Solavore Sport Solar Oven Review: Pasteurizing Water and Baking

It’s summer and to celebrate the sunshine, Solavore sent me their Solavore Sport solar oven to test out.  Having a powerless cooking method is important if there is an emergency and you aren’t able to use your normal stove or oven.  It is also nice in the summer to be able to cook without heating up your house running your oven!  The Solavore Sport is a slick little solar oven that is easy to use and cooks some delicious food.

About the Solavore Sport

The Solavore Sport comes in three pieces.  The base is large enough to hold a standard 9×13 pan with some room left over.  The lid, which is an insulated clear plastic piece, snaps onto the base.  And the optional reflectors install easily in a groove on the lid and hook down.  The reflectors are recommended for use if you are cooking in spring, fall, or at high altitudes to increase the heat of the oven, but are not necessary if you are cooking in the middle of summer on a sunny day.

From the Solavore website:

Features:

• Housing is made from rugged nylon plastic for weatherability and durability. No BPA’s.
• It’s tough but light, only 9 pounds.
• Insulation is one inch closed-cell foam, does not absorb moisture.
• The lid’s double layer creates dead air space for enhanced insulation.
• The oven holds two 10-inch pots (included) or your favorite lasagna pan!
• The floor dimension of the oven is 9 1/4 inches x 17 1/2 inches- yes, you can bake cookies!
• All oven components are made in the USA.
• Uses no fossil fuel – only the free energy of the sun.

The Solavore Sport also comes with a thermometer to gauge the temperature of the oven, two black pots that fit side by side in the oven, a getting started guide, and a WAPI (WAter Pasteurization Indicator).

Pasteurizing water

I started testing the oven with a simple project, pasteurizing water using one of the included pots and the WAPI.

In order for water to be safe to drink, it needs to be heated to 149 degrees F.  The WAPI is a small tube filled with heat sensitive wax that melts at 150 F.  Threaded on a thin wire, this WAPI can be suspended, wax side up, in the water that is being pasteurized and will indicate, by the wax melting and falling to the bottom of the tube, when the water has reached a high enough temperature to be safe to drink.  It is such a simple tool, but extremely valuable for conserving fuel and keeping you safe from water borne pathogens in an emergency.

Pasteurizing water in the Solavore Sport was very simple.

1. Put water in the pot
2. Suspend the WAPI, wax side up in the water.
3. Put it in the oven and point it toward the sun.

It easily reached a temperature high enough to pasteurize the water within a couple of hours on a clear 80 degree day at approximately 5,800 ft. altitude.

Here’s video of how it’s done:

Cooking some dinner

My next project was cooking dinner.  We have a family of 6, so I filled both pots with partially frozen chicken and raw quartered potatoes.  This one I started about noon and we ate around 6 pm.  I did occasionally adjust the angle of the oven to keep up with location of the sun.  I didn’t check it before we were ready to eat, so it may have been done sooner.  The meat was super tender, and everything was nicely cooked through.  My amazing husband, who doesn’t dish out compliments easily, said it was the best chicken he’d had in a long time.  Thanks, Solavore!

Dinner going in . . .

And coming out perfect!

Without the reflectors, this oven didn’t get above about 250 degrees F for me.  The drawback there is that it won’t cook foods as quickly as a conventional oven.  The benefit is that slow cooked food is usually better tasting, and the oven doesn’t get so hot that you have to be super careful with kids around it.  So, having passed the “pasteurize water” test and the “cook dinner” test, and knowing the lower temperature range of this oven, I thought I’d put it to a real test and bake a cake in it.

Baking a cake

I used a cake mix I was familiar with so I could judge a little better how the end product turned out.  Even though dark pans are recommended, I used a light colored metal pan for the cake because that’s what I own.

It did need to bake for quite a bit longer than normal because of the lower temperatures, but 2.5 hours after putting it in the oven, I had cake.  Nice, moist, a little denser than usual, cake.  Delicious.  Without using my oven or having to use any fuel.  Just the power of the sun and the Solavore Sport oven.

And for you visual folks, here’s the cake baking video and an overview of the Solavore Sport solar oven:

Keep preparing! Angela