Van build gear · instrumented testing · est. 2026
Van gear marketing is a claims arms race, and most "reviews" never plugged the thing in. We buy gear at retail, put it on the bench with a watt-hour logger and a clamp meter, score it, and publish the failures. Your van is your house. You deserve numbers, not adjectives.
The lab is spinning up. No scores go live until the data does.
Currently in the lab
We installed one of the first pre-charged 12V mini splits sold in the US, in our own van, with our own money. Real amp draw, real cooling, real install photos: the numbers this brand-new category is missing.
Three units, one question the internet cannot agree on: what does a 12V fridge actually draw overnight? Forum answers range from 8.8 to 80Ah. A watt-hour logger settles it.
Budget diesel heaters against the name brands: fuel burn, real heat output, noise, CO, and what actually causes the dreaded E08 flame-out.
MaxxFan vs Fan-Tastic with an anemometer and a clamp meter: measured airflow, amps, and noise at every speed. Plus the lid-motor failure nobody warns you about.
First published results land with the air conditioning flagship, measured on the unit in our own van. Everything before the data is methodology, not opinion.
Start here
The two portable A/C names everyone compares, arbitrated with independent runtime data instead of launch-week hype.
Read the guide → Buying frameworkThe full price ladder, from a $450 budget split to a $4,000 name brand, and what each rung honestly buys you.
Read the guide → Field dataThe unit in our own van, at a festival in July heat. About 3 hours on low, with a charger assisting. Real numbers.
Read the guide →The operating rules
You shouldn't, yet. Trust the method and audit us against it. These four rules are permanent, and every review is built so you can catch us breaking them.
We buy test units the way you do, with our own money, and we keep the receipts. When a manufacturer sends a sample instead, the review says so in the first screen.
Watt-hour loggers, clamp meters, decibel meters, CO monitors. Every claim in a review traces back to a logged measurement you can check.
When gear dies at month seven, the review changes and the product goes on the Fail Wall, with the warranty outcome. Rankings that never change are marketing.
No store, no house brand, no sponsored scores. Some links pay us a commission and every one is disclosed per article. No commission has ever moved a score.
The short list
Four products from our picks list. Each card says whether the unit lives in our own van or is a research pick, and the buttons are disclosed affiliate links.
The buyable sibling of the 12V mini split installed on our own van. Our field log says size the battery bank first.
Check price on Amazon →The 2,048Wh reservoir in our van’s charging chain. Owned and field-used, not yet bench-tested.
Check price on Amazon →Research pick. Linked as the bundle with the 1,024Wh battery, the configuration that actually works off-grid.
Check price on Amazon →The DC-DC stage that moves power from the station to our 100Ah house battery. Owned and field-used.
Check price on Amazon →Monthly, no fluff
One email a month: what's on the bench, what the loggers said, what failed, and what moved in gear pricing. Written by a human with a clamp meter, not a content calendar.