Premium Solar Oven, Portable Outdoor Solar Cooker & Camping Oven, Reinforced & Foldable with Support Rods, Carry Bag & Full Guide on Outdoor Cooking with Beginner Solar Camping Recipes

I rarely leave reviews but I had success with this oven, so happy. I was hesitant to buy this after reading some of the reviews saying it doesn't cook. I took a chance as I want to make solar cooking kits. Outside of making my own, this price was hard to beat in comparison to some very similar. Having been in numerous disasters, multiple ways to cook food is a must. Solar cooking is one of the best if you have sun. So after cooking daily, usually 2 meals per day, breakfast and dinner, I decided to buy several more for family, friends etc.My meal temps reached 190- 208F inside the food; safe temps. On average my cook time 1 -6 hrs. I also heated canned goods which took 1/2 hr. -40 minutes depending on volume of food. All were steamy hot, soups, veggies, beans, chili, spaghetti sauce etc. In emergencies I wanted to see if canned goods could be reheated rather quickly with no fuss. I'm satisfied.I love to bake in this oven. I've made several recipe variations of corn bread, banana bread, muffins, brownies, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies, biscuits. My first cornbread I over baked a tad, see pic.I've also made a small pot roast, meat loaf, chicken breast, chicken thighs, hot dogs, ham/sausage n eggs, diced potatoes, oatmeal n raisins, all turned out great, fully cooked. The one food I haven't cooked in this oven is frozen food, so not sure about those foods.I have a Haines 2 solar cooker. In comparison the Haines 2 comes to higher temps, 350F for me. It does cook faster, a superb solar cooker, more expensive. Even so I'm glad I have both solar ovens.I live in a dense forest, 2700 ft elevation. The day temps have been 65-95F, some days little cloudy with a cool breeze, always filtered sunshine due to trees. That's my biggest challenge, finding the sun. The corn bread in the pic was cooked during the one cool day we had, 65F.PROSPortable, packable; can easily be carried, stored anywhere.Mid size oven, not too small or too big, takes a 5 quart Dutch Oven no problem.Reflective material is very reflective. (wear sunglasses)Temps are within safe cooking (for me)Reasonably pricedPerfect for emergency back up cookingAn inexpensive gift for anyone, homeless etc..I didn't have any condensation issues. In any glass lids that had a steam release hole, I cut a Q tip placed it in the hole. This kept steam in the pot, not on the plastic. See picture, can barely see it in the lid hole.CONSPlastic cover does become pliable after several uses, oven can fall in with plastic touching the pot, so can melt the cover and ruin the pot * easily fixed...see note belowZipper was really difficult to line up correctly, once started works greatThe reflective material isn't as sturdy/ thick as I like. My trivet left indentations in the bottom, so with repeated use will eventually tear the material.Back supports while they do keep the oven from completely falling in, they need to be adjusted often, so can tear the oven.Opening the plastic cover to check food is a bit trickyIs light weight can blow away if windy.TipsFood pot should be elevated at "minimum 1-2 inches" off the reflector bottom with a trivet ( cooks best if there is radiated heat all around the pot)Place oven on a table or above ground on cement, not directly on the ground unless insulated, because Mother Earth will take the heat for herself.Black trivets are best with silicone protectors on feet. ( I used an Instant Pot stainless steel egg trivet, the feet began making dents in the bottom reflector, see pic. I now use my round open stainless steel wok base, more sturdy, no dents, works great, gives more elevation to pot, better heat circulation.)Use glass lids on a black thin walled stainless steel pot (See Haines 2 pot for reference)Use black Granite Ware, or similar thin walled roasting pan, 3- 4 quarts, bean pot etc.Use Turkey oven bags over trivet and pot if needed, increases temp, lowers cooking time.Preheat cooker, especially preheat with pot if using heavy cast iron pots. (I don't use cast iron in panel cookers, so I don't preheat my pots, but many do)Use your regular black pots / pans with glass lids, best if no long handles such as sauce pans.Dark baking pans with no lids; bread/brownie/cake pans, can be placed in 2 tempered glass Pyrex bowels/dishes; 1 bowel for top, 1 for bottom with pan in the middle, pan is sealed completely by the bowels...The round cake/pie pans fit great inside these round bowels, baking is so fast!Follow the sun, in this oven you do need to move it at a minimum every hour.NoteSee Picture of CornbreadTo fix the falling in of the plastic cover and oven I cut/ sanded the tip of a wooden dowel placing it to the middle top of the back panel of the oven, extending it out over the pot to the middle bottom front near the zipper. It has not interfered with cooking evenly. It does keep the oven upright, sturdy and the plastic from touching the pot. The dowel is not touching the pot, nor has it indented or punctured the oven panels. A round thinner dowel would be better, but this is what I had on hand, works great.

This solar oven works great, if you give it time to work. It is light weight, so it is easy to carry around verses the more rigid and metal outdoor/camping ovens. This has the advantage of being silent, containing the cooking smells within the unit, and gives you full visibility to the food while it is cooking. Remember to wear your sunglasses when you look into the oven, because it is highly reflective. Common sized pans fit, too... so not special pan purchases are required. I baked a 9x9 cake in about 90 mins. Denser foods (like meat) will clearly take longer. Inserting a thermometer while you cook the meat helps ensure it reaches the desired temperature.

I've cooked a frozen tamale and made a keto grilled cheese so far. My concern is it will get blown away, as I'm taking this to Burning Man. It does have a difficulty staying up sometimes. I might have to figure out how to strap down, as it take a couple of hours to heat up the food, but it's honestly better than cooking in 100 degree weather.

It has to be really sunny and hot. I tried it in the desert at 75 deg outside, beautiful sunny day, and it didn't cook at all.

A compact useful alternative for camp cooking. Surprisingly sturdy construction. I amappy to have it in my gear.

Worried about how to reheat that roasted feral cat soup you want to eat for supper? Effortless set up in any sunny, zombie free area. Just give it an hour to warm up and use it like you would a slow cooker. 2 hours in the sun and it got up to 200 degrees. Enough to concentrate heat to my iron cast Dutch oven. It is heating veggies as I write this review. I put the Dutch oven on a pie tin to protect the mylar material inside the cooker. It comes with a handy carry bag, support poles, an easy to ready guide and menu ideas, and the cooker itself. You can unzip and pack it quickly enough to scramble back into the safety of your bunker. So lightweight and small it will hardly burden a toddler to pack out of your bug out location.

Tried to make slice and bake cookies. After 8 hours in the hot (90 + F) Georgia sun, the cookies were still not cooked fully thru. Uncertain how this oven could cook anything of real substance if these thin cookies were still raw after so much time in direct sun.

The media could not be loaded. After less than five weeks, this solar oven no longer can support its own weight and sags: the back folds forward and the top rim collapses in. It’s not completely useless, but pretty close. A definite “do not buy!”When I first got it, it worked reasonably well. Despite hours of direct California sunlight it never got above about 170F but that was plenty of slow-cooking. Bit each week the structure of the oven just got weaker and weaker to the point it’s almost folding in on itself as you see in the video. If they included a couple of locking struts I’m sure it would be fine. In the meantime, look elsewhere