out great: re-doing all the plumbing now and actually finished the counter-top (Astrid did the finish work) and the drawer is done; super close - once I get a leak resolved.

The air-conditioning install has begun; but it's met with rivnut, plusnut, steel, and other issues so far - just trying to bolt the compressor and condenser to the bottom. It'll be done soon-ish. Then the routing of cables and hoses begins.

 

We ditched propane on our van, though I bring a single burner butane stove as backup. In 130 nights of camping I have used it once, to boil water for coffee and cook bacon outside in summer before my wife woke up. We have a small 110V coffee maker and 2 burner induction cooktop. No microwave or air fryer or crock pot or any other 110V devices. We cook real meals with real ingredients, pretty similar to at home, except for no baking/roasting. 300Ah batteries and 240W solar and no “range anxiety”.

 

I went with the Duxtop 9610LS single "burner" powered by the 400Ah Victron lithium battery bank through the Victron Multiplus 3000 inverter. Ordered it on Amazon and got Duxtop sauce pan and skillet with it. I think it works great. Boils water for two cups of coffee before we can get the grounds into the filters. I don't find any of the noise complaints that I saw on the Amazon reviews, but that may be due to using Duxtop pans. Glad I went this route.

We still use a propane camp stove on the camp site picnic table to cook anything that will put out a lot of odor or greasy fumes.

 

I got the cheap acacia too. Sealed it with waterlox so we shall see how it does.

 

Finally all buttoned back up after the galley rebuild - including tearing out ALL the plumbing and starting over. Man, there is a LOT of stuff packed into that galley.

 

ALL the plumbing

Looks good.
Are those screw on connectors so you can drain the water heater and other parts of the system.
Is that new or have you used those before and you have experience with them staying put over time.

 

I ordered one of these: Duxtop 1800W Portable Induction Cooktop. It worked great except it had a very loud fan that ran whenever it was on. Anyone know of a quiet induction cooktop?

 

All three that I used above have a similar noise level. The Duxtop is one of them. So at least the two other brands have a similarly loud fan. I'd be a bit surprised if there's a quieter one; it's an electric stove that gets hot. 🤷‍♀️

 

I have the same cooktop and micro wave and I got you beat with the midea fridge. The cook top works really good! The micro combo also great. Draws 1600 watts in both air fry and micro. Hadn’t baked anything yet so not sure I wd imagine bout the same. Lastly, if you reverse the flow of your fan while cooking, the cabin is pressurized and work really well on exhausting cooking fumes. Not saying it’s like a 1200 cfm viking good but def gets the job done.