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Last edited: 13 October 2010
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The design of the SolaReflex Pyramid cooker can easily be scaled up to larger sizes for heating or cooking much larger quantities of food or water. We have been testing a prototype giant 4' x 6' Pyramid cooker that will heat 5 or more gallons of water or cook 6 large pots of food or bake a half dozen loaves of bread at one time. And we've found that it can easily be adapted to dry food, or it can be used as a lower temperature heat source for generating hot air, water, or for medical uses. And we have been working on plans for a constructing a building size Pyramid solar cooker/Pasteurizer. Also watch for a cardboad box cutout version for students and first time solar cookers.
Its unique design allows most meals to be cooked with no more that one adjustment to the moving sun for nearly unattended solar cooking. Typical cooking times average between one to three hours, depending on the type and amount of food to be cooked and amount of direct sunshine. No sun adjustment is necessary if the meal is cooked in three hours. If you're looking for the fastest solar cooking times and the hottest temperatures, take a look at our popular 24" SolaReflex 900 Parabolic cooker on our Internet homepage: www.cleardomesolar.com. You can also find a wide variety of other ingenious money saving solar thermal products on our homepage that heat or cool your home.
Two Pyramid Cooker sizes were available[]
Two standard sizes of Pyramid cookers were available before being discountinued in August, 2007: the small one quart (liter) size for two people, or the larger one gallon (liter) size for multiple families.
Note: ClearDome Solar Thermal has replaced the Pyramid cooker with their new Octagon Parabolic Solar Cooker seen below. No flimsy clear plastic bags are needed for trapping heat as with most panel cookers, since the covered pot is completely enclosed inside the triangle-shaped cooking container. Crystal clear heat resistant polycarbonate plastic covers the front and sides of this unique solar cooker, and our 97.4% reflective SolaReflex foil is laminated to the two back walls to re-direct the incoming sun towards the black heat absorber below and the black pot of food (provided by the solar chef). Both backsides and the front adjustable SolaReflex reflectors nearly triple the amount of usable sunlight for superior heat gain inside the cooker. Dry heat temperatures inside the closed cooker will reach well over 200 peak degrees F in about 15-20 minutes in midday sun, so little, if any preheating is necessary. Food is normally considered cooked between 155-200 degrees F. The Pyramid cooker is designed to cook all types of food and not burn or overcook it, even if left on for longer than the normal cooking times. No stirring is needed, and it will bake bread in about two hours and cookies in 1.5 hours using an open baking pan. Once food is placed inside a closed black pot, the pot is placed inside the cooker, both should remain closed until the food is done. Stick food thermometers can verify how well done the food is, but we suggest a simple sun shadow reading to let you know when enough time has elapsed. Once the solar cooking starts, you'll notice the shadow at the back side of the cooker takes about 2.5 hours to move left to the other side, and that's the average amount of midday full sun needed to fully cook an average 1-3 quart meal of meat or vegetables.
Easy sun alignment and cook timing[]
One slight turn to the right re-aligns the Pyramid cooker for the next 2-3 hours of cooking, if needed. With only a few practice cooking sessions of your favorite meals, you'll be able to easily determine how much sun time is needed to cook to your liking. Making milk or unsafe lake or stream water safe to drink (when not polluted with chemicals) is just as easy. The water does not need to boil to become Pasteurized, only reach 140 degrees F for 30 minutes or 160 degrees for 30 seconds. To completely purify any polluted or salt water, please read about our new Solar Still Water Purifier below.
Please note: these Pasteurization heating temperatures and times have been verified by numerous environmental and scientific groups. Up two three quarts of liquid normally takes about two hours to kill all harmful microbes that could make you sick, so on a bright sunny day, it's ok to set and forget it until the shadow has moved to the left backside. For hazy or light partially cloudy days, let the liquid heat for another hour or more. If you're not sure, verify with a food thermometer.
Since the front clear side of the Pyramid cooker does not have a wall like most box cookers, you can start heating an hour after the sun rises. The front external reflector sits flat on the cooking surface in the early morning or late afternoon, and is elevated in midday sun to maximize the solar reflection to the cooking pot.
Besides being very lightweight, it's virtually windproof so you can cook on most windy days, it's unbreakable, non-toxic at all temperatures, easy to set up and use
[Text for this page was adapted from http://home.att.net/~cleardomesolar/SolaReflexPyramidcooker.html]
See also[]
ClearDome Solar Thermal no longer sells the Pyramid Solar cookers as of August 2007. They have replaced and updated this cooker with new The Octagon Parabolic solar cooker is now posted on WIKI and shown below, available now on their homepage by clicking here.
