Why we got a Sun Oven

We already own a Sun Oven. We decided to invest in one after our first $300 dollar electric bill. Summer had hit us hard and I had taken heavily to baking breads in my cast iron Dutch oven and wanted to do something about reducing the bill.

We started by changing all the 30 year old light fixtures and adding energy saving bulbs. I did some number crunching and solar panels are still out of our reach but I could reduce the oven/stove usage by cooking outside so I decided to give the Sun Oven a go.

Preparation Is Key

I started by reading the reviews on Amazon and my first impression made me leery as there were reports of the oven leaving a lingering bad plastic-y smell in the food. Thankfully, some other reviewers quickly corrected that this was more than likely due to improper set up of the unit.

You see, each unit comes with a flashy colored paper with instructions you must follow before use which involve a heavy cleaning out with vinegar and water heated within the unit. I suspect the people who wrote those reviews were too excited upon receiving the unit to read and follow any longwinded instructions and wanted to use it right away.

I know that if I hadn’t been forewarned, I probably would have been very tempted to forgo this step. So I decided to read through all the papers to make sure I didn’t “miss” any thing and I was surprised to read that the oven could reach temperatures of 400 degrees on a good sunny day. To be honest, I didn’t believe it! I thought, “Sure, maybe in a desert in Arizona but here in Florida, no way!”

Then I set out to follow the pre-cleaning instructions and I was a bit underwhelmed at the result. The oven reach 250 degrees and vinegar water got hot but no where near where I expected. I feared I would not be baking my Dutch Oven Bread in this oven!

Come to find out, there are these silver little locking things which are meant to keep the door closed. I had tried to close them before but I thought I was doing something wrong because they were too tight and felt like it might break the plexiglass door. Well, DOH! If you take a screwdriver and losen them you can get them to close just right. You can cook with out using these and the oven will reach temperatures in the high 200s, but lock them and you reach the 400s.

Taking it out for a Test Drive

We had just received an influx of Rosemary that needed dehydrating and I knew I could use the solar oven as, well, an Oven and a stove but I also knew it could be used as a dehydrator and even as a solar wax melter too.

But I wanted to try out it’s dehydration capacity first.

The temperatures we in the 90s and having fixed the door closing mechanism, I felt like we were ready to go, so I laid out the rosemary as per the directions and set it out in proper fashion.

Then came an emergency and we ran out to run a errand. On the way back, I remembered I had left the Rosemary out and hadn’t checked on it.

What I found was Rosemary burnt to a crisp.

I was saddened but I was not about to let that stop me!

TAKE TWO

After my little Sun Oven Dehydrating fiasco I decided to give it another go and melt some beeswax that was in dire need of cleaning out. This time, I checked on it every 30 of so minutes. I was surprised to see progress each time.

It worked perfectly!

The Take Away

My little fiasco has made me a little less brazen about going out and trying to make new things in the Sun Oven which may be a good. I do look forward to making my artisan bread in it, which is next on my to do list but I am careful not to start it with out having the time and resources to give it the attention it needs.

I am also going to take careful note of the weather on the days I do use, especially now going into the fall, to test out it’s effectiveness through the seasons and will report back on that in the future.

For us, it’s not the oven replacement I hoped, at least not until I get further along on the learning curve.

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