Cooking using the inverter socket - Experiment

[Jabberwocky]

We have owned our Cali for just over a year now and have covered just less than 10,000 miles with 75 nights away - most of which were with hook up. The Cali gets used pretty much as a daily driver (but less so over the winter 'coz I cant be bothered to move three cars on the driveway to always get the Cali out)
Never had any issues with the leisure batteries and never used the inverter socket for anything - so it's time to see what we can do with it as the summer season beckons.
This morning we decided to see if we slow cook using the inverter socket with no hook up.
The slow cooker has a max rating of 120 watts so should be fine with the IS rated at 150w. Recipe sorted (Pork casserole cuts with apple and sage) the slow cooker has been plugged in now for just over an hour and all seems to be OK.

The control panel stats are so far as follows:
Zero Mins - 12.7v, 100%, 0.2amps (2.5w)
20 Mins - 12.4v, 90%, 5.6amps (69w)
40 Mins - 12.4v, 90%, 6.0amps (74w)
60 Mins - 12.4v, 90%, 5.4amps (67w)

Looking good so far - will report on stats and taste a little later but feel free to comment/add dire warnings that I am in the process of trashing my LB's in the meantime! (I hope not, I need them for next weekend in Gloucester!!)

Monitoring every 30 mins or so.

 

[Skewif]

Great idea. Would work really well with solar too. A lot of the energy must go into heating at the start so maybe heating the food on the gas then transferring it would save a fair bit of battery.

 

[SimonB]

If you are looking for a slow cooker, try this https://mrdscookware.co.uk/ it's a slow cooker, but you don't need power whilst it's working. You heat up the thick base on the saucepan with the food in it, put a smaller pan on top with veg, or rice or whatever. Then put both of them in an insulated container. Leave for up to 6 hours whilst it cooks and you drive to where you are going. The food is ready when you get there. Chris @briwy had one up at the shop open day last November.
Excellent gadget. We have had some superb meals from it.

 

[Skewif]

What size do you / he have?

 

[SimonB]

It's the 3 litre twin pot one, https://mrdscookware.co.uk/product/mr-ds-3l-twin-pot more than enough for 4 people for curry & rice for example.

 

[SimonB]

We have owned our Cali for just over a year now and have covered just less than 10,000 miles with 75 nights away - most of which were with hook up. The Cali gets used pretty much as a daily driver (but less so over the winter 'coz I cant be bothered to move three cars on the driveway to always get the Cali out)
Never had any issues with the leisure batteries and never used the inverter socket for anything - so it's time to see what we can do with it as the summer season beckons.
This morning we decided to see if we slow cook using the inverter socket with no hook up.
The slow cooker has a max rating of 120 watts so should be fine with the IS rated at 150w. Recipe sorted (Pork casserole cuts with apple and sage) the slow cooker has been plugged in now for just over an hour and all seems to be OK.

The control panel stats are so far as follows:
Zero Mins - 12.7v, 100%, 0.2amps (2.5w)
20 Mins - 12.4v, 90%, 5.6amps (69w)
40 Mins - 12.4v, 90%, 6.0amps (74w)
60 Mins - 12.4v, 90%, 5.4amps (67w)

Looking good so far - will report on stats and taste a little later but feel free to comment/add dire warnings that I am in the process of trashing my LB's in the meantime! (I hope not, I need them for next weekend in Gloucester!!)

Monitoring every 30 mins or so.

Sounds lovely Rik. Yet another way of cooking in the Cali. What a versatile vehicle they are.

 

[Jabberwocky]

What size do you / he have?

Ours is a compact 1.5l on grounds of space saving and a simple fact that there is only normally only the two of us.

 

[Skewif]

Ours is a compact 1.5l on grounds of space saving and a simple fact that there is only normally only the two of us.

Thanks. I’ll have to measure up how big they are. I tend to cook a big pot so have enough for at least two meals. Can you use the pot inside for normal cooking?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Thanks. I’ll have to measure up how big they are. I tend to cook a big pot so have enough for at least two meals. Can you use the pot inside for normal cooking?

Our pot is a budget buy from Morrisons (£6.99) and unfortunately the inside pot can not be used on gas directly. Depending on how we get on we may splash out on a more luxurious version.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Well nearly seven hours later and LB's are at 60%, and 12.1v (but only revealed the 60% after I switched the cooker off). The inverter has been working at 5.2 to 6.0amps and all seems to be well. Useful exercise in building confidence of what the inverter socket can be used for. Meal was good too!
Slow cooking whilst not on hook-up? Yes, doable but a word of caution. This was done all with low settings. Using high settings will inevitably flatten your LB's at a faster rate.

 

[westfalia]

If you sliced your pork fillet thinner, could you halve the time ?

And did you add cider to it ?

 

[Hotel California]

All nice but 7h to cook a meal .....that i do not survive , if i'm hungry i don't want to wait that long.
Now i know what you wil say , cooking a meal while driving , ect ... but we don't see the benefits of this . We just cook when we arrive depending on what we carry and where we arrive .
If we arrive on a free spot without facilitys we like simple cooking with less dishes and cleaning up . When on a site with facilitys one can cook and bake and walk to the sanitairy block to wash up .

 

[Jabberwocky]

Our idea is to set the meal in a slow cooker (meat, veg and potatoes all included like a stew) before we go out hiking in the morning and 6 to 8 hours later we return mid/late afternoon we have a ready piping hot meal waiting for us. The only washing up? One dish from slow cooker, two plates and knives and forks. Oh, almost forgot. And two wine glasses!! We now know we can do this weather we are on hook-up or not.
Edit: Control panel now showing 12.4v at 80%.

 

[Jabberwocky]

If you sliced your pork fillet thinner, could you halve the time ?

And did you add cider to it ?

In our case we don't need it to cook quicker (see post above). Add cider? I might.

 

[Hotel California]

Drink from the bottle ....less dishes
I fully see your point of view , but it will never work for us .
Good advise for others doh...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Drink from the bottle ....less dishes

lol!

 

[Skewif]

Our idea is to set the meal in a slow cooker (meat, veg and potatoes all included like a stew) before we go out hiking in the morning and 6 to 8 hours later we return mid/late afternoon we have a ready piping hot meal waiting for us. The only washing up? One dish from slow cooker, two plates and knives and forks. Oh, almost forgot. And two wine glasses!! We now know we can do this weather we are on hook-up or not.
Edit: Control panel now showing 12.4v at 80%.

Thank you for the detailed experiment. With my 200w solar I could easily cook totally by sunlight and still have 100% batteries. What slow cooker are you using?
Forget that... you said Morrisons.

 

[motacyclist]

Drink from the bottle ....less dishes

Eat out of the pan!

 

[Hotel California]

Eat out of the pan!

Even better , Rik making us (me&Kathy) a meal in the slowcooker next weekend AND do the dishes , i'll be drinking wine straight from the botlle...
Who knows i'll end up getting one ?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Even better , Rik making us (me&Kathy) a meal in the slowcooker next weekend AND do the dishes , i'll be drinking wine straight from the botlle...
Who knows i'll end up getting one ?

Sounding an even better solution the more I read. Could also share a glass (I refuse to drink from a bottle - one has to maintain some standards you know).

 

[Mart123blue]

If you pop a gammon joint with a can of cider in before you head out hiking - It will be absolutely delicious on your return. No need for the cider to cover the joint and the cheaper the cider the better.

 

[Cali4nia-Dream]

Our pot is a budget buy from Morrisons (£6.99) and unfortunately the inside pot can not be used on gas directly. Depending on how we get on we may splash out on a more luxurious version.

Sounds interesting (but can't see that model on Morrisons online).
We looked at using a slow cooker in Cali a while since but the model we tried had no insulation and the outside got very hot so we gave up the idea of using it.
How hot does this model get?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Sounds interesting (but can't see that model on Morrisons online).
We looked at using a slow cooker in Cali a while since but the model we tried had no insulation and the outside got very hot so we gave up the idea of using it.
How hot does this model get?

We have two slow cookers. One is an expensive Crock Pot and the other a cheap (Morrisons own brand). Both work well and both get "too hot to touch" on the outside. We will only use the Morrisons pot in the Cali on account its small (1.5l?) and space is as you know limited. We put it on a tin tray on the glass kitchen top - no issues as the tin tray dissipates the external heat (on a cold day it also keeps the Cali a few degrees higher than would otherwise be the case). We bought in March last year but only now got to thinking about using it off hook-up as we are planning on some wild camping for a couple of days - just us and the wild. The Model number is WMKIT15SC15. https://groceries.morrisons.com/web...|166332|166387&parentContainer=|166332|166387 (inflation seems to have taken its toll - now £10!!)
Hope this helps.

 

[Cali4nia-Dream]

Thanks for the update JW.