Campingaz Party Grill

...mother bought one of the Campingaz Part Grills from Germany on her visit earlier this year. She spent 5 minutes on the phone trying to tell us what it was and I still didn't understand what she was on about.

I was a little apprehensive as I already have a lot of camping gear including a hob type gas cooker so I wasn't sure how much use it would be for me.

At the time I know she paid 35 EUROS for it but I have seen them ...
...and about £7 for the gas can. There is another model available but its between 60 and 70 quid so it gets a little to expensive without many benefits.


THE HOB AND ASSEMBLY

The instructions were fairly good, providing enough instruction to get you going but not enough to explain everything. I was a little disappointed with these and thought that some more effort could have been put in to make them more idiot proof.
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My mother bought one of the Campingaz Part Grills from Germany on her visit earlier this year. She spent 5 minutes on the phone trying to tell us what it was and I still didn't understand what she was on about.

I was a little apprehensive as I already have a lot of camping gear including a hob type gas cooker so I wasn't sure how much use it would be for me.

At the time I know she paid 35 EUROS for it but I have seen them over here in Millets outlets for £29.99 for the hob and about £7 for the gas can. There is another model available but its between 60 and 70 quid so it gets a little to expensive without many benefits.

THE HOB AND ASSEMBLY

The instructions were fairly good, providing enough instruction to get you going but not enough to explain everything. I was a little disappointed with these and thought that some more effort could have been put in to make them more idiot proof.

When I received the hob I was quite surprised at how compact it was. Some of these things can be a fair size and also take up a lot of needed space in the boot of the car on a camping trip.

The grill comes well packed and manages to squeeze itself into the smallest box. However, once you have taken it out remember how you did it as you wont get it back in that easily. That or I think you can buy a soft bag specially for it but I am not sure myself on where to get them.

The hob is about the size of a large frying pan. With a sturdy light weight metal base everything you need to assemble it is inside under the snap fit cover.

Assembling the hob is easy. You take off the plastic cover and remove the hob plate and pot stand to reveal the hob's legs. The legs snap fit in to the base of the unit. This took me a little time to fit as I was unsure of how hard I needed to push them to get them to lock in without breaking anything. I guess it must just be because it was new as it seems to have got easier each time I have tried.

Next you need to connect up the gas. I don't know about you but I am always a little paranoid when dealing with gas, keep thinking it is going to leak. No such trouble here though. The Hob uses either CV270 (Mini gas can) and CV470 (large can) self sealing gas canisters. You push the can into place on the base of the ho and slide round the leaver lock. This is a simple task without any leaks or issues to report. The same applies when taking the gas can off again…no trouble at all.

The plastic top to the unit doubles up as a base. You place this on to the table or ground and place the hob complete with legs and gas can on to the top.

PREPPING FOR A FRY UP
Now one thing to note which is a major advantage of the hob is that really it's a grill pan.. Now we all know that that gives us less fat and better health as a direct result.

So with your ho assembled you then have to fill the metal base to the line with water. This acts as a kind of drip tray for the oil and fat that comes off during cooking. I read through the instructions and came to the conclusion that the water also acts as a sort of cooling mechanism for the hob itself. So if you get one of these and your not going to a camp site but to the wilds of nowhere, don't forget your water….else you'll have to waste a 4 pack of Tennets larger for your breaky.

With this on you next place in the pot stand, which as it is described is a pot stand…yes for putting pots on. I cant say much else other than that. Accept it is good for putting pots on, stable and very difficult to topple the pot.

Next comes the actual grill pan assuming your planning some good old bacon and eggs. This looks like a normal grill pan but is slanted downwards from the middle out with a few holes, rather like the idea behind a barBQ grill. Being sadly interested in how it worked the heat comes up through the wholes from the gas and the fat runs of the sloping sides in to the water underneath.

Lighting the hob is done via a push start built in lighter. You turn the gas knob round on the side of the unit and push it in, like an electric lighter. Mine started up on first use after a couple of attempts.

Actually cooking with the hob is very easy. The gas knob offers a good range to be able to turn up or down the heat in a controlled way so there isn't a blazing hot or nothing type effect.

When we used ours there were two of us. As I am skinny and never worried about gaining any weight I like a good full breakfast. With enough sausages, bacon 2 eggs and some tomatoes for 2 we found that the grill did star to get a little cramped. We managed it but could have done with a little extra space on it. The other ting we noticed was that it is quite difficult to keep your sausages on the grill and to turn them as they tend to roll about a little. One did manage to find its way on to the grass.

That apart I was pleased with the cooking side, the non stick grill pan is a sinch to cook food on.

I also bought one of those toast cookers which everyone knows doesn't work but buy them anyway. I did manage to get a half decent slice of toast with the Party grill.

CLEANING
The grill plate was very easy to clean, being non stick, it didn't retain to much muck and cleaned off with some soapy water and a cloth.
The drip tray where the water had been was a little harder as it had had the water / fat mix in it for a time longer. As per instructions you can take this off and clean it but it is tricky to get back on again correctly.

The instructions also quote that the drip tray, pot stand and grill are all dishwasher friendly so you could always give it a going over when you get home. I wasn't to keen on doing this as it tends to break down the coating after a few washes.

PACKING UP
Packing the hob away again was the reverse of assembly, simple and easy to do. Packing the whole lot back into itself was harder as the legs seem to real around inside and risk scratching the drip tray.

On a whole I was very impressed with Party Grill. It's a fantastic piece of kit at a good price. However, I would say that there is an air of amateur camping about it and that if your staying for a few nights then it isn't really big enough. You would be there for ever if you had more than one pot to cook. Saying that if your after some breakfast and a cup of tea after then it is excellent.

If you buy one of these it is just camp cooking made simple, people will turn round and stare and tell you that your over organized for camping though. 

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