/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>320467
I've made many, in many different styles. In the end, I prefer the "Heaven's Flame" style of reflectors for a box cooker.

Here's a reposted image of my main cooker. It can reach up to 380F right now, but it needs some reflector maintenance. Normally, when it is empty it can reach 430F or around there in about 15 minutes. When food is placed in it, the food absorbs the heat very quickly so ambient temps are usually 200F-250F.

This one was made with scrap building materials and insulation. Most of the cost is in the handles, wheels, and tempered inner glass. This has 2 panes of glass and several inches of insulation. It normally takes things an hour to cook/bake.

You can make these for pretty cheap and the glass should be the most expensive part. You always need the inner glass to be tempered if your temps are going to be over 220F. Otherwise, it'll crack.

>Does anyone actually live off of cooking from a solar oven?

I don't live off mine entirely. I do it in phases. A month in the summer may go by with all my meals coming from the cooker. I don't use it in the winter normally because I dislike being out in the cold, but it works well in -10F temps.

>How much did it cost you to put together?

Unknown really. Probably, $75.

>How hard are they to clean and maintain?

Pretty easy. However, mine uses aluminum foil on the reflector panels and it needs a new layer. Oxidation has turned the foil white in places now. I can simply epoxy/glue a new layer on it after scrapping/sanding off the old. It took about 2 years to get bad enough to need changed.

>>128295
From my experience,

-Funnel cooker: Novelty really. Lid gets super hot. Does okay cooking food. The funnel isn't all that great for portability and does not store well and has lots of heat loss. I'm sure you could make some sort of folding one. The unit is pretty light. A glass cooking vessel painted black seems to be best.

-Panel cooker: Functional and quick to set up. It takes forever to cook with for small unit, and has lots of heat loss. VERY portable. Very nice for reheating food.

-Parabolic cooker: Best as a stationary non-portable unit. Can take a long time depending on its size. Lots of heat loss and it has a very finite focal point. Left unattended and it could cause a fire if something was in the focal point and flammable. The focal point changes as the sun moves so helio-tracking by hand or electronically is a must.

-Box Oven cooker: Insulation is key, can be made portable, and collapsible. Depending on the design and size it can be easy to store or take up a lot of space. These can be stationary fixtures as well and can be very large and cook massive amounts of food. Smaller reflector space can be used because of its heat retention. I prefer these over the rest. Great for baking, pizza making, etc.

Another pic of the same cooker. This unit, when empty can easily and quickly reach 450F. All foods cook in about 1 hour or less on a sunny day.

Cooking meatloaf in the large cooker.

Note that the temperature is not very high. This is because when you put cold food into an oven the heat is being soaked up by the food and anything else in the oven. Once the food has cooked fully (190F inside) then there's a sharp spike in the ambient air temperature of the oven. It is this spike of heat that can quickly burn food.