This isn’t going to be an article about which skoolie appliances you should buy. Rather, I’m just going to walk through what we decided on for ourselves and what we *think* our needs will be.
When choosing appliances for your skoolie conversion, there are so many factors to consider.
How We Chose Our Skoolie Appliances
To begin with, we made a list of the appliances we thought we would absolutely need on the bus. We knew we would need a refrigerator. We knew we would also need some sort of appliance for cooking (oven, induction burner). Another appliance that wasn’t necessarily a need, but a definite want was a washer/dryer combo. We won’t have many clothes on board, but I didn’t want to have to always hunt down laundromats any time we needed laundry done. Luckily, Richard agreed. While I loved the look of the cute, little wood-burning stoves, Richard wanted to go with a diesel heater. Since he’s the one who will install and maintain more than me, I went with his appliance choice here. We also wanted a hot water heater on board. For cooling the bus, we decided on a mini-split. Beyond these things, there really weren’t more appliances we wanted to include. So, to summarize, here are the appliances we felt like we needed/wanted for our skoolie conversion.
- refrigerator
- washer/dryer
- oven
- induction burner
- water heater
- diesel heater
- mini-split
So, how did we decide on these? We took to the internet! We watched YouTube videos, scoured Instagram accounts, and read Facebook comments on Skoolie group pages. For sake of organization, I’ll just walk you through our thought process on each of these skoolie appliance choices.
Refrigerator
For our refrigerator, we chose to go with the Vitrifrigo Slim150.
I don’t recall how we stumbled across THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO, but I remember watching it and thinking that this fridge would work for us. We liked that it didn’t have a big footprint. It is 16.4″ wide and 17.4″ deep. This small footprint is possible because the compressor is separate from the refrigerator and can be mounted remotely. It is a 4.9 cu. ft. refrigerator with a .57 cu. ft. freezer compartment. It’s not overly spacious, but for the two of us, we think it should work fine. The fridge comes in gray and black, and we decided to go with a black model. The 24v aspect of the fridge was another selling point!
Washer/Dryer
Admittedly, a washer/dryer is NOT an appliance necessity on a skoolie conversion. This was a 100% want for me. Again, we did some internet research and watched YouTube videos, although I can’t find the one I remember watching now. I’ll keep looking. The washer/dryer combination that kept coming up over and over was the Splendide brand. We chose to buy the Splendide Vented Combo model. My hope is that it is worthwhile and the space we chose to sacrifice for it isn’t missed too much!
Oven
Okay, this decision was a bit more difficult for us. Originally, we thought we would use propane on our bus for cooking, but the more we thought about we decided we didn’t want to use propane in that way. We wanted to build out an extensive solar system (upcoming blog post). I’ll admit, I’d daydreamed about the interior design of the bus and had built it around a few different stoves I wanted to use (like this one). Clearly, we weren’t on the same page. Once I understood the assignment, I had to do copious amounts of research. Richard thought we’d need a convection oven and an induction stovetop. For a while, we contemplated an air fryer but finally settled on this. It’s a Forno 24″ Electric Convention Wall Oven with Built-in Microwave. Our plan is to mount it below the countertop to allow for more counter space. Again, we haven’t used it yet, but definitely hope it ends up being the right thing for us. I knew that I wanted to be able to warm things up in a microwave, but also be able to bake. This seemed like the best option.
Induction Burner
I literally just stopped writing for us to do some research on these. The top-rated induction cooktop appliance is this JennAir model. You can be sure that we won’t be buying that one, simply because of the price. Instead, we landed on the Empava Electric Stove Induction Cooktop. Two burners should be fine for the two of us and we already use cookware that is compatible with the induction cooktop.
Water Heater
I say hot water heater, but Richard thinks that is redundant. Anyway, we bought was the Bosch Tronic 3000T mini-tank water heater. It will hold 7 gallons of water and will be floor mounted. It fit our electrical specs, the size was right, and so we are going to try it out. I am already practicing taking shorter showers, but I also plan to join a health club with privileges across the nation (Planet Fitness maybe?) so that I can take longer showers sometimes.
Diesel Heater
While I truly envisioned a mini wood stove, it never appealed to Richard. He’s in charge of this decision and is leaning towards trying to use what our Skoolie Conversion Guru Chuck Cassady recommends. At this time, we don’t have our diesel heater yet. I just want to be warm and safe.
Mini-Split
We are planning to buy a Pioneer Mini-Split. I thought we already had, but I guess not. I’ll link it once I know which one we decided on. I hope to travel and stay in places where the temperatures are mild, but I also know that we will need A/C on our bus.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are lots of decisions to make. One of the hardest parts is trying to decide on something that will be used in a very small space and in ways you haven’t used them before. Also, when you consider that we will be changing our locations, which means altitude, weather, activities, etc. it’s hard to envision what will be used regularly and what are extras. I anticipate us making changes or having regrets with some of the choices we make. That’s only normal.
If you have any input for us or things that have worked well for you, please let us know! We’d love to hear from others about what skoolie appliances you’re using and why.
