PRoadPro Cooking

[jacqueg]

Well, the RoadPro lunchbox I was gifted with bit the dust.

I made good enough use of it while it was alive that I do want to replace it. But I am wondering whether I want the lunchbox or the electric skillet or the roaster. (Don't want the slow cooker.)

Thoughts?

 

[XERTYX]

I've thought about adding a roadpro to my setup, for my money I'm thinking the lunchbox. (That's the one that you can bake in correct?) I've thought about the skillets but I have a butane stove and skillet.

I'm also kicking around the idea of a hotlogic mini. They only draw 45 watts whereas the roadpro units are all over 100 watts if I remember correctly. But hotlogic doesnt bake.

I think I'd rather have the option to bake a biscuit than to stir a skillet as I already have butane for that.

 

[MrNoodly]

I'm glad you liked the Road Pro well enough to want to replace it. The one I had just didn't suit my needs. No temperature control, heat only on the bottom, drew a lot of power, and the lid warped from the heat so that it didn't seal properly. So I adjusted my menu and ditched the oven.

 

[MrNoodly]

I'm also kicking around the idea of a hotlogic mini. They only draw 45 watts whereas the roadpro units are all over 100 watts if I remember correctly.

And the Hotlogic runs on 110V rather than 12V.

 

[XERTYX]

And the Hotlogic runs on 110V rather than 12V.

The mini is actually available as either 12v DC native OR 120v AC. I know right?! Finally a space age gadget maker makes one for households as well as OTR ( over the road) truckers. That trickles down to the van dweller community obviously.

EDIT: Hotlogic has a LOT of limitations BTW. Just from my own research. Rice, pasta, as well as raw potatoes are among the things generally accepted as DONTs with hotlogics.

I saw recently a video of teeny lil red potatoes successfully cooked in a mini. Only took about 10 hours. Aka about 450 watt hours. CAN. But no. That's not useful. A couple hours to cook a hamburger steak on the other hand?! My panels have a lot of wasted potential when my lead acid batteries are in absorption charge. 45 watts ain't much when the sun is up and the batteries will only accept about ⅓ of the potential energy from the solar. Just saying.

 

[tx2sturgis]

The lunchbox heaters are really designed for truck drivers to let them heat up soup or warm a frozen burrito, or some cold leftover chicken, over a couple of hours as they drive down the road.

Trying to actually 'cook' in one might lead to disappointment and problems.

 

[XERTYX]

That's a good point. Although I want to say I've heard positive things about them on here... as far as "cooking". I believe bob even had them in his Amazon affiliate links before. But I havent used one. 

Often times if it sounds too good to be true it is. But this brand specifically caters to truckers. They'd be out of business if the original modern day vehicle dwellers couldn't trust them. But a sleeper on a truck has hundreds of amp hours to blow normally. Many sleepers have fridges, microwaves, and TVs. All meant to run at once. I ran my TV and roku at 4am, my fridge kicking on here and there. But I'd never dare try and fire up a microwave oven concurrently. Or standalone for that matter. Depends on what you're working with.

 

[jonyjoe303]

how did your roadpro fail? I have one going on 9 years of almost daily use. I opened mine up when It was working intermittent but it was a loose wiring problem outside of the roadpro. The inside of the roadpro there is practically nothing that I can see that would fail.
If mine failed I would just get another.
On mine I removed the cigarette plug which is no good for a constant 12 amps of power, I shortened the 16 gauge wire and I use xt60 connecters.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Way back before we had microwaves in OTR trucks, we had those lunchbox heaters, sterno cookers on the doghouse, and the old way: Wrap something in foil and hang it with coat-hanger wire by the engine turbo and it will be somewhat warmed up by the engine heat.

You can certainly experiment with the lunchbox heater and try to 'cook' something....but they were not 'designed' to do that. No heat controls, terrible heat retention, lousy thermal performance, resulting in the plastic housing gets nearly as hot as the food does, and cheap cigarette lighter plug power connection.

But hey, if it works for what a person wants to do, that's good enough.

 

[jacqueg]

The lunchbox heaters are really designed for truck drivers to let them heat up soup or warm a frozen burrito, or some cold leftover chicken, over a couple of hours as they drive down the road.

Yup, and that's exactly what I use it for. Actual cooking from scratch and baking are accomplished in other ways.

 

[jacqueg]

how did your roadpro fail? 

Just stopped heating up, I have no idea why. I have both a 12v accessory plug and a 12v cigarette lighter, and it won't work in either one. I was plugging it into the 12v accessory plug.

I notice the RoadPro has a fuse right by the cord inlet, but I can't tell whether the fuse is blown, nor can I remove the fuse, so...

 

[jonyjoe303]

It sounds like a wiring problem. Maybe the accessory plug. On mine I'm still using the original 15 amp fuse, max I ever see with a dc wattmeter is 12 amps.

Here's a picture of the internals of the roadpro. When I was having problems I opened it up, I replaced all the small gauge wire with 12 gauge pure copper.
The small circuit board is where everything connects (heating wires) and 12 volt input. The only thing on the circuit board is a red led, and the 15 amp fuse.

If its an external wiring problem thats a quick fix, alot of failures are from the cheap cigarette plug. Thats why I replaced with an xt60 connector. The roadpros have gone up in price and are now in the 40 dollar range but I suspect they are still using the 16 gauge wire and cheap plugs.

 

[ozzie roamer]

Have had one of these for years,1st thing was to replace the cig lighter attachment, with an engle plug,and change out the blade fuse for an inline,glass fuse, and Carry plenty of fuses
the cooker sits in a wire basket on the floor,found to cook some thing eg chicken thighs.Thighs into roast bag,with a spoonfull of flower,puncture bag then
, I turn it on and drive for about 10 kms stop then put in thighs,they cook over 5-6hrs driving over rough unmade outback roads here in Australia,

Must admit its some times hit and miss cooking

Ozzie Roamer

 

[jacqueg]

It sounds like a wiring problem. Maybe the accessory plug. On mine I'm still using the original 15 amp fuse, max I ever see with a dc wattmeter is 12 amps.

Here's a picture of the internals of the roadpro. When I was having problems I opened it up, I replaced all the small gauge wire with 12 gauge pure copper.
The small circuit board is where everything connects (heating wires) and 12 volt input. The only thing on the circuit board is a red led, and the 15 amp fuse.

If its an external wiring problem thats a quick fix, alot of failures are from the cheap cigarette plug. Thats why I replaced with an xt60 connector. The roadpros have gone up in price and are now in the 40 dollar range but I suspect they are still using the 16 gauge wire and cheap plugs.

Thanks, I might as well open it up and have a look! Can't hurt anything...

 

[XERTYX]

Not to hijack the thread but I did buy a knock off hotlogic mini. 20 bucks. I'm gonna do a full review once I get it and test it out.

The name brand hotlogic is designed to actually cook raw food as well as warm up food. They have a recipe book that comes with it and an official FB page for fans to share recipes.

Those have no temp controls either. They pull 45 watts and heat up to 165 degrees F and stay there for hours and hours. So no boiling water in them, hence no pasta no rice no potatoes. At least not from a raw state.

 

[highdesertranger]

Hint, you don't need to boil water to cook pasta, rice or potatoes. Highdesertranger

 

[XERTYX]

Educate me. Not a snarky comment btw. I'm just curious how you can cook rice under 212°F.

Im fairly confident that you can cook pasta rice AND taters in a thermos, but you preheat it with boiling water. And take it out and return to a boil.

Ivery never used thermos cooking but every time I'm at my local grocer I look thru the back to school stuff for marked down thermoses.... thermi.... double wall stainless steel containers. XD

 

[highdesertranger]

You can cook it in water under 212 it just takes longer. you need to experiment as to how long. Highdesertranger

 

[tx2sturgis]

The higher your elevation the lower the temp that water will boil at. (not including pressure cookers here).

So that is why some stovetop recipes that involve boiling water in a mix with noodles or rice, etc, have 'high altitude' directions, often including longer cooking times or some other minor adjustment.

 

[XERTYX]

I didnt even think about elevation. And yeah more time and it would cook. But it's not practical in these lunch box cookers as we're talking like 10 hours plus. Hundreds upon hundreds of watt hours.

Thumb sized potatoes in one video I saw took 10 hours to get kinda done. Rice would have been done before then I guess. But the hotlogic doesnt go above 165°F.

After I bought a knock off hotlogic yesterday I then saw this morning another knock off brand sells one that uses 90 watts instead of 45. It heats to 362° or something. Cooks a steak in 15 minutes according to the product description. Maybe I should have bought that one. Haha.