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97 of 98 found the following review helpful:
 Works Well But Follow Setup Instructions Carefully Mar 16, 2008
By Atticus Finch
First use yesterday. Wash, DC area. Late winter, sunny. Ambient temp was high 50s to low 60s. Max temp of about 325, with the built-in thermometer showing 310 - 315 most of the 1.5 hours it was in use. Adapted a recipe from "Glorious One-Pot Meals" by Elizabeth Yarnell (available from Amazon) using an old one quart Pyrex dutch oven and doubling the cooking time.
The finished meal cooked up nicely. The original recipe called for 45 minutes @ 450 degrees. I'm an inexperienced cook, but interestingly, the lower temp and necessarily longer cooking time seemed to produce more liquid.
My one caveat is to follow the directions to pre-heat the oven and clean its interior well before your first use. The interior is plastic. I let the oven heat up a little, then ran a wet paper towel over everything. Off-gassing of the plastic that likely would have occurred had I followed the manufacturer's directions, instead occurred while my meal was cooking. Result was a slight plastic-y (and assuredly carcinogenic) taste in that first dish.
Good build quality, but clearly from a small factory. Not meant to be pejorative. In fact, I like the idea of the company being a small business, particularly in the U.S. However, we're used to perfect looking, assembly line manufactured, robotically assembled stuff and this isn't. The plastic shell appears to be custom fabricated. The other parts are off-the-shelf components that have been adapted for this use and clearly assembled by hand. Hence, you'll find exposed, untrimmed rivets and an entirely functional but somewhat roughly finished wooden frame to which the hardware is attached.
All in all, I like it and it's worth its purchase price -- generally between $240 and $300 depending on the retailer.
Pro:
Works as advertised. Good build quality. Easily maintained temps above 300 degrees.
Con:
Plastic interior -- SEE BELOW!
23 Augusst 2008 Update -- after reading the comments on my and others' reviews, have double-checked and the interior is in fact metal. Nevertheless, follow the instructions and pre-heat a time or two before first use to allow the interior paint to finish curing, off-gas, etc.
Enjoy! Good stuff!
93 of 96 found the following review helpful:
 The Oven of the Future Sep 04, 2005
By Peter A. Farrell
My mother first sent me plans for a solar cooker when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya back in the 1900s, but being young and foolish, I preferred to walk an hour to town for kerosene to light my little stove. (Heck, I couldn't cook, anyway.)
Being much older and a little wiser, I finally woke up to the idea of solar cooking. A parent at the school I work at donated the money to buy a Sun Oven, and my science class fired it up yesterday. I had never cooked in a solar oven before, so I was fully expecting some initial failures, which would be disappointing but instructive. I figured if it could heat up water, we'd bake brownies. The kids (7th and 8th graders) were unusually motivated to see this thing work. Some boys who have never previously volunteered in class eagerly peeled off the protective coating from the reflectors. We set the box outside facing the sun, and it quickly heated up to almost 300 degrees. It easily passed the water heating test, so other students mixed together my favorite brownie recipe (from Baking Illustrated), and into the sun it went. An hour later it passed the toothpick test, so the students tucked into moist, delicious brownies at lunch! It exceeded our wildest expectations for our first solar cooking attempt!
Today I've been experimenting some more, and I've cooked some brown rice (I'll use less water next time), a small loaf of bread (nicely browned crust in one hour), corn on the cob (no water necessary!), and an encore of the brownies. Everything has turned out very well, and all it took was turning the box every half hour or so.
146 of 156 found the following review helpful:
 Solar cooking rocks, but this oven stinks...! Jun 10, 2008
By Aine Ni Cheallaigh
I bought this oven over a year ago. Beware reviews written by people who are smitten with their new purchase. I was smitten too. I put it out there on the front lawn and it worked! It heated water, cooked food, everything came out great. It was magic. But then I began to notice that food that came out of the oven had a plastic kind of taste. Whatever the oven was lined with was contaminating the food with its smell...ugh! I cleaned and cleaned it, but nothing made it better. By the end of last summer, I was reduced to cooking everything in sealed mason jars to keep the smell off the food.
Then I visited my neighbor, the person who'd inspired me to get the oven in the first place. She showed me that the lining of hers was rotting and coming off. She said that the company had agreed to replace it. I was so disappointed. This was going to happen to all of them. I decided to hang onto mine and have asked a friend to replace the inner chamber with wood. I don't know if it's going to work or what, but I so enjoy solar cooking, I can't not try.
So please, try solar cooking. It's great. But not with this oven.
39 of 41 found the following review helpful:
Energy Free Aug 24, 2006
By F. Fitzgerald
I bought the cooker for a recreational farm I go to on weekends, but I tried it out first at a family member's house. I cooked a 4# chicken with carrots that was incredibly delicious. The chicken cooked down to the bone but stayed juicy. The next day I cooked steak tacos;...delicious, and in the same day cooked my nephew's birthday cake. That was the topper. My family members where so impressed they requested I leave the cooker behind. Now I have to send them a solar oven. Oh, and I cooked all that without disturbing the air conditioning in the house.
29 of 30 found the following review helpful:
 Plastic odor & taste for uncovered dish! I think some are in denial..but worked great May 01, 2011
By Kyle Clay
Food has a plastic taste, point blank, yes it does.
Unfortunately, the taste is the key factor in cooking food, bad food is one thing, but plastic/chemical taste? It is not acceptable.
****Edit ***I have made some covered dishes that have not had the taste, I tried to get as good a seal as possible. Stick to covered dishes and it seems to be fine, however, cookies, bread etc, still has the plastic/chemical odor & taste.****End edit******
I have read reviews all over the internet and plastic taste pops up everywhere with repliers being extremely defensive of this oven and blaming it on the user. They didn't "cure it" or they should have covered the dish!!! LOL.....the company itself shows you baking bread, uncovered!.....so, why would you cover your bread when you can't see it?
Also, I put it back on the "repliers/defenders", uhhhh, maybe you are in denial because of why I would be;
* I spent money on this thing
* I wanted it to work so bad
* It is a great way to cook
* Food retains all natural flavors etc
* No cost to cook
* GOING GREEN Baby! yeah and all that stuff
I received a few weeks ago, I cured it as the instructions said. Biscuits and cookies tasted like plastic/chemical. That was the first thing that came out of my wife and daughters mouth.
I did not want it to be that way but it was.
Positives;
*Durable
*Reaches cooking temperatures, mine reached 320 degrees. They claim up to 400. I am sure somewhere it does. i am in Georgia, its hot, and yes I did seal it good.
*Cooks great!
*Easy to use, yep, very easy to use, just adjust every 30 mins to sun, no problem.
*Price is OK....not too bad for function of over, however, see negatives.
*Small American Business
Negatives:
*Plastic/chemical taste in food!
******I cured it, cleaned it, covered it, you name it, plastic taste is still there, as two family members complain about, I never said anything to them, tried to make it ok. They could taste it, period.
* Taste is the most critical factor in cooking this food. The chemical or plastic taste is not acceptable.
Summary;
I loved the solar cooking, I can't think of a better way to cook and retain natural flavors. Unfortunately for the Sun Oven, the residue of plastic taste will force me to move to a different oven. I will search until I find one without an odor or taste in food. Solar cooking is the way to go, surely someone makes one without the bad taste. If you know of one, let me know.
Sun Oven....You need to address this issue.
Thanks
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