Built for (Van)Life: The 9 Best Stanley Products for Vanlife
The vanlife trend might be relatively new but Stanley certainly isn’t. This brand has been around for over 100 years, since William Stanley Jr. first introduced vacuum insulation with stainless steel way back in 1913.
While Stanley’s designs have become more sleek and their products more varied, they’ve stuck with that same time-tested construction ever since. Why fix what isn’t broken?
Stanley is also one of our favorite eco friendly outdoor gear brands with the guiding motto “Build For Life”. One of the best ways to achieve a more eco friendly vanlife is by selecting well-made and lasting products rather than cheap or disposable ones.
They write, “The most sustainable products are the kind that never need to be thrown away or replaced. That’s why we’ve been building durable and reusable bottles for over 100 years. And we make them from steel, which, if you’re wondering, is one of the most recyclable materials on the planet. This has enabled us to cut down on the need for disposable products, which means -- you guessed it -- less junk in landfills.”
Stanley has also been a member of The Conservation Alliance since 2007 and specifically supports its Wild Olympics Campaign by donating a portion of sales from certain products.
This means their products not only make for excellent gifts for vanlifers, but equally good eco friendly gifts for outdoor adventurers.
Without further ado, let’s “grab life by the bottle” and show off our #Stanleyness by taking you some of the best Stanley products for vanlife and road dwelling in general.
*This post contains affiliate links.
Stanley Classic Stay Hot French Press
Image credit Stanley
A coffee press is straight up our favorite way to do van coffee, which is why the Stanley Classic Stay Hot French Press is one of our most prized pieces of vanlife cookware.
The Stay Hot French Press costs more than your average stainless steel French Press, but from personal experience having gone through several prior to this one, we can say the extra $$$ is worth it.
Why? Because when Stanley names something “Stay Hot”, they mean it. This french press features Stanley’s bulletproof stainless steel construction and iconic insulating ability. That means it actually keeps our coffee hot for over an hour.
Which is good because this thing brews a whopping four cups of coffee that take us a little bit of time to drink through. Combined with the fact that we like very strong coffee and let ours steep for 20 full minutes before even pouring our first cup, having that extra stay-hot power is so nice.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry / REI
Classic Travel Mug French Press
Image credit Stanley
For long drive days and early-rise adventures that might not afford you the 30 minutes necessary to make good, strong coffee in your Stay Hot French Press, the Travel Mug French Press is your friend.
Just put the ground in the mug, boil your water, and get started with your day! After you’ve let the ground steep however long, just depress the integrated plunger to hold the grounds at the bottom and drink away.
It might not make as much coffee as the Stay Hot, but it’s definitely nice to have on hand for a busy morning or even a midday pick-me-up.
Plus, it doubles as a regular old travel mug, too, for getting coffee from cafes and gas stations.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry / Amazon
Classic Perfect Brew Pour Over
Image credit Stanley
Everyone has their own unique coffee preferences and if french press coffee yields something a little too strong and acidic for you, the Perfect Brew Pour Over is another great Stanley caffeine solution.
With a generously sized base, you can set it on top of mugs of various sizes and brew coffee directly into your cup in a matter of minutes. The 18/8 stainless steel body will help keep your coffee warm while it brews.
Since it features an easy-to-clean reusable filter, you can say goodbye to annoying pour-over filters and move one step closer to zero waste vanlife.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry / REI
GO Growler
Image credit Stanley
Besides coffee, what other beverage is a staple for the dirtbag vanlifer?! BEER!
This 18/8 stainless steel double-wall vacuum insulated canister is here to step up your growler game. Say goodbye to breakable glass growlers that take up tons of space in your van’s refrigerator and hello to something leak-proof, break-proof, and able to keep beer cold and fizzy for a full day without refrigeration. Just fill at your favorite brewery in the morning, head deep into the mountains, and find your beer still out-of-the-tap cold when you finally make camp that night.
The Ceramivac™ technology also keeps beer tasting clean and fresh, without tinging it with any sort of metallic taste.
If you’re not a beer drinker, the GO growler works for plenty of other things, too, since it’s rated to keep things hot for 18 hours, cold for 24 hours, and iced for 4 days.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry / REI
Adventure Pre Party Shot Glass + Flask Set
Image credit Stanley
Sometimes we all need a break from the van, whether it’s a nice hotel or a weekend in the mountains in a tent. For the latter, use Stanley to serve up a strong drink to go with your sustainable backpacking meal with the Adventure Pre Party Shot Glass + Flask Set.
Fill the flask with your favorite booze (in our case, bourbon!) and share the love via the 4 shot glasses neatly contained in a screw-top canister.
Even if backpacking isn’t really your thing, the Adventure Pre-Party Set is great for picnicking or just the occasional van movie night with friends.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry
Adventure Fast Flow Water Jug
Image credit Stanley
Okay, so maybe coffee, beer, and booze aren't strictly speaking vanlife essentials (depending on who you ask). But water is, especially drinking water.
Water storage for longer periods of time off-grid is one of the biggest challenges of vanlife, but the Stanley Fast Flow Water Jug makes it a little less challenging.
With a huge 2 gallon capacity, this leak proof canister can store a lot of water so you have to go back to town less often.
While it’s BPA-free plastic and double wall foam build won’t keep your water as cold as the metal Stanley products, it will keep things cold for 13 hours or iced for 48 hours. That means you can use this as a backup water source to really extend your time off-grid, especially if you fill it with ice before heading out and just let it slowly melt over the span of a couple days.
When you’re ready to drink, just set it on your counter and fill whatever out of the convenient bottom spigot (no pouring required!).
P.S.: Even if you’re just van dreaming, these are perfect gifts for road trips for yourself to cut back on single use bottle waste.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry
Adventure Base Camp Full Kitchen Cook Set
Image credit Stanley
Want to outfit your camper van kitchen in one fell swoop?
The 21-piece Base Camp Full Kitchen Cook Set allows you to do just that. It includes all your dining and cooking essentials, like plates, bowls, utensils, a stainless steel pot, and an even-cooking 3-ply frying pan.
Even if you’re not a full time vanlifer, this set is great for camping in general, dorm life, and tiny homes!
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry / REI
Even-Heat Camp Pro Cook Set
Image credit Stanley
Upgrade your cooking capacity with the Even-Heat Camp Pro Cook Set. While the Full Kitchen Cook Set is geared mostly toward the vanlife dinnerware aspect, this set is dedicated to vanlife cookware.
It comes with all 3-ply stainless steel cooking pots, including a frying pan, standard pot, and deep pot for cooking up larger batches of things.
In addition to those, it features all the prep tools you might need to create a mobile masterpiece, including a collapsible cutting board, spatula, serving spoon and silicone trivets.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry / REI
Adventure Stay Hot Crock Pot
Image credit Stanley
One of the hardest appliances for us to give up for vanlife was the crock pot. We loved making soups, chowders, and chilis in a crock pot in our old, very busy lives. However, a typical crock pot just isn’t conducive to vanlife. Even if you have the battery bank to power one for hours (which you can because they have a relatively low draw), the problem then becomes storing leftovers with limited fridge space.
The Stanley Stay Hot Crock Pot is a nice middleman solution. To be clear, it’s not technically a slow cooker. There is no ability to plug it in and have it heat your food. Rather, it’s a crock pot-sized storage container that allows you to make a large batch of soup or whatever then store it in an insulated, leak-proof way.
Here’s how we use it: We’ll make a batch of soup with multiple servings, eat two servings right away, then store the rest in this 3-quart container. It keeps things hot for 12 hours meaning we can easily then just eat the remaining servings the next day without having to portion them into Tupperware containers and find space in the fridge.
Find it here: Stanley / Backcountry
**This post contains affiliate links to support the continued creation of these van life guides. This just means that if you purchase something from one of the links above, I get a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Read more here or reach out with more questions.