Category: Our Kit

Feeling Hot Hot Hot- how we have achieved hot water in Gandalf the VW Campervan.

Posted in Gadgets, Our Kit2 Comments

Don’t get me wrong, we adore Gandalf, but one of the more annoying features was definitely not having hot water on demand. If we want a hot shower, it was a case of boiling the gas kettle, unless it was hot enough for the solar shower bag to do its thing. The kettle situation was time consuming and didn’t give brilliantly hot results. More of a faff but we’ve coped well without hot water. Until now!

We’ve had our eye on the Joolca Hottap system for a couple of years but couldn’t never seem to find one with a camping gas connector rather than Calor. The. One day, I happened upon the website and voila, they’d launched a version which would work with our camping gas 907 bottles.

HOTTAP Essentials Kit

Whilst it was a bit pricey to purchase, they offer a good pay in 3 installments option, and after much chat, we decided to go for it.

The delivery was quick and we were itching to get out and try it.

The Hottap system is clever. You hook one tube from the ‘boiler’ to a gas bottle, one goes inside our 20l Jerry can and then there is a long lead to take the 12v plug to the 12v receiver plug in the van.

Once you press the button on the shower hear the boiler ignites, you can see how hot it goes – ours went to 50 degrees! And almost instantly you’re rewarded with piping hot water.

The pressure is great and the hand held shower head gives great water flow. The boiler itself sits on a small table outside the shower tent. The cables and leads are so long, they cause no problems reaching a distance into the van.

We could not be happier with the product. It’s completly changed the way we can Motorhome and foresee even in the autumn months being able to off grid and use this piping hot shower. It was also used successfully to fill my washing up bowl with boiling water in which to wash up with.

Once we’re finished it packs away neatly into the storage bag which then slides into the boot of our van. The camping gaz bottle we already have in there for when we cadak cook as is the Jerry can for filling the van.

We purchased this with our own money and would not hesitate to rave about this to literally anyone who will listen. It’s a great way to get hot water inside your van. So clever and so wonderful!

On The Road with the Garmin CamperVan dedicated Sat Nav device

Posted in Gadgets, Local Food, Our Kit, Trip prep2 Comments

Gandalf the VW campervan has been on a very special mission recently, testing a very cool new gadget that has just hit the UK Market; a Campervan specific Sat Nav Device.

The Garmin CamperVan is a device aimed at those who like to take more time to enjoy the world around them. It differs from other Sat Navs/mapping software and apps by pointing out attractions along your route, linking to pictures, trip adviser ratings and more.

One of our favourite features is the Custom “Trendy Places”section- something that you can set up in advance; for example a category of shops, beauty spots etc – in our case we programmed it to look for Farm Shops- close to your destination, or along the route. We’ve trialled it on each of our trips this year and as a result we have found some cracking farm shops to divert to as we close in on our destination, allowing us to stock up with enough local meat and treats to see us through our stay.

We really love the “Trendy Places” feature. Even without our own custom farm shops popping up as we drive along, it flags up all sorts of attractions such as theme parks, museums , pubs etc which are close by or on the route as we make our way from stop to stop.

Another really cool feature is the “Road Trip” option – something for those who aren’t in a rush, and want to see the scenic route rather than just stick to the motorways or larger A roads. If you have the time, then this option is brilliant to see off the wall places that you never would have known about without.

The tag line for this product is “Plan to be Spontaneous” and whilst right now, as we come out of lockdown, it’s a little harder to be as spontaneous as one may like to be, this device is certainly geared up for the moment we CAN relax our plans a touch. With an option to search Campsites at the touch of the button, we look forward to the day we can roll up to a new area with no concrete plans at all and rely on the Garmin CamperVan to look after us!

The device connects to your phone via bluetooth and offers live traffic updates on route. The screen size is great, and the maps show up very clearly on the device. Even in full sunlight- which our “car play” screen struggles immensely with – It’s really very easy to use with big clearly labelled icons to navigate around the Home Screen at just the touch of a button.

Living in Norfolk, where the phone signal isn’t always the best, we’ve previously had many times where we haven’t had enough Mobile Data to get our maps loaded to get us home. We’ve tested this device now for a number of months and it’s never let us down in finding a signal and getting us home as it relies on GPS rather than 4G.

Whilst in Cornwall last week, this device came into its own. We like to stop at supermarkets to stock up on fizzy water and other larger bits each time we move campsites. The Garmin was fabulous as it allows you to search on your “active route” – ie your route to your next destination- for certain categories on route. So we left a campsite, then searched for grocery stores “on route” and we had huge success with this, saving us bags of time googling the nearest Tesco (other supermarkets are available 😉) and then matching it up with our route.

We really REALLY love the device, and feel confident that it will enhance all our future trips immensely.

This is a sponsored post and the product has been sent to us by Garmin, but this did not affect my review or feedback at all. All views are solely my own.