Top 5 Best Solar Camp Stoves

The 5 Best Solar Camp Stoves

When you want to harness the power of the sun to cook, finding the best solar camp stove is a must. When you cook with electrical power, fire, or gas, it can be costly and inefficient. That’s where the best solar camp stove comes in. Solar cookers help you to conserve the environment and preserve the taste of your food, as ash or soot won’t fall into it. Solar stoves are portable, so you can use them anywhere. Read our solar camp stove reviews and ratings to find our solar camp stove reviews & ratings for camping today.

The 5 Top Solar Camp Stoves

Nobody wants to risk getting anything less than the best solar camp stove, but it can be hard to choose the right one. As with foldable solar panels, there are plenty of solar cookers in the market, but the following are the ones we found to offer the best value to the user. After careful research, we present the top 5 best solar camp stoves for your next fuel-free outdoor cooking adventure.

* Ratings are determined using our specialized rating system.

GoSun Sport Portable Solar Cooker and Solar Oven

If you need the best solar camp stove to help you prepare delicious and versatile meals, the GoSun Sport Portable Solar Cooker and Solar Stove does just that. GoSun Sport is known for its short cooking time (as little as 20 minutes), making it quick and reliable. The cooker is cool to touch, thanks to its vacuum tube cooking chamber that provides insulation. Thus, the exterior surface is always cool, even if it’s hot inside.

The GoSun Sport is light and compact, which allows you to carry it anywhere and solar cook. So, whether you are out camping with friends or in your patio during summer, you can cook with confidence knowing you have the best solar camp stove.

GoSun Grill Portable Solar Grill and Solar Oven

The GoSun Grill Portable Solar Grill and Solar Oven is an ideal complement to the outdoor kitchen. It’s easy to set and cook plenty of food with it. The GoSun Grill has four times more space than the GoSun Sport. Thus, if you have friends, you can make a meal of eight people at a go.

The solar grill is versatile. Whether you want to roast veggies, stew soups, bake bread, or fry a turkey, you can do all that on top-of-the-line product for the best solar camp stove. It’s portable and so suitable when going out to the camp, boat, or use an RV. You only need to place it where it can access the sunlight and go ahead to make your favorite meal.

GoSun Go Ultra-Portable Solar Cooker and Solar Oven

If you’re looking for the best solar camp stove that cooks fast and leaves food tastier, you’re looking for the GoSun Go Ultra-Portable Solar Cooker and Solar Oven. The cooker is small in size, making it ideal for hiking, camping, RVing, boating, and more.

It’s about 0.9kg making it adventure-ready on land and sea, in the summer or winter months. Thus, it’s ideal for backpacking, boating, RVing, and other occasions that require moving around. Unlike other solar cookers that can’t boil water, this one boils water, and you can prepare a cup of coffee or tea within minutes.

The cooker captures ultraviolet light quickly and retains heat. That means as long as there’s a bit of sun out there, you are in business. It’s fast. It cooks meals in as little as 20 minutes, reaching temperatures up to 550°F (290°C) in full sunlight. This is, hands-down, one of the best solar camp stoves for someone who needs a lightweight, compact solar cooker for camping.

SolSource Sport Solar Cooker, Camp Stove, Grill, and Oven

The SolSource Sport Solar Cooker, Camp Stove, Grill and Oven is perfect for your next camping adventure or at home if there’s a backyard. When directed to strong, direct sunlight on a low wind and warm day, the solar cooker reaches oven-level temperatures (as high as 285° F), which can boil 0.5 qts of water within 15 to 20 minutes. It’s ideal for different purposes. You can pan fry sausages and eggs, boil water, make coffee, oatmeal, and other light foods.

The stove has a convenient carrying bag that you can assemble and disassemble in three to five minutes for effective portability. It also comes with a grill cover to be used when not solar cooking. Covering it prevents stray sun rays and increases the lifespan of the cooker.

There is SolSource solar camp cookware that shows the stove is ideal for camping pots and pans whose diameter is 8-inch. It works best with a black-bottomed pan to boost solar absorption. This is one of the best solar camp stove because it is easy to clean. If you drop food or oil on the cooker’s reflectors, use water and soap to wipe it off.

HYYKJ Classic Solar Cooker 1800W Portable Solar Oven & Camp Stove Grill

The HYYKJ Classic Solar Cooker 1800W Portable Solar Oven & Grill works in any weather, provided the sun is visible. You can easily move it around the patio to cook a meal. It cooks fast and is easy to clean as well.

It’s durable. The mirrors have self-healing polymers that maximize the effects of sunlight and enhance the durability of the mirrors. The high-quality carbon steel plate holds the cookery in place for effective cooking. The cooker even lets you control temperatures by adjusting its reflectors so you can grill meats with flavorful outer crisp as well as the tender, slow-cooked interiors. High temperatures make the cooker ideal for grilling meat, something most solar cookers won’t do.

Features to Consider for the Best Solar Camp Stove

No two solar cookers are made equal, which means it’s important to research what features you want when choosing the best solar cooker for you. When looking for the best solar camp stove, consider the following features if you would like it to serve your needs effectively.

Cooks Fast

While solar stoves rely on sunlight, seasons change, and you want a cooker that can work well on a cloudy day or a sunny winter afternoon. The best solar camp stove only needs visible sunlight to elevate its temperatures to levels that will cook food within 20 to 30 minutes.

Portability

You want a stove that you can put in your travel back and go out. With some solar cookers, such as GoSun Go weighing under a kilogram, you can use these stoves in your backyard as well on other outdoor ventures, such as hiking, boating, RVing, and camping.

Accessories

At times, you may find the best solar camp stove only to realize you have to buy some parts to start using it. Nobody wants to incur additional costs.

Lucky for you, most solar cookers come with accessories, such as cooking pans, cleaning brush, cookbook, and instruction manual. This makes setting up a breeze so you can use it as soon as you purchase it.

Size

Solar cookers are of different types. Some are ideal for one to two people, while others can cook food for eight persons. The purpose of the cooker will determine the number of people it can serve. If you intend to use it with friends during outdoor activities, for example, you’ll need something bigger.

Versatility

While some solar cookers can only help you prepare a cup of tea, others go above and beyond, helping you to stew, boil, fry, grill, and even roast food. It’s good to find the best solar camp stove that accommodates a wide variety of cooking methods. The stove should cook different types of foods as well.

Benefits of Using a Solar Camp Stove

The use of solar camp stoves is on the rise because of the benefits associated with solar cooking. Here are some of the benefits of using one of these tools to help you decide if you want to switch to the best solar camp stove today.

Clean Energy

Solar cooking doesn’t rely on dirty fuel, such as gasoline and gases that may contaminate the environment or alter the taste of your food. Solar stoves use energy from the sun, and the end result is tasty food and a clean environment.

Portable

Discarding fuel while camping can be a hassle, but fortunately, with a solar camp stove, you can get away from that. Thanks to their compact size and small weight, solar cookers are portable. You can move them around the patio to expose them to more optimal sunlight, accommodate guests, or watch your children play. You can throw them in your backpack and go hiking too.

Easy to Clean

Cleaning a solar stove is a breeze because it doesn’t use gasoline or other fuel that produces soot. You only need to use soapy water and a cloth to wipe any food or grease from the mirrors. That can be time-saving, especially when you are outdoors with lots of activities to attend to and inadequate water for washing cookware.

Temperature Adjustment

You can adjust the cooker’s temperature to ensure your food doesn’t burn and heats everything evenly. When using a solar cooker, you can lower its temperature by taking it out of the sun, opening the oven door where food is, or closing up the main sun catcher lids. To increase the temperature, you need to ensure your best solar camp stove is well oriented to the sun.

How Do Solar Camp Stoves Compare to Other Camp Stoves?

Solar cooking has gotten a bad reputation in the past for being unreliable. However, solar technology has come a long way, and now many people interested in more eco-friendly camping options are reconsidering it as a viable option. So, how do the best solar camp stoves stack up compared to other camping stoves?

Ultimately, it all comes down to your environment and your needs. When you’re choosing a camp stove, you need to evaluate what you intend to cook. If you want to cook a lot of meat, a camping wood stove, rocket stove, car camping stove, or a camping alcohol stove may be a better option, because solar stoves don’t always have the capacity to cook it all the way through.

However, if you want to do baking, a solar cooker may be the perfect pick, as many of them offer oven-like functionality. Whether you use a solar grill or a camping oven is up to personal preference.

Lastly, if you intend to use your stove to generate warmth, such as with a tent stove, a solar camp stove may not be the right choice. But if you intend to cook a vegetable-heavy diet and want to pack light without having to worry about transporting canisters of fuel, a solar cooker may be the best option for you.

Precautions When Using a Solar Camp Stove

While the best solar camp is designed with the highest safety standards, you should use extra precautions when cooking.

When solar cooking, you should adjust the temperature down when it’s too sunny. We all want a stove that cooks fast, and that means the temperature should be high. However, some cookers may heat at extreme temperatures and risk burning your food. Thus, when using a cooker that can go to such highs, be observant, and move it to an area with less sunlight to lower the temperature.

Additionally, be cautious when heating water. Some cookers are designed for cooking solid food and heating water, but some aren’t. While most models are safe when it comes to boiling water, some—such as Go SunSport—require you to be careful when extracting the insert to avoid the risk of scalding.

You should also be sure to cover the stove when not solar cooking. When not cooking, you may want to cover the cooker or fold it then place it in a bag. That’s why some cookers, such as SolSource Sport, come with a cover. The reason for covering is to avoid stray solar rays that may affect your sight. The rays may also weaken the lifespan of a cooker.

Conclusion

Comparing all the above solar cookers wasn’t easy, as all of them have incredible features. However, we had to come up with our own preference, anyways. Ultimately our top pick for the best solar camp stove is the GoSun Go Ultra-Portable Solar Cooker and Solar Oven. We chose this solar cooker because not only does it cook most foods in 20 minutes, but it also maintains the taste of meals. It’s also highly portable, which makes it suitable for use in a wide array of places.

The other fantastic feature that makes GoSun Sport our best solar camp stove is because it’s cool to touch, thanks to its insulation feature. You may want to consider this cooker or go for the other four. It all depends on your preference, occasion of use, and budget, but we’re confident that you’ll love any of these as the best solar camp stove for your next camping adventure.

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