Which Solar Cooker Cooks the Best? Testing 3 Solar Cookers Side-By-Side

[wa4aos]

too much yapping and not enough info

[strive4impact]

@wa4aos Thank-you for your feedback. I will keep it in mind for future videos I make.

[53Aubergine]

It is my understanding that using the glass bowl method, the container within the glass bowl needs about an inch of space on all sides to work correctly. I'd be damn careful about using non-oven safe plastic inside a cooker as well, as it's likely to outgas. Thanks. :D

[strive4impact]

@53Aubergine That's a couple of really great tips. Thank-you!

[tontomcepstein]

black cooking pot works much better than aluminum foil containers

[strive4impact]

@tontomcepstein most definitely agreed. I learned that in this process and would do it differently now. How is your solar cooking going?

[StatusinStatu]

I was told by my friend David Delaney that it is impossible to boil water in panel / box cooker? Did you succeed?

[strive4impact]

@StatusinStatu It is definitely possible in a box cooker. A parabolic reflector solar cooker can boil water in 20 minutes or less. A fresnel lens focused on a pot can boil water faster than a stove. The hottest I got with these cookers was 170F, so not hot enough to boil water, but hot enough to kill bacteria.  I didn't quite understand how this worked then... but I learned a lot and know what to do next time.

Look at cake/roast video from craftmatic below: watch?v=fdqNz5sMA4w&feature=re­­lated

[strive4impact]

@StatusinStatu Check out this one: watch?v=tt1DgZp0n2g&feature=re­lated He got this one to 240 on video and 350 off camera.

[sophiacenter]

@strive4impact Thanx for quick reply! The only problem is that it is hard to carry box cooker and harder to produce, especially from the commercial point of view. I would like to sell them here in Palestine therefore I have to make them portable so it will be possible to pass Zionist entity roadbloacks

[athenaprime]

Great video. Thanks for posting!

The panel cooker works better on non-windy days--without a box to act as an oven, the wind can blow a good portion of your heat away. That's mitigated by using an oven bag around your cookpot. Unless your lid is very tight-fitting, you'll lose heat through it with your glass bowl method.

Lop off the bottom of the funnel cooker and attach it to a box with a plexiglas or plastic wrap cover and you have yourself a box oven.

[strive4impact]

@athenaprime Really good idea! Will do that with the next one I make... though may be a while before I do. But will definitely make a video of the process.

GREAT suggestion!

[rammstefani]

In short, solar cookers don't work.

[strive4impact]

@rammstefani Not exactly. In short, I was trying this out for the first time 2 years ago when I made these videos. But I learned much & have been sharing a lot of that learning through GreenJoyment. And actually, solar cookers and solar cooking are incredibly effective. There are lots of videos on YouTube here of people who have built homemade solar cookers which get temps up to 375F (190 Celsius) and hotter. They work super well. Check YouTube dot com /watch?v=AtCYwNy_LjM, or some others.

[strive4impact]

@rammstefani You can start that last one at about 2 minutes as the guy is a bit wordy. Here's an extreme example, but these guys are cool... /watch?v=2Ea3cHHpl7Q

[craftmatic2]

@rammstefani

watch?v=fdqNz5sMA4w&feature=re­lated

Cake in 75 minutes

3 pound roast well done in 2 hours...

Both on a very cold day with heavy snow on the ground...

[strive4impact]

@pleabargain That's fantastic! Do you have any pictures? Would love to post them on greenjoyment...

[strive4impact]

@pleabargain That was exactly the idea. make it as simple and low cost material. Corrugated steel or aluminum are often easier to come by than mirrors and glass.

[alicenami]

wow .. amazing ... Like your youtube - so helpful and informative - thanks a lot -

thanks for sharing - from alice

[strive4impact]

@alicenami Glad you're finding the videos helpful! If you make a solar oven, please take some pics and submit it to us at GreenJoyment. We love to know how these videos are helping people.

[hoosierarcher]

Check other vids on the use of glass bowls in solar cooking. You were using them incorrectly. Basically use two glass bowls of exactly the same demensions and paint the outside of the bottom one black. Leave the other one clear. The clear one is the dome lid.

[Iamjohnnybean]

If you scrap all of that, and use just a couple of mirrors at a v shape, and one at the bottom, you can place a large brown glass bottle... I recommend coors banquet 40oz. I have gotten temperatures of over 150f. in less than one hour!!!

[strive4impact]

@Iamjohnnybean Yep. Going forward I would absolutely NOT use foil... mirrors work REALLY well.

But was a worthwhile experiment to see if foil could achieve good results as well.

Coors banquet bottle... Nice!

[321ozzy]

@Iamjohnnybean

I also use that type of water heater; I painted a small bottle black.

When you put that bottle inside a bigger plastic, transparent bottle, the temperature goes up even more and faster.

Cut the plastic bottle half-way open, make diagonal cuts in the lower part. Then make the opening smaller and use tape to maintain the narrower opnening.

You can place the dark bottle inside and slide the top of the plastic bottle over it.

Hope I could make myself clear.

Regards from Mexico

[strive4impact]

@321ozzy This is really a smart idea. have you posted pictures or video of it anywhere?

[Innocuous1]

I made two cookers using a 12 sided parabola design. I recommend you learn to make your own flour paste for these projects as they use a lot of glue. I just painted Mason jars to cook in. I started out small and kept trying larger jars until I exceeded the heating capabilities of the cooker. 1.5 liters seemed optimal. In the summer I could brown rice pudding in these things. I cooked potatoes etc. almost daily. I left them in Africa and I hope they are being used.

[strive4impact]

Thanks for your response.  Where in Africa were you?

Warmest,

Jonathan

[kia4now]

very interesting, good stuff man

[strive4impact]

glad you enjoyed it. You going to make one now too?

[rplende]

What was the temperature that day?

[strive4impact]

Good question. About 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

[MrTerryKay]

Nice idea but a little flawed. Even though you've painted the foil pans black the heat is still reflected out by the reflective surface under the paint. Try standing a black cast iron lidded pot on a wire cake stand inside the two glass jars. Also try to be sure that the reflective centre is always aimed at your pot.

[MrTerryKay]

Also have a look at making you cooker out of those silver window screen car coolers. They are actually built out of silvered bubble wrap, so as well as being reflective, supple and easy to fold away, they are also insulated against heat loss. Plus when not in use as a cooker they double as a car window reflector. ; ^ )

[strive4impact]

Really good idea. I may have to try this in the future.

[strive4impact]

Definitely flawed. I've learned a lot since making this video... but it was a good start for sure. Really just wanted to see if it would work at all. If I was doing it again, I would either use a broken mirror and glue the pieces into the funnel (for a more reflective surface, or use mylar. A sun tracker would definitely help too. I just wanted to show it was possible, since so many people don't think solar cooking is possible.

[MrBillTroop73]

Thats a lot of work! Thanks for doing that!

It sure looks like the "funnel" type, with the "traditional" oven bag is the way to go.

Bill

[strive4impact]

Yes... I would concur. It's the one I've used since.

But from what I've heard, the better one is a SunOven... I don't have one, but you can find them online. ($180 or so new.) Thanks for watching the video and commenting!

[macrumpton]

I think the problem with the Eagle and the Cookit was that the aluminum container being reflective on the top (on the floor) was reflecting away heat that would be directly absorbed by the floor of the container and transmitted to the water. I am surprised the solar funnel did so well when you consider that the ice-bucket was probably insulated to keep ice from melting. I think the black lid helped. In any case anything over 160°f (for an hour) is enough to kill any nasties.

[strive4impact]

Hey Mac!

We just got the champagne chiller up over 225 (using mirrors) and cooked bread in an hour and a half. Pretty cool! I'm thinking of removing the insulating material and just using the metal inside. That should really get things cooking.

Thanks for your feedback!

[haiku575ukiah]

the reason why youre having problems with the other two cookers is because there is nothing keeping the heat from escaping

[strive4impact]

Yep. We always put the bags around them now.

:)

Warmest,

Jonathan

[haiku575ukiah]

yes, you look so cool in a womans sunglasses, you could probably pull it off other places

i know, i couldnt help myself

[strive4impact]

Thanks! That's funny.  :)

[gands1102]

I use a pint canning jar that I covered with black duct tape and then put it in a oven bag. Works great.

[strive4impact]

Nice!

[Lashon3D]

Another thing you might want to consider is that with the side of the cooking "vessel" right up against the inside of the glass bowl there is a lot of heat loss due to conduction. No air space, no insulation. In regards to the chanpaign chiller the opposite thing is happening most are insulated between the inner container and the outside to prevent heat conduction. This allows the outside to become super hot while the inside stays comparatively cool. Hope this helps.

[strive4impact]

Really helpful! Thank-you!

[solarcookingnut]

The silver interior is reflecting the light and heat back out. Consider taking a black ceramic bowl that is oven and microwave proof, put water in, put a clear glass lid on and see happens when you put them in a bag, you will see a big difference because the inside of the black bowl or cup will absorb alot more heat. I have baked many individual cakes in black ceramic bowls in panel and funnel cookers with great success. KEEP UP THE GOOD JOB!

[strive4impact]

Thanks! You too! Love your videos!

[dkw12002]

It always helps to have the lids black as well since that is where most of the direct sunlight hits. The problem with having the base painted black is that most food is not clear, so it would block the sun from reaching it to convert it to heat. Black pots and lids for any of these type of cookers is essential. Now if you have a box-type cooker with the inside of the box all black, the black covered pot is less critical, but still very helpful.

[strive4impact]

Thanks for the recommendations! I didn't know, and it's good to get a good fix to the water heating issue we encountered.

Thanks for watching and commenting! What's your favorite box cooker?

[gbj222]

Great videos !! Keep up this good work :)

Though you could forget the Fahrenheit !! surely Celsius is best, where boiling is 100 degrees and freezing is zero :)

[prepaidlegalplan]

No question that celsius is a better, but for us Americans, it's difficult, since our weather is shown in Fahrenheit, and since we are taught Fahrenheit, rather than celsius, from the time we are little kids. (Our ovens, microwaves, etc. are all in Fahrenheit, so to make the video as friendly as possible for everyone, wanted to show both.

:)

Thanks for the comment!