A Solar Oven Made From an Old Tire

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At the solar cook off there were successes and near failures.  I want to write about one of the near failures.  This was something I have heard about in the past and have been told that it worked.  Now this improsed oven was not a complete failure, I can see some possible uses for it.

A young lady brought a tire and window and attempted to make a solar oven with them.  She set the tire on concrete and put an open topped aluminum dish in it filled with potatoes and zucchini.  She then placed the window over the top to contain the heat.

The stove partially work it reached a temperature of about 150° f at the hottest.  There was one problem with the design that if fixed may have let the oven get hotter.  The window was a bit too small and the window frame hit the tire leaving a small gap between the tire and the glass.  Since hot air rises I suspect it may have lost considerable heat through this gap.

The vegetables cooked in this oven were warm but crunchy after approximately five hours of cooking.

In an emergency, the stove could have been used for drying foods.  The gap at the top could have been widened to control the temperature.  It could also be used to heat food or drinks up.

The person who brought the oven said that in the past by using a piece of glass that laid flat on the tire, the oven had reached higher temperatures.

While I do not ever expect this oven to reach the high temperatures of a good solar oven, I can see where in an emergency it could be useful for drying food or heating food or liquids. I intend to get an old tire and a flat piece of glass or Plexiglas and do a bit of experimenting.  With a few changes who knows?

Howard

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