Haines 2.0 SunUp Solar Cooker and Dutch Oven Kit

I live in Oregon and loved cooking with the original Haines Solar Cooker over the past several years. Oregon has gradually been experiencing hotter summers, yet few houses are air-conditioned so I really appreciate cooking all sorts of things outside during those hot summer months. I don’t need to pay a lot of attention once I set it up (the food doesn’t burn), I just go about my day while my house stays SO much cooler plus I don’t have to eat salads all summer!The Haines 2 Solar Cooker came with printed color instructions on how to assemble and cook with it. The two primary pieces are easily put together, then you fit the cooking sleeve around the pot so it’s held up in the air, off the bottom of the cooker. The pot holds 14 cups of water easily and at 18 cups is full almost to the brim. The glass lid has a nice, cool silicone knob on the top, but remember to use hot pads when lifting the pot out of the cylinder so you don’t burn yourself. The blue/red snaps on the cooker are easy to adjust according to where the sun is and the big circular cover both holds heat in and keeps any blowing leaves or dust out. It’s so portable I could easily see taking it camping and it would be a lifesaver if this area was hit by a disaster. I normally left my Haines1 assembled and outside all summer, only disassembling it for winter storage. I expect I’ll do the same with this newest version, as the weather had no effect on it and it was so handy to use.The Haines 2’s reflective area is quite a bit larger than the original and as a result it cooks more quickly and may get hotter. I have a black frying pan with a clear lid, so I actually cooked bacon one afternoon and verified it was done via a meat thermometer. I brought it in after a couple of hours and it was crispy. One of the things I cook outside most often is chicken - often just 4 plain chicken legs that I then used in Caesar salad. After an hour and a half the skin slides off, then the chicken just falls off the bone and is truly juicy and tender. I also indulged in a cheese and spinach soufflé – while it doesn’t burn you do need to watch it carefully to catch it at its height.All in all, I find the Haines 2 Solar Cooker a great addition to my cooking appliances and a very good value for the price. Now I wonder what I’ll cook next? (I even did a pie in my original one!)

Great starter set for those wanting to try out solar cooking without paying too much. This set has everything you need except food and sun. Works a lot like a crock pot, I even use crock pot liners in my 'Dutch oven' so I don't have any clean up. The included 'Dutch oven' isn't a true cast iron Dutch oven- that would take too long to heat, but this dish is the right one for the job. Holds up well. I live near Phoenix and our sun is brutal yet all the components have held up well. The plastic that goes under the pot finally got brittle and died (cause my dog stepped on it). It's held up to numerous dust devils and wind up to about 20mph no problem. Easy to use, easy set up. I love this thing! Oh, never had problems with dogs, ants or critters getting into it...

The media could not be loaded. I’m super happy. This oven works exactly as advertised. I bought it for emergency preparedness and to be able to cook in summer without adding heat to our non-conditioned house.Assemble it in the shade and/or wear sunglasses, because you WILL blast your eyes with reflections if you try to assemble it in the sun.They have added alignment arrows for matching up the 2 panels which helps a lot. The Velcro attachment of the cover has been updated to a slotted fit with binder clips to secure it, which works well. The instructions make it super easy to line up the oven with the sun & know which snaps to use.The instructions say not to heat it with an empty pot, but we weren’t sure if it needed any preheating. So we set it up and babysat it to see how quickly it got hot. Within 5 minutes the pot was too hot to handle so we took it out to prep the food. So I’m gonna say no preheating is required with this model for water-based cooking. Maybe if you are pan frying something, which I have not tried yet.Started simple for the first dish, chicken & rice casserole. Food went in at 2:30pm on a sunny 80F day (approx 45 degrees latitude) using the “low sun” setting as per the instructions based on the length of our shadows. Made a 4-person batch and set it to cook while I ran errands. When I returned at 6pm it was definitely done. Maybe it doesn’t need that long but that’s what it got. We got a delightful burst of steam when we opened it. I thought I might’ve burned the food a little because of the brown crust on the edge but turns out it was only surface deep and the food was *perfect* when we started scooping.The snaps are very strong, in fact they are hard enough to undo that we wonder if it might eventually damage the plastic panels, however I think with a little practice we can figure out how to undo them without stressing the material. Also, the written instructions don’t say what to do on a windy day. But the video tutorial is excellent and says to put rocks on the side flaps which we did and it held down perfectly.I’m delighted to be able to cook without heating up my house and to be able to cook in an emergency situation. I’m gonna tell all my friends about this.

I can only get it to simmer water, which is fine for making hot drinks and anything else I can think of. Easily cooks eggs, vegetables etc. Most of the day it seems to work better using the red clips on the sides and rear with the blue clips allowing the front to sit more open. It is probably stronger than it feels but I treat it with respect. I had to wrestle with the large cooking cover, forcing it together and in so doing broke it in its centre before first use but sticky tape is holding it together - not game to unfold it again. This cover is far from airtight and probably lets the hottest air rise to escape but overall the cooker works well.