Community Forums

Bilgerat · 03-15-2015, 03:57 AM

While looking over RV Travel News Letter, I saw a video called "Without Bound", what caught my eye was a guy cooking beans in a "Solar Oven". Found a site called SunOven.com. They look to be pretty impressive and not very hard to use.
So The Million Dollar Question is: Has anyone owned and used one and what was or is your personal opinion? I have my own list of Pros & Cons, storage is my biggest Con. I can not remember ever seeing anyone using a solar oven. Also I don't want to plop down $150-$350.00 for something that winds up being used for an emergency communication device.

All American SUN OVEN® | Sun Oven® | The Original Solar Oven & Solar Cooker

HuntingHawk · 03-15-2015, 05:00 AM

Angle of the sun varies by 5 degrees per month which explains varying number of daylight hours. So for the oven to work efficiently that has to be taken into consideration. And the sun is constantly moving east to west. So that needs adjusted for every 20-30 minutes. Even light clouds can drop the temperature of the oven by 100F.

Mike_Harriet · 03-15-2015, 07:36 AM

You can DIY a pretty good solar oven pretty cheaply. Both Google and YouTube have some good examples. When DW and I lived on our boat, she cooked sometimes using a crock pot. Just put it in the sun for 6-8 hours. The ceramic pot had to be black tho for best heat absorbing qualities.

BatteryPro · 03-15-2015, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilgerat

While looking over RV Travel News Letter, I saw a video called "Without Bound", what caught my eye was a guy cooking beans in a "Solar Oven". Found a site called SunOven.com. They look to be pretty impressive and not very hard to use.
So The Million Dollar Question is: Has anyone owned and used one and what was or is your personal opinion? I have my own list of Pros & Cons, storage is my biggest Con. I can not remember ever seeing anyone using a solar oven. Also I don't want to plop down $150-$350.00 for something that winds up being used for an emergency communication device.

All American SUN OVEN® | Sun Oven® | The Original Solar Oven & Solar Cooker

[moderator edit] My wife also cooks in one a few times weekly while we are at our office. The only down side is the size. If you have the space to carry it, they work exceptionally well and are easy to learn how to use. One of my customers bakes fresh bread every day it.

Larry

beeman12 · 03-15-2015, 05:23 PM

Check out "GoSun" web site . I have two of these. Works great.

Mustang65 · 03-15-2015, 06:33 PM

Here is the one I am planning to buy for home, and it looks like it folds up nicely, but not sure as to how I can be adapt the stand for the RV. HomePower magazine did an article on it last month. Looks interesting. You may have to scroll down on the article and click on page #1, for some reason the link keeps going to page 2. Sorry..

Article in HomePower magazine #165 (Jan/Feb 2015)
http://www.homepower.com/articles/home-efficiency/equipment-products/starflower

The actual StarFlower site
Solar oven, solar chef, solar cooker, Sam Erwin, star flower

Don

Bilgerat · 03-16-2015, 11:15 AM

Hunting Hawk, good point but the one I am looking at has a sun alignment tool, very simple as it is a box with a hole top and bottom inline with each other, one side of the box is open so you can see if the shadow coming in the top hole is centered on the bottom hole of the box. As they say "So easy a Child could do it". DW says I'm just a "Big Dumb Kid", think I qualify.

Beamman12, thanks for the link,very interesting Tube Style cooker... At least it's very compact.

Mike_Harriet, DIY would be great, but Fulltiming since July last year. No shop, minimum tools "The Down Side Of No Sticks & Bricks"! But I will not give up on it, my son says there is a group of crafts folks in Virginia Beach,VA that might take up the challenge.

Mustang65, Sweet Car! Very interesting design, I see I have a lot of studying & reading...

Just for general info about me, DW & I plan to winter each year TX South-West all the way to Southern Cal desert, I Love The Desert, Just not during the summer!!! The map is only where we have been so far in the motorhome, not where we have traveled over the last 50 years, which is extensive. Thanks for the info, for those that have one in the RV, does it get used a lot, or is it just a novel item to use every now and then? I ask as I have a fire ring I carry, but have only used it 8 times, it takes up a Bunch Of Space, and has become endangered of a give away if we do not start needing it.
Happy St Patty's Domani...