Our Best Van Buys- Product Recommendations & Reviews

We have now been living full-time in our van for the past 7 months. In this time, we have realised how certain items make life so much easier! If we had our time again and started over, we have a good list of products we would definitely buy and install again. So we thought, why not share them with you all. When building your van and buying van items, its so important to do your research. You need to know for one, the product does what it is meant to do, two, is good quality and three its easy to use or install! Also a product that doesn’t break the budget is always a winner! We all want value for money right?!

Our first recommendation is our Dometic CoolMatic CRX 110 fridge/freezer. This is definitely my favourite item! When purchasing a fridge, we um’d and ahh’d about the size and if we actually needed a freezer. Lucky for us, whilst we were in Andorra, we came across a camping store that had a good selection and a good price tag! There was only a small difference in price between the 110L and the smaller size so we thought it’s a bargain, why not! It wasn’t until our first big grocery shop, that we realised what a smart move we had made. Our fridge can fit a whole weeks worth of food it in. Don’t get me wrong, its tight to begin with, but it’s so impressive. That’s 7 days of eating, fresh fruit and veggies, milk, yoghurts, cheese and meat. Trust me, we eat very well, so there’s no denying how much we love our fridge. It’s great for when we are travelling and don’t need to stop to find a grocery store and it also means if we want to go remote, we can. We can freeze meat and defrost it daily. The freezer isn’t huge, but again if you pack it right, you can fit a lot more than you will believe. Our Dometic 110L fridge/freezer has to be our top pick. It can be a big chunk out of your budget but trust me, if you don’t want to spend your life at the shops its worth every cent. 

Another great item we purchased, funnily enough is also a Dometic product, is our portable toilet. The Dometic 976 portable toilet is easy to empty and clean, has a pump and press flush option, has a slide trap to open and close the hole which stops smell, uses minimal amounts of chemicals and isn’t too much shorter than a regular heighted toilet. These toilets aren’t a big expense in the scheme of things, so we say it’s a good deal.https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=lachlangarutt-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B002BW22QK&asins=B002BW22QK&linkId=ebdca379ff2756e76e181c9d61a8a6a3&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff

Now that the weather is getting warmer, we finally have had the chance to test out our fans properly. We installed 2 fans in our van, one at the rear over our bed and the other is the front/kitchen area. We ended up opting for 2 different fans; in the kitchen we have a MAXXAIR AIRXCEL and over the bed a FIAMMA Turbo-Vent Premium. The MAXXAIR works great in the kitchen for cooking and extracting the air out of the van, its quiet and even has a remote control. The downside to this fan is, that it is a lot more expensive than the FIAMMA and we have recently discovered when used as a ceiling fan the air flow isn’t that great. The FIAMMA fan however, can produce a lot of air flow. It works so much better than the MAXXAIR for this. The only downside to this fan is, it can get noisy when it’s on the higher settings. We don’t mind it though because we would rather the amazing breeze it produces when it’s hot and muggy out, than having a quieter one that can’t keep us cool. If you plan on travelling in warmer climates, we definitely recommend the FIAMMA in terms of function and cost. 

I hope our tips help you when you’re planning your build. Remember to do your research and don’t rush into buying things. Make sure you read reviews and know exactly what you are buying. Also try and grab a good bargain! https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=lachlangarutt-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B003HTWM4S&asins=B003HTWM4S&linkId=9b72bf5f9930bc67040641c1d7f6f44c&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff