Canine
Well-known member
It's a good little oven for $40. It uses 45 watts (4 amps). That is a small amount, but it does add up over time. The small load is easier on the batteries; FLA batteries don't like heavy loads. The one I got has the cigarette lighter plug-in so it is that much more efficient. An inverter will be less efficient and noisier with the fan running. The Hot Logic with the cigarette plug-in is absolutely silent. It is made to take a mini cake pan style, shallow, rectangle, 6 cup, Pyrex dish with lid. That's a fair amount of food- unless you eat like you are 16-years-old, that is enough for two large meals.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=assoc_..._encoding=UTF-8&field-keywords=Hot+logic+mini
Today I heavily tested it by putting a frozen turkey/potatoes TV dinner and a frozen 2-person lasagna TV dinner in it. At 6 hours, the top one was cold (but not frozen) in the middle with the bottom one hot through and through. In 8 hours, 45 minutes, both were plenty hot. Lasagna takes a while to cook; for the Hot Logic to cook a family size lasagna and another TV dinner in less than 9 hours is pretty darn good. If I had just cooked the lasagna, it would have taken less than 6 hours.
If I were to use a microwave, it would use fewer overall watts, but not by much. It also requires about 400 a/h of FLA batteries and an inverter to run it. When I cook at night, it is often dark, so I'm using electricity from the batteries instead of from the solar panels. The fuller a battery stays over night, the longer it will last. A microwave also takes up much more space. For those of you wanting to cook safely and easily in very small quarters, this is a real option.
I like the shape better than the RoadPro Lunchbox Oven. The Hot Logic has a flexible, nylon cover. If the Hot Logic were rigid, I would not have been able to stuff those two TV dinners into it. The RoadPro Lunchbox Oven is much more powerful (12 amps/144 watts) and can cook things like rice whereas the Hot Logic can't because it goes to only 165 degrees. This is hot enough to cook any meat safely, but will fall on its face when it comes to rice. The electrical draw for the Hot Logic is much more desirable to use as an all-day Crock Pot in an off-grid situation. Even with all the solar I have, I would rather have a sunny day to use a RoadPro. I can use the Hot Logic on cloudy days and still get my batteries into float for several hours. The Hot Logic Mini is also smaller to store. A RoadPro needs a 3 hour window to cook the same two TV dinners I cooked (the dinners wouldn't fit in a RoadPro anyway, so it is a moot point). That is awkward because I don't want to wait 3 hours after I get off of work to eat, nor do I want to cook my food at 300 degrees for 8+ hours. 300 degrees is hot enough to boil water off, so imagine boiling your dinner for 8 hours. That doesn't happen with the Hot Logic. I would also much rather use the electricity from the panels during the day instead of the stored electricity from the batteries, so the Crock Pot aspect used during the day is appealing to me.
Make no mistake- lots of electricity is required to heat stuff no matter what you do. However, the Hot Logic beats the pants off of the Road Pro when it comes to most situations regarding electricity usage. The RoadPro is somewhere between the Hot Logic and the Microwave. Too big to use as a Crock Pot unless you have a higher than average solar array (and are cooking something that won't overcook at 300 degrees at 8 hours) and it is too small to cook something at night after getting off of work. It's like being 19 or 20-years-old. Too old for high school; too young for the bars. The RoadPro lies in that awkward stage.
I want to emphasize the low amount of electricity a Hot Logic uses. If turned on in the morning and you can't get back until the next day for whatever reason, you won't come back to an overcooked lump of food and a dead battery bank. The food would still be good and you would have a usable battery bank. A Hot Logic running over a 24-hour period with a 200 amp hour battery bank with no solar will use 50% of the batteries. Not ideal, but a RoadPro would have killed them. Then your fridge wouldn't run and all the food in it would spoil. Well, running a fridge and a hot logic would drain the batteries to less than 50%, but that's still better than totally dead. And if you can get some kind of solar through the day (which is highly likely) then you would be fine. Leaving a RoadPro running for 24 hours on a cloudy day would kill the battery bank. With 200 watts of solar and sunny days, they Hot Logic would run safely for several days and you wouldn't come home to a burnt mess. 300 watts+ of solar and sunny days with a 200 amp hour battery bank would run that indefinitely. Not the RoadPro.
The Hot Logic needs a dish (plastic or glass or aluminum- anything) to cook in, so that is an added expense. You can't cook directly in it. Well, you could- once.
There are other HotLogic options. You can get one that plugs into 110 volt AC then use an inverter. There is also a larger version of the original Hot Logic Mini. I got the small one because the big one wouldn't fit in my drawer. Also, the smaller the inside of a cooker is, the easier it is to heat. It makes a big difference- probably more than a guy would think. Like guessing jelly beans in a jar.
Buying the Pyrex dish(es) separately from Amazon would probably be cheaper- it was for me. Pyrex dishes directly from Hot Logic cost more. There is a 4-pack with red lids that is the cheapest per dish. The red lids are of the exact same quality and design as the dishes with the blue lids. I don't know why they are priced differently- all I can definitively say is they are exactly the same except for color.
The Hot Logic is a great oven. Whole-heartedly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=assoc_..._encoding=UTF-8&field-keywords=Hot+logic+mini
Today I heavily tested it by putting a frozen turkey/potatoes TV dinner and a frozen 2-person lasagna TV dinner in it. At 6 hours, the top one was cold (but not frozen) in the middle with the bottom one hot through and through. In 8 hours, 45 minutes, both were plenty hot. Lasagna takes a while to cook; for the Hot Logic to cook a family size lasagna and another TV dinner in less than 9 hours is pretty darn good. If I had just cooked the lasagna, it would have taken less than 6 hours.
If I were to use a microwave, it would use fewer overall watts, but not by much. It also requires about 400 a/h of FLA batteries and an inverter to run it. When I cook at night, it is often dark, so I'm using electricity from the batteries instead of from the solar panels. The fuller a battery stays over night, the longer it will last. A microwave also takes up much more space. For those of you wanting to cook safely and easily in very small quarters, this is a real option.
I like the shape better than the RoadPro Lunchbox Oven. The Hot Logic has a flexible, nylon cover. If the Hot Logic were rigid, I would not have been able to stuff those two TV dinners into it. The RoadPro Lunchbox Oven is much more powerful (12 amps/144 watts) and can cook things like rice whereas the Hot Logic can't because it goes to only 165 degrees. This is hot enough to cook any meat safely, but will fall on its face when it comes to rice. The electrical draw for the Hot Logic is much more desirable to use as an all-day Crock Pot in an off-grid situation. Even with all the solar I have, I would rather have a sunny day to use a RoadPro. I can use the Hot Logic on cloudy days and still get my batteries into float for several hours. The Hot Logic Mini is also smaller to store. A RoadPro needs a 3 hour window to cook the same two TV dinners I cooked (the dinners wouldn't fit in a RoadPro anyway, so it is a moot point). That is awkward because I don't want to wait 3 hours after I get off of work to eat, nor do I want to cook my food at 300 degrees for 8+ hours. 300 degrees is hot enough to boil water off, so imagine boiling your dinner for 8 hours. That doesn't happen with the Hot Logic. I would also much rather use the electricity from the panels during the day instead of the stored electricity from the batteries, so the Crock Pot aspect used during the day is appealing to me.
Make no mistake- lots of electricity is required to heat stuff no matter what you do. However, the Hot Logic beats the pants off of the Road Pro when it comes to most situations regarding electricity usage. The RoadPro is somewhere between the Hot Logic and the Microwave. Too big to use as a Crock Pot unless you have a higher than average solar array (and are cooking something that won't overcook at 300 degrees at 8 hours) and it is too small to cook something at night after getting off of work. It's like being 19 or 20-years-old. Too old for high school; too young for the bars. The RoadPro lies in that awkward stage.
I want to emphasize the low amount of electricity a Hot Logic uses. If turned on in the morning and you can't get back until the next day for whatever reason, you won't come back to an overcooked lump of food and a dead battery bank. The food would still be good and you would have a usable battery bank. A Hot Logic running over a 24-hour period with a 200 amp hour battery bank with no solar will use 50% of the batteries. Not ideal, but a RoadPro would have killed them. Then your fridge wouldn't run and all the food in it would spoil. Well, running a fridge and a hot logic would drain the batteries to less than 50%, but that's still better than totally dead. And if you can get some kind of solar through the day (which is highly likely) then you would be fine. Leaving a RoadPro running for 24 hours on a cloudy day would kill the battery bank. With 200 watts of solar and sunny days, they Hot Logic would run safely for several days and you wouldn't come home to a burnt mess. 300 watts+ of solar and sunny days with a 200 amp hour battery bank would run that indefinitely. Not the RoadPro.
The Hot Logic needs a dish (plastic or glass or aluminum- anything) to cook in, so that is an added expense. You can't cook directly in it. Well, you could- once.
There are other HotLogic options. You can get one that plugs into 110 volt AC then use an inverter. There is also a larger version of the original Hot Logic Mini. I got the small one because the big one wouldn't fit in my drawer. Also, the smaller the inside of a cooker is, the easier it is to heat. It makes a big difference- probably more than a guy would think. Like guessing jelly beans in a jar.
Buying the Pyrex dish(es) separately from Amazon would probably be cheaper- it was for me. Pyrex dishes directly from Hot Logic cost more. There is a 4-pack with red lids that is the cheapest per dish. The red lids are of the exact same quality and design as the dishes with the blue lids. I don't know why they are priced differently- all I can definitively say is they are exactly the same except for color.
The Hot Logic is a great oven. Whole-heartedly recommend it.
