Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Oven in a bucket

Okay here is the long promised information of the oven in a bucket. I tried it out this past week and for the right things this is a great idea to have for emergency preparedness. So this is what I learned...
The main way that I can see that this stove would be useful is to be used with your 72 hour kit or camping. The bucket has essentially a penny stove inside. To make the stove work you pour a small amount of denatured alcohol (not included) into the little penny stove, start it and put the pot on top. The idea is that by the time whatever is in your pot is brought to temperature the fuel will run out. And then you put the lid on the bucket and it will retain it's heat for several hours. This would allow for you to cook items, such as beans that require a long cooking time. But in the winds around here is could be useful just for heating water. I can see that it would be useful if you kept a bottle of denatured alcohol in the bucket and a pot near by you could take this item with you if you had to leave your house in a hurry and then you would have a stove to cook whatever you have in your 72 hour kits. However, you have to have the right pot to make it work. What I mean is that it needs to fill as much of the space as possible. If it doesn't fill enough of the space than the bucket won't hold it's heat properly, these means that you wouldn't be able to cook anything that takes an extended period of time to cook. I tried to compare the ability of both the wonder box from last year and the bucket from this year and without the right size pot the wonder box held it's heat better hands down. The advantage of the oven in a bucket is that it requires no addition outside heat source. The oven in a bucket, (with the right pot) is great for things that are done outside of your house.
Also it should be noted that the oven in a bucket will take AT LEAST AN HOUR, possibly two to make. So if you are planning to make it please remember that if you are signing up for any other classes.

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