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April 2007: ClearDome Solar Thermal in San Diego has added a new product, the SolaReflex Octagon Parabolic Cooker, to its line of top quality solar cookers that will replace it's other solar cookers because it incorporates many of the past cooker's best attributes. As its name implies, the cooker has a single piece, formed eight section flat mirror surface solar reflector that concentrates incoming sunlight from the top and sends it directly down to the cooking pot with a clear glass lid.

It replaces their previous Pyramid solar cooker and will soon be replacing their SolaReflex 900 dish parabolic cooker. The top-rated fully weatherproof and wind resistant 95.5% highly polished anodized aluminum solar reflector is connected by removable thumb screws to the formed anozided alumminum support base, and is fully adjustable to all sun angles for very consistant all-day solar cooking with peak dry heat temperatures exceeding 350 degrees F inside the pot--even with no outside clear enclosure surrounding the pot.

A number of unique solar cooking options include the unbreakable clear dome pot cover that traps the heat for higher cooking temps and for windy and cold days, a Fresnel Lens solar smoker that smokes wood chips inside the cooking pot, and a hybrid solar cooker container for plug-in Crock Pot cooking after the sun goes down and on cloudy days. More details are shown below.

Total weight of the cooker is only 6 pounds, and it can be disassembled for shipping with up to 6 cookers packed in one box. The flat, bendable 2x4' SolaReflex AA reflector panel used in this cooker is also available for solar daylighting and parabolic trough construction.

Discussion

Midday sunny cooking times range from about 10-15 minutes to fry/poach eggs, to 70 minutes to bake (and brown) a loaf of bread, two pounds of chicken, beef or fish without ever burning it and without any sun adjustments for most 1-3 quart meals. Most 1-3 quart meals take 50-90 minutes to solar cook on a sunny day in summer or winter.

It also fries bacon and will cook rice and and dry beans when using the optional unbreakable clear dome pot cover. Other options include a solar distiller container that ultra purifies over a pint of any foul or salt water, and it distills spirits as well. Another option is the 1 gallon crock pot container adaptor that allows the user to start slow cooking on the Octagon Parabolic and when clouds unexpectedly cover the sun, lift the crock out of the cooker and resume electric cooking with the plug-in crock pot low power cooker.

A perfect companion cooker for all solar cookers and survival experts that want to cook at night or on cloudy days will be introduced by ClearDome Solar Thermal in late Spring, 2008. It uses a low cost, carbon-neutral waste product for fuel, cooks as fast as a kitchen stove and is called the Wood Pellet Camp and Survival Stove. For photos and more details, please click here to jump to the web page.

The Octagon Parabolic cooker also has a new design unbreakable black heat absorber base attached (but thermally isolated) that the cooking pot sits on that heats to over 270 degrees F in open air when the reflector is properly aligned. It's made of a rock-hard durable heat-absorbing fiberous cement that will withstand temperatures well over 1,000 degrees F. The polycarbonate clear dome pot cover completely covers the pot (when handles are removed) and heat absorber base to provide maximum solar heating even on windy and cold days. Clear oven bags can also be used to help futher boost the the heat inside the pot if the clear dome pot cover is not used. The cooker’s inventor, Deris Jeannette, calls the new type of cooker “a deep tapered sectioned parabolic solar cooker.”

Incoming sunlight is concentrated up to three times over the incoming ambient sunlight levels, boosting the heating temperatures over the entire 12" cooking area where the pot and food sit. Because of the unique bent angles of the reflector, and the adjustable connection to the base, it accepts sunlight from a all angles and reflects it all towards the food below for maximum efficiency. Jeannette reports that this design incorporates the best aspects of the many other original previous ClearDome Solar Thermal cooker designs, including the Pyramid and SolaReflex 900 dish Parabolic cookers. A detailed independent review is available on the WIKI link below. For more detailed information, prices and photos please visit http://www.cleardomesolar.com our homepage by clicking here]

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Contact

ClearDome Solar Thermal
3368 Governor Dr, 153-F
San Diego, CA 92122
USA

Tel: +1 (619) 990-7977, or toll free +1 (888) 227-7547, x3427

cleardomesolar@sbcglobal.net
http://www.cleardomesolar.com/