In case you missed it, a little while back, we headed to the Sydney Caravan, Camping and Holiday Super Show where we proceeded to purchase a few more items for our Toyota Coaster school bus conversion. Just a few of these items were our Thetford stove, Sphere range hood, and Suburban hot water system. This post will detail why we decided to purchase them and how we went about getting a good deal.
Thetford Caprice MK3 Stove –
Our Thetford stove was a large and expensive purchase. We weighed up the pros and cons on having an indoor stove and decided we were all for it.
The main reason was for convenience. We are going to be living in our bus, and do not want to have to go outside constantly to cook off a bbq or burner. Not only do I like to paint and create things, but I also love to bake cakes and anything sweet. Shane loves to cook, and is all about health and fitness. Being able to have the availability and ease of our own oven was a must.
Shane and I decided on the Thetford Caprice MK3 dual fuel, all in one combination stove, oven and grill.
The stove weighs in at around 27kg; it has a 36 litre oven, 13.7 litre grill, 3 gas hotplates and 1 electric.
It measures 65cm high, 51cm wide and 50cm in depth. Weight and size were considerations for our purchase as we wanted something that was capable of doing everything we wanted, whilst also not being too heavy and being able to fit in our kitchen plan. This one met the criteria for weight and size.
Dual fuel means that we have gas and electric options available. We will primarily use the gas while on the road, and initially we were only going to purchase the gas stove. However, we decided to select an option that had a single electric cooktop so that when we parked somewhere with access to power, we could save on gas and money.
For an updated product review of the Thetford Caprice oven after using it for over a year, check out our new post here.
Sphere 12V Touch Control Range hood –
Knowing we will be cooking a fair bit inside our bus, we decided a range hood is a must.
Our considerations for the range hood were style (of course), functionality, cost and size. Size is always a factor in our thought process.
The Sphere 12V Touch Control range hood met the bill. Have a look at it here.
Being a slimline range hood, it measures at 53cm wide, 30cm deep, 6cm high and weights around 3.5kg. The range hood should sit mounted under the cupboard above our stove nicely, with the exhaust having enough room to be filtered out behind it.
It has a tempered glass touch screen on front, with a clock and multiple fan functions. It didn’t matter too much on the details, Shane was sold on the touch screen and the clock alone!
Suburban SW6DEA Hot Water System –
Finally, our last large purchase of the day was our hot water system; something we had thought about for a while. We had worked out what will be requiring hot water, when and how much, which all impacted our decision.
The Suburban SW6DEA 22.6 litre gas and electric hot water system is the one we chose for our bus conversion. Just as with the stove, we decided on an option that had dual fuel, 240V electric and gas, for convenience and usability. While we are on the road we will be able to use a renewable source with gas, and use electricity when available. We have kept this idea in mind for most of our purchases. We want to avoid a single source of failure when it comes to resources, and also want to be able to save money when we can, by using a mains connection.
The hot water system weighs 17kg and measures in at 32cm wide and high, and 50cm depth. We will need to allow extra space at the rear of the system for the plumbing. The one we purchased has the optional door included. This means we can mount it under our bed, and the door allows us to access the hot water system from outside the bus.
Now all of these items were expensive. However, by purchasing from the show and purchasing together, we were able to work out a fantastic deal. The sales representative was able to get them cheaper than we could online and organised to have them shipped to our door! We did a lot of research and price comparisons, so we knew we were getting a good deal. It is definitely worth it to shop around and compare prices.
We saved so much money and were able to get everything we were wanting with ease and convenience.
Once we have them set up in the bus and have been on the road for a while, we will do a review of our purchases. If you haven’t already, check out our previous purchases, our Evakool Fridge and Camec Washing Machine here.
Can’t wait to start using them!
