My new Sun Oven!!....

[Noahs ARK]

http://www.sunoven.com/cart/index.php?main_page=products_all

My anniversary present from hubby arrived today. I'm not sure where he ordered it from, but it's just like the one in the link. It came with 2 pots, 2 bread pans, 2 brownie/cake pans and 2 cookbooks.

I've been wanting one of these for the past year and here it is!! Can't wait to make a pot of beans & some bread in this baby.

Does life get any better than this? :001_tt1:

[kts532]

Please let me know how it works. I think they sound great. I just would like to know how they work in the winter or in a low light time. I also would like see if they will work up in the trees. If you were able to cook more than one meal a day without having alot of sun. The reason I am asking is I have solar panels on my RV and they work perfect at the house. I could not ask for anything better. I took it on a trip and ended up using my generator most of the time.

[Noahs ARK]

I'll definitely let you know. I'm building a rolling stand for mine, so I can move it around on the deck when the sun starts shifting. It doesn't weigh much, but I don't want to keep lugging it back & forth out into the sun. I'll store it against the house under the covered deck and just roll it out into the sun when I use it.

The 2 pots can be used alone or stacked, so you could be cooking 2 things at once. Both loaf pans fit in at the same time, too.

There's also some kind of little gizmo attachment that lets you know when water has been pasteurized.

I'll keep you posted!

[Earthling]

I have one but haven't got around to using it yet (my bad). I'm going to be busy learning to cook on my wood cook stove this fall. The family room remodel is almost done . . . finally. Why do these things take 3x the amount of time you thought at 2-3x the cost?

I am going to put it on my patio table when I use it with a wood lazy susan I own so I can rotate it easily (like the turntable in your microwave for even cooking). Your rolling stand sounds great. I had a friend try to invent something that would automatically rotate the food every so often - but no success.

[Noahs ARK]

I've got mine all unwrapped & checked out, but am going to leave it in the box until our friend makes the rolling stand for us. He's making it out of a brown composite (low maintenance from now on!!) and will add a little "lip" around the edges so the oven will stay on the rolling stand when I move it.

We're starting our new covered deck on 8/1 and I won't be putting it outside until I know it's protected. The deck will be 30x30, but the covered area will only be 30x12 because we have 2 cherry trees that I refuse to cut down. The contractor is building the deck around the trees for me. :thumbsup: So I'll store the oven under the covering and then just roll it out into the sun when I want to use it. Woot!!

I'm dying to try it out. I can't wait to try beans, stew, bread.

Ooooh - a newly remodeled family room with a wood cook stove! I'm so envious. Would love one of those but am scared my cats will jump up on it and burn their feet. :20: My neighbor down the road has one and they use it all winter long. Heats the house & cooks at the same time.

[DMGNUT]

A few weeks ago Alma and I tried out the new Country Mill wheat grinders (we both got ours at about the same time). After hand grinding some wheat, decided to use the Sun Oven to bake the bread we made.
Put three "gift" sized loafs of sweet bread in at the same time. 22 minutes from time in the oven till taking them back out. Loafs came out perfect.
Oven was already pre-heated to 325 when they went in.
After the bread came out, we put in a room temp pot with a quart of room temp water just to see how long from time in the oven, till it reached a rolling boil... 28 minutes.
We're in the Phoenix valley...AZ.
Take yours out of the box before the rolling stand gets built, so the builder of the stand can see it ahead of time.
The bottom is not flat (or rather it has a retractable rod that doesn't recess all the way into the box) so its gona move around on the stand if the builder of the stand doesn't know this ahead of time.

[kts532]

Thanks for the info. What time did you do your cooking? What I am thinking is most of the large meals will be in the evening. I understand that it cooks good during a good sunny day. Do you think it will work to cook a large meal at 5PM in the winter. I know that I am asking alot of questions. I just wonder if it would be for me to just plan on using wood for most of my cooking needs.

[DMGNUT]

You'll most likely have to answer some of those questions yourself.
Lots of variables to consider.
You should go ahead and take it out of the box, just to see what temps you can get it up to at different times of the day, how often you need to adjust its position to hold it at a given temp, etc.
I don't see any problem with getting it to the 225-250 range regardless of where you are, but you might need to start the cooking earlier than you thought, to allow something cooking at such a low temp to get completely done.
Mind you I'm not saying you'll cook at such a low temp, just that that might be the highest temp you can get, depending on your elevation, how far north you are, tree coverage, ect.

[Noahs ARK]

Thanks for the info. What time did you do your cooking? What I am thinking is most of the large meals will be in the evening. I understand that it cooks good during a good sunny day. Do you think it will work to cook a large meal at 5PM in the winter. I know that I am asking alot of questions. I just wonder if it would be for me to just plan on using wood for most of my cooking needs.

Good questions. I'm going to find all this out as I experiment with mine. The nice thing about the sun oven is that it's portable. If you get more sun in a different location during winter, just pick it up by the handle and move it.

I want to have at least ONE thing that can cook without relying on wood, electric or propane. Even if I can only make beans & bread. Hopefully I can make more than this, but time will tell.

Plus you can just pick it up and take it with you in your RV. We'll probably never Bug-Out, but it would be a good thing to have if you do.

I won't start using mine until September cuz of the deck work being done, but I'll definitely keep you posted.

[kts532]

Thanks Noah. I don't own one but have looked at them and thought they would be perfect. After my solar pannel problem I decided not to. I hope that it works for you it looks like the thing needed as a additional cooking device. I just don't know if I will try one unless someone says they are worth the money.

[Baconator]

Bumped, because I've played with my sun oven this summer. I was able to get it to between 275 and 325 degrees regularly. It was nice be able to cook without heating up the house when August rolled around. I picked up a couple of small black enamel roasting pans to play with and they worked well with it. I've done chicken and a couple of roasts in it so far. The roasts worked out best. Threw a frozen solid roast in the pan with some chopped potatoes, onions and stuff. Reoriented the oven a bit every half hour to 45 minutes and it was done in about 4 hours. (It may have been sooner, but that was when we were ready to eat).
It made me think about those roasting pans just for keeping things warm. No parabolic dishes or reflectors or anything. Just sunshine. One weekend I threw a couple of dozen tamales in the roasting pan with the lid on and just set it in a sunny spot. They stayed nice and hot all afternoon.

[thermocouple]

I want to make one of these. A real one, with durable components, not cardboard and foil. Honestly, it looks pretty simple, and they are asking way too much for these things IMO.

[Noahs ARK]

I want to make one of these. A real one, with durable components, not cardboard and foil. Honestly, it looks pretty simple, and they are asking way too much for these things IMO.

??

I can't speak for anyone else, but mine doesn't have any cardboard or foil.

[Earthling]

mine doesn't have cardboard or foil either. It is built fairly decently. If you want to invent something - come up with a way for it to sit on a turntable or lazy susan or sorts and turn with the sun. That would be awesome!

[DMGNUT]

I think Thermo meant the "home-made" ones you see directions for on the net (are made of cardboard, etc).
He knows the factory made ones are tuff, and wants to build a home-made one that's tuff too (but not $300). :closedeyes:

[Earthling]

okay -got it - but I paid about $230 for mine FWIW.

[DMGNUT]

On the subject of cooking...
Alma went to a cooking demo at Honeyville this Sat (I couldn't go as I was working at my younger son's Eagle Project).
Anyway, they featured, the Sun Oven, Volcano Stove, the Stove Tec Rocket Stove, and some little single burner table top stove that he couldn't remember the name of.
Anyway that little table top stove ran on butane (which is safe for indoor use) and was only $16. And the fuel canisters were only like $3 or $4 and would run for about 9hrs on their low setting.
Not a bad investment at all.

[DMGNUT]

okay -got it - but I paid about $230 for mine FWIW.

I bought mine long ago enough, that it was $169. Now everywhere you look, they're about $289 or $299 (plus shipping).

[GAMom]

I bought one over the summer - my DH got it for me for my birthday. It was what I really wanted and I let him know so he wouldn't waste $$$ on something frivioulous. I have used it twice, once to cook a pot roast & veggys - this turned out wonderful, and another time for a chicken recipe - this one I had to finish in my regular oven because I didn't get it strted early enough in the day. If you want to eat at 5 pm you'll need to start cooking in your sun oven at least in the mid day - during the hottest part of the day. If you aren't going to be home to keep rotating it to keep the temp up - then you need to get everthing going 1st thing in the morning and place it where you know it will get FULL sun all day long - no shadows allowed. It does a great job, but not if the sun isn't out or if it's an overcast day. Then you'll have to rely on another way to cook your dinner. Maybe a dutch oven and coals. I have invested in both the sun oven & a volcano stove and we also have our gas & charcoal grills as well as our coleman stoves, both propane & kerosene. So that way I have lots of options in cooking if I need them. Hope this helps some.

[Baconator]

....some little single burner table top stove that he couldn't remember the name of.


Sounds like a Jetboil or MSR. I've been looking at those, too.

[Ligure]

Sounds like a Jetboil or MSR. I've been looking at those, too.

A JetBoil or a close cousin (which I have) is real nice. I took it on a high adventure hike. It is more of a single person stove. However I think they were referring to the butane which burn a little cooler. They are efficient but can have problems at higher altitudes.

Ligure

[thermocouple]

A JetBoil or a close cousin (which I have) is real nice. I took it on a high adventure hike. It is more of a single person stove. However I think they were referring to the butane which burn a little cooler. They are efficient but can have problems at higher altitudes.

Ligure
Jetboils are very efficient, I have been using one since they came out years ago, for backpacking. I bought some fuel canisters in the larger size (too big for backpacking), and a rebuild kit for the jetboil, which makes this little stove a great backup for emergencies, adding to the arsenal of ways to cook food.