I ordered a Solar Oven Society Sportster Oven with optional reflectors on a Monday and it arrived on my door step a precisely one week later. My neighbor has a Global Sun Oven, but hasn’t used it. Not having any experience with this subject, and not knowing anyone who had used one, I performed some research online.
One of the best reviews I read was by Cook’s Illustrated based on the number of models, the breadth of tests and overall quality of the written review. My wife swears by their advice and their reviews are generally spot on, so I ended up going with the model they recommended most highly. I’ll freely admit that it didn’t hurt that the oven was similarly priced with its closest competitors but also included two pots, a water pasteurization indicator and a cookbook.
A post reviewing the performance of this model (SOS Sportster Solar Oven) as well as a comparison with the Global Sun Oven is on my list of projects. If all goes well, I will be able to perform those tests this coming Saturday.
So without further ado, Unboxing the Solar Oven Society Sportster Solar Oven:
Here is the box, as I received it.
Opening the box. The oven appears to be shipped securely with foam and cardboard to protect it from a rough journey.
The insulated lid to the oven. It comes with a white protective covering on one side. The other side has a thin polyester film creating a one inch sealed air gap to help insulate the oven.
The oven has a piece of cardboard covering the inside portion of the oven. On this rested the folded reflector panels and some initial instructions for using and setting up the oven.
The oven interior with the carboard removed. No, those aren’t speakers, they are the two pots (with lids) that are included with the oven.
Inside the oven with the pots and cardboard removed. A small SOS product pamphlet was at the bottom.
Cardboard container that held the pots. Under them are some more goodies.
The goodies. Recipe book, instruction manual, oven thermometer, and water pasteurization indicator with instructions.
To completed oven with reflectors.
Solar ovens are a great complement to your preps. Think of them like nature’s slow cooking crock pot. They don’t require that you store any fuel, they don’t create smoke or other dangers and are basically set it and forget it devices. As I mentioned above, I am hoping to cook a dish in my solar oven while concurrently cooking the same dish in my neighbors slightly different Global Solar Oven.
We have a Sun Oven, husband’s Christmas gift to himself. Anyway, we love it. Have done the following: biscuits, corn muffins, whole grain bread as rolls and small oval loaves, coffee, roast chicken, pot roast twice, lasagne twice, pork roast, onions in beef broth to use on sandwiches of leftover pot & pork roast.
The meats are tender, juicy and have concentrated juices for gravy. The lasagne was slightly overcooked, the cheese on top was a litle crisp, but slight remained moist. The pork and pot roasts literally fell apart.
It took about 3 hours for the meats and lasagne, about 40 min for the coffe and 45 min for the rolls, bread, biscuits and muffins. If using the crock pot the meats would have been 5-6 hours on high, in the oven 2-3 hours.
We live in Florida so the sun is usually out but not strong at this time of the year. Knowing that I have a choice of grill or sun oven for this summer to keep heat out of the house makes me really happy. Electric rates have increased 18% since Oct. 2008!!
Personally, I think anyone would do well with a sun oven. Thinking of all the times people have been without electricity and have no way to cook, a sun oven would have been a tremendous help.
By the way, 25 years ago our then 5th grade son made a solar oven with foil and a cardboard box as a science project. Cooked hot dogs for his class – what a hit, and an A+ grade to boot.
My experiences here have all been homemade ovens, which worked ok. Now mostly I did it when I lived in Western Washington, so it wasnt’ considered one of the most reliable resources up there :)
Now that I’m in Utah, I really should look more at this as a dependable resource in the summer. Can’t wait for your actual testing.
That looks nice. I can use one of them. With the sun always shining and the temp pretty high here it would work almost year around.
I think that such an oven is very useful if you don't stay too much in one place and move from one side to another. Sometimes renting and moving aroung is how people like it. They like to experience new things all the time. This oven is probably a good investment, that if you do know how to cook a few recipes.
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Maytag Parts
this is really helpful specially of the rising electricity cost, and it is also environment friendly. but this is only applicable during summer which is dependent thru solar energy.
Dude.. I am not much into reading, but somehow I got to read lots of articles on your blog. Its amazing how interesting it is for me to visit you very often.