Picture this: It's a Sunday morning in the van; the timer goes and you take the freshly-baked sourdough bread out of the campervan oven. The warm, doughy bread crackles as you break a piece off. You douse it in olive oil, add a pinch of salt, a few chilli flakes, and some herbes de Provence. Your mouth waters before you've even taken a bite.
That could be you... If only you had an LPG oven.
Well! In this guide you will learn all about LPG ovens - what the best models are and how to install one.
I'm Shane, I've been teaching people to convert campervans for many years, I'm the author of The Van Conversion Newsletter, the van conversion instructor at Udemy, and the proud owner of a beautiful self-build campervan called Beans. So let's jump in and see how to install a campervan oven and hob!
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Index
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Do you need a campervan oven?
To be completely honest, LPG Ovens are more of a 'nice-to-have' rather than a necessity. However, if you live for an extended period on the road and really want to make your van feel like home, a campervan oven can be a fantastic addition! They bake bread, they make pizza, and they look great!
Once your LPG system is setup, installing the LPG oven is actually very easy! The question is not one of technicality, but moreseo one of space and money.
Campervan oven size
An LPG oven is bigger than a simple gas hob. There's no getting around that fact. You should probably only consider getting an LPG oven if they have a long-wheel base van (or bigger). Because it can take up a lot of room, I recommend noting the oven location when you are designing your van (in software or on paper) at the outset.
To give you an idea of size, the popular (and slim) Dometic Sunlight has the following dimensions:
Depth: 357 mm
Height: 398 mm
Width 449 mm
Luckily for us, there are many campervan oven options (some of which are very small indeed) - we will look at our options in the next section.
LPG oven cost
Believe it or not there are some really good value LPG ovens out there (considering what you get)! For a traditional campervan oven prices range from €300-€1300. Though as we will look at in the next section, there are some super cheap alternatives that you could look at!
What is the best LPG oven?
Omnia Camp Oven
Before we get into more traditional LPG ovens, I want to give a shoutout to an excellent, cheap, and tiny alternative: The Omnia camp oven!
Also known as the 'wonder pot', this stovetop oven is perfect for campervans. The donut-shaped design gives an even heat all around the food - the top and the bottom.
Dometic-SMEV Oven and grill
The Dometic-SMEV is one of the most popular campervan oven and grills on the market. It is cheap, small, and does the job!
12v ignition
20 litre oven
Thermostat
Interior light
Combined oven and grill
530 x 310 x 410 mm
Oven output: 1kW
Note: The old Dometic-SMEV oven must be ducted to a roof-mounted flue! It comes with the chimney connection for this job.
Thetford-Spinflo Duplex Oven and grill
The Thetford-Spinflo Duplex oven is another very popular LPG oven. It is bigger and more powerful than the Dometic-SMEV.
Piezo ignition
36 litre oven
Thermostat
Combined oven and grill
456 x 445 x 440 mm
Oven output: 1.5kW
An alternative to the Thetford duplex is the Thetford Triplex, which is a combined campervan oven and hob! Super handy and space efficient.
Note: You must install a drop-out vent underneath both the Duplex and Triplex ovens. Ensure you follow the specifications set out in the manual.