Reddit reviews Koolatron LBS-01 Black 12 Volt Lunch Box Stove

I have about a dozen different thermos bottles of various brands and sizes. Personally, I find that the glass vacuum lined thermos bottles are the best for holding heat (especially if you follow the directions and "charge" them by filling it with boiling water for 5 minutes, first.) I frequently find them at thrift stores for under $5. For food use, I prefer the wide-mouth bottles, which can be found in both pint and quart sizes. Some of the bottles even have plastic inserts in case the glass breaks, so your food is protected, and it also makes the cleaning a bit easier.

Since you're based out of a vehicle all day, you really do have a few options. If you do an web search for something like "12v appliances", you'll find a bunch of cooking items that run off a vehicle's cigarette lighter. You can get crock pots, coffee machines, hell, someone even makes a 12v microwave.

One of the things you might want to think about is a 12v heated lunchbox. If you want a hot meal for lunch, you could prepare your lunch at home, pack it in a cooler, and then just throw it in the heated lunchbox to heat up while you're working on a job, and it would be hot and ready when you finish. That basically gives you all the options of having a kitchen to be able to reheat things, and opens up a whole world of possibilities.

I'm a rural carrier, so I drive my own vehicle, I'm not sure if this is something that would work with an LLV. But, as I drive around in the middle of remote nowheres, with no place to stop for lunch, I purchased a Lunch Box Stove that I can just plug in to the cigarette lighter. If I'm feeling lazy, or I know mail will be heavy and I won't have time for a break, I just toss in a Hot Pocket wrapped in tinfoil, otherwise I have little tin pans that I can put leftovers in to heat up, also wrapped up in tinfoil to keep them from spilling.

When it's really hot out, and I don't feel like hot meals, I just either make a sandwich or a wrap, chicken salad with grapes is my favorite, as is peanut butter and banana. Most of the time I'll just bring carrot sticks, string cheese, a banana, pringle chips, or trail mix along, as when it's that hot, I just feel snacky anyways.

If hot meals are important to you, then do yourself a huge favor and get a lunchbox oven. They're only $30, and are powered by your cigarette lighter. Works great for heating up/cooking just about anything. (there are a few different brands out there, suggest reading the reviews on each yourself)

Walmart or your grocery store sells disposable aluminum trays that fit perfectly inside, for a lot less money than they cost on the internet/Amazon. To lower the per-use cost even more, just take regular aluminum foil, and use that to line the disposable tray, and throw out the foil liner when you're done, instead of throwing out the tray. Ends up costing you almost nothing this way.

Using a lunchbox oven, you can prepare just about any meal ahead of time, put it into a tupperware type container, and keep that in a cooler with some ice packs until lunch. Put the food into the lunchbox oven, heat it up, and voila - hot meal of any kind. Can also use it to heat up your cold cans of Beefaroni or whatever!

Of course, you could always just eat cold sandwiches (roast beef/ham/turkey/etc), its a lot easier. As others have said, having a cooler is the main trick here. I also work via truck in the heat of summer, so I usually just freeze a bunch of water bottles and pack those around my lunch. They're super cheap, and when they melt, you're left with bottles of cold water to drink ;)

Hey I'm not the OP, for more info please go to the original post to congratulate them. :)



Personally I DO live in a van, it's a 1992 Chevy G20 Gladiator. I have a memory foam mattress on top of a wooden platform, totes and cardboard boxes for storage (food, clothing, etc.) underneath. having the mattress off the floor gives space for storage, and also insulates the mattress from the heat or cold of the ground.

For privacy I have tinted windows, non-adhesive window film, collapsible foil sunshade for the front window, and black bug screen mesh like this for the side windows.

For water I use sturdy Arizona tea jugs. I have a basic Coleman camping toilet for nighttime and emergency uses - some people simply use pee bottles or five gallon buckets.

If it's cold at night I have a [12V electric blanket](https://www.walmart.com/ip/TREKSAFE-12-Volt-Heated-Travel-Blanket-White/54609929] and/or a 12V "car seat" warmer that I put under the mattress. I also have a propane Little Buddy heater which I have not yet used.

My main luxury item is an Alpicool C15 refrigerator powered by two 35AH "house batteries" (in parallel) which are charged using a Battery Doctor isolator. The Battery Doctor is run by my alternator when I drive-it only starts charging the house batteries after my van battery is full. The fridge uses 5.8AH per day. I used a cooler for a year, but the drawbacks are constantly buying or procuring ice (like from soda fountains), and food spoilage from it getting waterlogged, plus having to drain it frequently.

For hot meals, I use a 12 volt "lunchbox cooker" (works similar to a crock pot) which is powered in my cigarette lighter while I drive (or I can run it with the house batteries through a 12v splitter - the Alpicool is plugged into the other side. I also have a propane camping stove which I have never used.

I have a USB mini fan to run at night, or I can run my small regular fan through the 300W power inventor where I can also charge my laptop and/or phone (I usually charge the phone in the cigarette lighter).

I don't make any money if you buy from any of these links, but I only used them for illustrative purposes - I encourage you to shop around on Craigslist, eBay, Amazon, Walmart, check yard sales, etc. find the best priced similar item that works best for you. You don't have to get everything all at once - I didn't. But if you can get a basic minivan or van (seats removed), a mattress (or sleeping bag even) on a frame, and some jugs of water, it's a start.