The short list
This is every product we currently recommend, in one place. It is a short list on purpose: gear only lands here after a guide has done the homework, and each card says plainly whether the unit lives in our own van or is a research pick built from published data. The only product we claim first-hand test numbers for is the 12V mini split from our field log. Everything else is labeled accordingly.
Disclosure: the "check price" buttons below are affiliate links. If you buy through them, VanTested earns a commission at no extra cost to you, including as an Amazon Associate, where we earn from qualifying purchases. No commission has ever changed a score, and the guide linked on each card shows the reasoning, warts included.
01 The buyable, appears-identical sibling of the pre-charged 12V mini split installed on our own van. Our field data says a 100Ah bank runs it about 3 hours on low, and we treat the 12,000 BTU claim as fiction until our delivered-cooling measurement lands.
02 The 2,048Wh power station in our own van, the reservoir half of the charging chain that fed our A/C field test. Owned and field-used, not yet bench-tested, so its claimed specs get the same skepticism as everyone else’s.
03 A research pick, not a bench result: independent tests measured about 5 hours of low cooling per charge. Linked as the bundle with the 1,024Wh battery, because the unit-only price looks better right up until you need cooling away from shore power.
04 A research pick for cooling a sleeping zone, not a whole high-roof van in daytime sun; even the dealer copy admits that. This is the unit-only listing, and the battery is a separate purchase near $859 that changes the real price.
05 The second-stage DC-DC in our own chain, moving power from the station to the 100Ah house battery. Owned and field-used. It is not an alternator-to-bank charger, and our alternator-cost guide is careful about that difference.
Why so few picks? Because we do not list gear we cannot stand behind yet. The categories on the bench right now (fridges, diesel heaters, vent fans) get picks when the loggers say so. Photos are the manufacturers' listing shots, labeled as such; they get replaced with our own install and bench photos as those publish.