Toaster oven when boondocking

Brook-ClassB

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2021
Messages
13
Location
California
Hi all, is it possible to use a toaster oven when not hooked up to power and with no generator? We will have a lithium battery, an inverter, and about 360 solar. Is there a watt limit I should look for in a toaster oven? Most of the good ones appear to be about 1800 watts. Appreciate your assistance.
 
I don't have an RV yet but electricity works the same everywhere. I would look at the amp-hours more than the wattage.

At home, when I had an electric oven that I hated, I used a toaster oven for all my cooking. You see that it turns off and on to maintain the set temperature which may draw more current than expected.
 
I would say 1800 watts off of one lithium battery is not something you can do.

You will need a 3000 watt inverter. (check the size on that) and at least 400AH of lithium battery and a way to charge them. 360 watts of solar is a lot but not enough.

Just an opinion but you need a generator to do what you want to do.
 
An 1800 watt toaster oven is about the same as a microwave or induction stovetop. We have used both while boondocking. The problem is for how long. That 360 watts of solar will produce at best about 1800 watt-hours of power in a day. The inverter also draws additional power whenever it is on. So, assuming no other power uses, the toaster oven would run for less than an hour on the power stored from your solar panels in full sun on a summer day. I don't think you could boondock indefinitely without some other way of charging your batteries. You also have to consider whether your batteries will deliver that much power at that high rate.
 
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Consider the fine art of cooking with a hand held propane torch!






Just kidding............
 
Seriously, a gas stovetop toaster is a very legit option to toast bread of bagels.
 
Seriously, a gas stovetop toaster is a very legit option to toast bread of bagels.

If we are talking about toast or bagels, the run time is so short that amp-hours used is so small as to be insignificant, even with high-current devices.
 
Convection toaster oven

We have a large Volta lithium system and have a Breville convection oven and use it regularly and have no issues with it’s use. We use it mostly in the 5 to 15 minutes timeframes. However, we have used it for up to 2 hours while driving.
 
If you have a propane stovetop consider a cast iron round griddle https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/cast-iron-griddle?sku=L9OG3
Along with one round basting cover.
https://www.amazon.ca/Inch-Round-Basting-Cover-Stainless/dp/B012JC54TS
With a spray can of canola oil.
On the griddle you can make toast, heat a pizza, eggs and more, the spray oil is used to season/clean the griddle. When the weather is nice you can use your griddle outside with some kind of another propane method.
I found that keeping it simple is my way to go !
 
A Toaster oven is probably beyond the capabilities of your system. We have the typical TrippLite 750 watt inverter/charger and are able to use a 660 Watt 2 slice toaster or a 600 watt coffeemaker or a 285 Watt Crock pot. Note that I user "OR" and not "AND", you get to sue one at a time unless you run the gennie. Solar will help keep things recharged when boondocking but don't expect miracles with a 350 array. Keep your expectations reasonable, use the propane when possible and run the gennie if you need the microwave.
 
Johnny, could we get more info on your 660W toaster. I haven’t been able to find one with that low a wattage.
 
LiFePO4 cells are incredibly powerful. The cells I have are rated to a max discharge rate of 6C. That's a tremendous 6 times the capacity of the cell! Using them like that will shorten their lifespan but my guess is that you'd get your money's worth as you'd have purchased so few.

Limitations are imposed when the cells are assembled into 12V batteries. For example, current Battle Born 100Ah batteries are rated 100A discharge. That's only a 1C discharge rate.

Two Battle Born 100Ah batteries would be the minimum needed to power a 1800W load. 1 hour or so of runtime could be expected.

I have a 58Ah DIY LiFePO4 battery that weighs only 18 lbs. It can run a 780 Watt toaster and 650 Watt coffee maker simultaneously. In practice, I'd probably run one appliance at a time though. See: https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f23/diy-portable-useful-lifepo4-10057-8.html#post106709

I have 1200W toaster oven for RV use. I used the same 58Ah LiFePO4 battery to power it today as a test. The load was 100A so 1.7C discharge rate but still way below the 6C max rating for the cells. I set the toaster oven on dark (max) and that takes just over 5 minutes. The battery pack temperature went from 68F to 73F, hardly noticeable. I checked multiple spots for temperature and didn't find any hot-spots. I ran the test twice.

If it's occasional high current & relatively short duration use I am comfortable with using my batteries that way.
 
Seriously, a gas stovetop toaster is a very legit option to toast bread of bagels.

Those things suck. I have one (the GSI Outdoors model), I used it in our van for years, and it's just not cut out for the job.

I do use a small regular toaster on our lithium system. Draws a lot, yes, but short duration. But I would not try a toaster oven.
 
We really like our toaster oven. we bought a small Breville. No problem at all using it with our 2000 watt inverter and our 330AH AGM. Once these get warm, the heaters cycle on and off so power draw is not that bad.
 
Ditto the question about the 650-watt toaster brand. We have a "KitchenSmith" brand toaster from Target that draws 750-watts, and I thought that was about as low as you could go.
 
This may sound too simple, but we're using a frying pan or skillet on the stove to toast bread. Works really well especially on chilly mornings. Propane is cheap and lasts forever. No oil or butter used.
 
you can run anything using rv solar as long as you've got enough wattage.
Just check the wattage on the device and work out your watt-hours

That is, how many hours per day do you think you'll be running the device.

Looks like you've got a good solar set up there already. Shouldn't be a problem.

:)
 

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