While tourism significantly declined this year, camping saw a huge boost. Anyone who’s gone camping knows the value of portable equipment. That’s why I accepted an offer to review a portable solar oven by GoSun called Go.
The Go ($139) is built into its own carrying case with a total weight of 2 lbs. It has no buttons or dials. All you literally need is the sun, and the solar cooker will bake, roast, steam and even boil your meal in about 20-30 min. When you close the case, the Go also acts as a Thermos, meaning that you can store your food in the vacuum tube for up to 12 hours.
The company was founded by solar energy expert Patrick Sherwin. According to the GoSun website, he successfully tried using vacuum tubes sitting next to him to reheat his lunch, and the rest is history. GoSun also makes coolers, chargers and now a coffee maker on Kickstarter.
I have to admit that it took me a couple of weeks to finally use the Go, as we’ve had some ugly weather in the month of October in Madison. (The Go does work on a cloudy day, but I wanted to use it on a sunny day.)
The first thing I cooked was a hot dog. I used one of the optional silicone baking pans, put on a hot dog in it, put the pans in the cooking tray and then inserted the tray in the vacuum tube. From there, I aimed the Go at the sun, using a dot to help guide me. Twenty-five minutes later, I had a nice tasting hot dog.
I did the same with some diced potatoes, which took more than 90 min. to cook. If you have the patience, the potatoes were tender and tasted exactly like they came out of a traditional oven.
The GoSun Go is an ingenious device that makes portable cooking more accessible in an environmentally friendly way. The only criticism I have is a small one: the paper instructions were vague (e.g. it doesn’t clearly say not to preheat the solar oven). Watching this video really helped:
First photo provided by GoSun
