Independent Reviews
Sun Cook an Suntaste models
Slow Cook Solar p.15-16
Author: Lorraine Anderson (USA)
Format: 163 pages printed book
Publisher: Green Heron Press (2023)
Language: English
ISBN: 979-8-218-15843-9
Excerpts
"Dedicated solar cooks may also be attracted to the elegance and efficiency of a more recent entry, the Suntaste box cooker by the Portuguese firm SunOK (sunok.eu). The Suntaste is made of cork for its excellent qualities, its light weight, and its sustainability (cork is a renewable resource, and cork trees sequester carbon while growing the bark layer that is harvested without hurting the tree). The Suntaste is available in two different sizes and can be ordered by emailing info@sunok.eu.
Solarkocher Handbuch, p.31-35
Author: Bernhard Müller (Germany)
Format: 240 pages printed book
Publisher: epubli GmbH (4. April 2013)
Language: German
ISBN: 978-3844244717
Excerpts
“Europe's response to the leading box cooker manufacturer from the US and India is the high-tech model Sun Cook from the SunOK company, Lisbon, Portugal. The standard model has a size of 59x56x29cm closed and a height of 80cm when opened (…)
In addition, a rounded side mirror attached to the tracking intervals to extend. The exterior and interior mirrors are made of polished German manufactured aluminum sheets. Five different recyclable plastic types protect the stove from UV radiation, scratches and heat. The cooking compartment is covered with a tempered double glass.
This solar cooker has 25% faster cooking times when compared with all other solar cookers of the same size. This means that 2 liters of water might be brought to boiling point in about 1 ½ hours, whereas other cookers need 2 hours. The Sun Cook also stores - because of its excellent insulation - the temperatures for longer. This means that the food might be served later. Many innovations are unique to this model, developed under the auspices of Prof. Collares Pereira; it has, among other things, a sundial, enabling the use of shadows to program cooking times up to 2 hours in advance. It’s supplied with 2 cooking vessels and multilingual operating instructions.”
Excerpts
"The Sun Cook Solar Oven is probably the best built, sturdiest and tightest solar oven on the market. It is obvious just from looking at it that it was built with the best precision manufacturing techniques and the highest quality materials with the goal in mind of producing a long lasting, rugged and very efficient solar cooker. (…)
We at Solar Cooker at Cantinawest wanted to also offer to our customers a high quality, "higher end" solar oven along with our other lines of quality solar cookers and accessories. I felt it was necessary to give my opinions of the Sun Cook Solar Oven; the things that I like and also the things I don't care for about the Sun Cook, just as I have done with our other solar cookers offered here on our site. Here is my list of pros (likes) for the Sun Cook solar oven: (…)
• I like the two adjustable, locking arms on the reflector panels that make it very easy to adjust the panel angles and then to lock them into position as well as to unlock them. They are very easy to use and seem quite sturdy. And I like the main reflector panel extension that allows for more surface area for capturing the sun's rays. Also it has a detachable side reflector panel that can telescope out to wider widths when attached to the main lid/reflector panel. The side reflector panel gives the solar oven added reflective surface which helps increase the heating ability of the oven. The interior oven walls also have reflector panels that help concentrate even more of the suns rays towards the dark cookware. (…)
• I especially like the fact that this solar oven not only has a wide interior but that it is deep enough as well, allowing for the ability to bake regular sized loaves of bread as well as whole sized chickens and roasts. It is wide enough to cook a 14 inch pizza inside in its 16inx14in oven floor. It easily allows the use of any standard or larger size cake, lasagna, casserole and pizza pans/plates with room to spare. (…)
• The Sun Cook can reach temperatures of 400 F. and is one of the hotter solar cookers on the market. Of course the more food (mass) that you place in a solar cooker the more you have to allow for compensating factors. It will take a little longer to cook and you will have to allow for an initial drop in temperature when you first place food in the oven, but it will gradually work its way up to higher temperatures.
• This cooker is definitely built to last and to give many years of use no matter what the conditions. It is a cooker of highest quality European grade and manufacture and meets European and US standards for safety and food cooking standards.
• The Sun Cook can be used as a thermal cooker (Haybox Cooker) - if it's dark or raining you can still cook! Use your conventional stove to bring your pot to the boil. Then wrap it in a towel and put it into the Sun Cook with the lid closed. The insulation in the oven is so good that the food will remain hot and continue to cook for several hours. Perfect for slow cook, or crock-pot style foods like brown rice, whole oats, chickpeas or lentils, vegetables or soups.
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> Some things I do not care for as much about the Sun Cook Solar Oven:
• The Sun Cook is one of the heaviest solar cookers on the market making it more of a challenge to move for people who cannot lift much weight. Of course this can be a plus because it also makes it one of the most wind resistant and steadiest cookers on the market. (…)
• Like many new solar cookers/ovens, there is an odor or smell that initially can be detected when first putting the cooker into use and this is due to the new manufacture/factory smell that can accompany recently manufactured products. (Common with the Global Sun Oven, SOS Sport, Tulsi Hybrid etc.) This is easily remedied by initially boiling some pots of water and vinegar or pure vanilla extract inside of the solar oven, and then using a rag, wiping down the interior of the cooker. The Sun Cook did take a little bit longer to eliminate this smell than some of the other commercial cookers, but less time than it did so for the Tulsi. (…)
• And the Sun Cook is one of the more expensive solar oven/cookers on the market because of the technology, design, machining, materials and manufacture location. But for many people having the finest quality product is a must.
On the whole, the Sun Cook Solar Oven is a very fine, well built and very effective solar cooker. It will definitely give many years of productive service as an alternative or principal method of cooking ones food."