SolCook All Season Solar Cooker - Camping Cookware, Portable Stove, Travel Kit, Solar, Camping Gear, Survival Gear, Emergency Supplies, Backpacking Stove, (17) Camper

I was very surprised how well this oven worked. As the developer promised, pay close attention to the folds and construction.Even before I realized my mistake with the order and the folds, I made a toast and melted cheese sandwich, followed by some stir fry veggies and an egg.Once I got the building figured out, the device got up to 325 degrees on a not particularly sunny but hot Arizona late morning (from 10 a.m. to noon) and quickly cooked up a batch of muffins. Next came a couple of quiches, and then some more muffins.These were done without the best of vessels. A pizza rock that had blackened with use was turned upside for the base on top of a veggie holder that came in our new indoor oven. (The round grill that came with it was not easy to use as it is easily tipped .) I used my red silicon muffin form on the rock and then covered it with another blackened pizza pan set up on a couple pieces of wood on the side so the pan didn't touch the muffins. All that went into one of the two plastic bags that came with it. Ordered a 2-inch high pizza pan (in black) to take the place of the shallow pizza pan. It makes the process of sliding tray into bag and onto cooler a breeze. And I did go ahead and get a set of pots to make life easier with beans, rice, etc.A black wrought iron skillet worked well, too, for first toast and cheese. And today with leftover muffin batter, I put it in a bread pan, put that into the small black skillet with the big skillet on top, and that went into plastic bag on top of the unsteady grill. That all went onto of a couple of car window reflectors. What can go wrong?As for the cooker, besides getting the folds worked into the "memory" of the material, it's important to position the oven for morning/evening and 10 to 2 cooking. As the developer said, practicing and working with the unit is necessary to get it right. You have to see where the sun is reflecting into the tray and then you have to learn how to set the wingnuts to hold the panels in the correct position.Wind was not the problem I feared it might be. We have some pretty strong winds in the afternoons in Arizona. Luckily the All Season Solar Oven has plenty of spaces in the design that allow wind to go through it without carrying it away. Plus, the food inside is going to weight it down. And I've got three bricks to use around the base to keep it from sliding on the table.I see many hours of usage for this thing. Beans, rice, quinoa, bread, muffins, stir fries, pizzas. Besides cutting down on oven use and cost, the greater advantage results in keeping the house cool and comfortable without having to run the AC more.I tried a couple of less expensive cookers, but they were flimsy and not worth the money. This one is a bit more expensive, but with it, in our opinion. Also, it's easy to clean.

Like many, I was astonished at how well this lightweight contraption cooks food. (in February, no less!)It cooks food in the morning, in the evening, in the winter, and at more reasonable times of sunlight too. I have adjusted the cooker as suggested to achieve a three-hour cooking window, placed a pan of chicken in it, and left at 1:00 p.m. to go back to work. I came home at 5:00 p.m. to well-cooked chicken, still warm.The design lends itself to so many adjustments that it is possible to capture maximum solar energy at any time of the day or year. Of course, adjusting it frequently will achieve the most cooking energy, but setting it ahead of the sun and leaving it for a 2-3 hour period has worked well enough for me.I most like the ingenuity of this cooker. It's pretty incredible that through intelligent design, plastic board and a shiny surface can be transformed to meet a universal human need--cooking food. It seems like that, with just a few uses, it can be considered a climate change gain. I would love to see this cooker distributed to areas of the world where women have no choice but to cook over open fires.This cooker is not an insulated oven, however, and I think some people have that expectation. There are ovens out there, and they are good, too, but they are not very portable. They are bigger than a suitcase and fairly heavy. I find that the turkey bag and the double bowl set-up does a fairly good job of retaining heat and creating an oven-like environment. It's a trade-off, but to be able to fold this down to an inch-thick and easily store it is worth it!As for the size, well, are you really sure that you want the large one? All the YouTube videos I watched were of the smaller one (on the right in the second photo). The larger one is the only one that is being sold now, and that's what I ordered, not realizing the distinction. (It is clearly stated that this a new, larger cooker, so it was my mistake.)I contacted the manufacturer because, aside from other issues, I couldn't get the large one through my 22-inch door, short of disassembling it each time. I suspect that RVers may have narrow doors, as well, and this might be an issue, in terms of just getting it out of the rain, or out of sight until the next day. I purchased the smaller one which, as you can see in the third photo, I can, with a little scrunching, get through my door. (I have a friend who wants the larger one, so its all good for me.)What I found, though, by having both of them for awhile, was that the smaller cooker is more maneuverable and more 'human-sized". The larger cooker is harder to adjust. Forget the wing nuts, use chip clips, but even then, it's not as easy. It's not because it is badly designed, it's because you can't make human arms longer. It's just harder to hover over the top of the larger one and reach everything. The larger one also doesn't have quite as much of a stable non-moving base. This increase in size does have some trade-offs, but, apparently, everyone wants the larger size and immediately started choosing it over the smaller size.For me, however, the smaller size, with a 12 x 12-inch cooking space works quite well. I would so rarely need to use the 12 x 17-inch cooking space that the slightly increased awkwardness of adjusting it and hauling it around isn't worth it. So, if you want the smaller size, you will need to contact the manufacturer. He said he has about 100 (well, 99, since I bought one) left.Overall, both of these cookers are really phenomenal. They are intriguing, fun to use, and reasonably priced.

I am a very experience solar chef, and have used several different types of cookers. This one seems to be effective. I haven't done any testing to see how it compares to other cookers. The coordinated articulating collector panels are a nice innovation. Seems like they would be beneficial in winter or the shoulder seasons, and they probably do extend your range of cooking time to earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon. So it's a neat idea, but realistically, in my 20 years of solar cooking, I've never really felt very limited by those things. I've never worried about early morning or late evening cooking. And yes, I do pack away my solar cookers for the winter, and with this one you may be able to still use it. This is a nice design, but really seems a bit overpriced for what it is. Basically it's just a folded sheet of Coroplast with a shiny side and some bolts to hold it together. If you are new to cooking with the sun, I recommend you either make or get something cheaper as you experiment with solar cooking. Get some cardboard and make a CookIt, or find some boxes and make a box cooker. You'll find lots of good instructions online. Once you get some experience and find you like solar cooking, then maybe you might want to upgrade to this one.On the other hand, if early morning, late evening, or winter cooking is important to you, or if you are rich enough to not worry about the price, then go ahead and buy this. It is a nice cooker, and I'm sure you will be happy with it.