Are Grills Worth The Trouble?

[Vasco]

My Magma has been in my basement for the last 30 years. A good cast iron pan took its place on the boat. No, it's not on the rail but on the stove top, out of the wind.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Phyrcooler

I’ve done that for my oven - but it’s placed on the bottom of the oven box. Where do you put it for general use in a BBQ? I’ve used Pizza stones on a home BBQ, but not tried it for heat retention. Are you leaving it on top of the grates and cooking everything on it, or somehow down below - between grate and burner?

On top of the grate and use it for everything from bread, pizza, to steaks and roast pork. We frequently turn of the bbq and cook burgers, chops or steaks from the residual heat from the stone.

[Pelagic]

Thanks boatpoker, you've given me some great ieas

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by wingssail

I have a similar installation (Magma on the side railing aft). We do not have problems with flame out or slow cooking.

Possibly two differences:

1. We used the gas valve from the bigger Magma Party Kettle which puts out more gas.
2. We mounted the Magma so the lid, when open, protects the flame.

Previously we put tin foil around the bottom to keep wind from coming in the holes below the burner.

(I time my cooking to the number of songs which are played on my stereo. One song for grilled Tuna, salmon, or thin pork chops, two songs for a steak, and three for chicken, grill turned down. So you can see we don't spend 20 minutes for thin pork chops. Obviously this does not work with Neal Young songs)

I had endless problems with my magma grill. Hard to light, blew out easily, etc. I called them, and they said they shipped some with the wrong regulator(wrong orifice size). They sent me a new regulator, and it worked much better. I still have issues and don't like the grill, but have to compliment their support, and it is a workable grill with the right regulator, whereas it was pathetically unusable with the wrong one.

[jimellifritt]

Originally Posted by Little Wing MDR

I just bought a boat that came with a Magma Kettle Grill. We cooked out last weekend and I was a bit underwhelmed.

I'm kind of leaning towards taking it off and going with canopy with davits for my dinghy.

Wondering whether it's a necessity or a perk?

What's the consensus

There is a stove/ oven in the galley, so I can still cook. Attachment 245137

Never give up the grill. I have a Magma Catalina and a Traeger permanently mounted. The Traeger is the tailgater model with a custom mount that I made. Agree that the Magma' are not the best. But I grill a couple of times per week. Both our are permanent on the stern of our sail boat.

[kristjan]

Weber

[SV Siren]

Another big vote for the Weber gas grills, they are the cats meow. Whether the Q1200, or the Q2000(bigger) they just plain work well and don't have heat loss issues. A custom bracket to rail mount is worth the cost, and a cover, for $17 or so on Amazon is worth the extra few dollars.

[Tenedos]

Just wish Weber had a marine mount. While custom mounts to put them on a rail seem reasonable, the looks are sadly not the best.

[Kettlewell]

I've used the standard Magma kettle grills for decades and love them. The parts wear out, particularly the inner flame spreader and the valves, but they are all replaceable. Maybe not the best grill, but on my boats they have worked just great and I have no problem in even quite windy anchorages. During the summer in New England we grill practically every day.

[CaptTom]

Well, since we're dredging up this old thread...

Without digging back through ancient posts, I imagine I posted a glowing report on my new Weber here. Since then my opinion has changed.

Weber has this crazy habit of turning the gas down to a very low setting if you don't shut it off in exactly the right sequence. There is a also a failure mode which engages that "feature" permanently. You're left trying to figure out why your food is taking so long to cook. Then the only solution is to buy their obscenely expensive replacement regulator.

I solved the problem by buying a no-name replacement regulator from Ali Express. This one has a wider range of gas volume than the OEM version, so I can turn the grill up as high as I need to if it's a bit windy. Probably not quite as safe, but I keep a close watch on it when cooking.

I still like the aluminum shell instead of stainless, which in a salt water environment is really stain...less. And with the better regulator connected to a larger propane bottle it works better than most of the "marine" grills I've used in windy conditions. Much better than any Magma I've used, which I've found grossly overpriced and underperforming.

But, yeah, you want to mount it to some sort of table. I used a piece of Starboard-like PVC board on top of an outdoor cabinet. A rail mount would be hard to make sturdy and stable enough.

[Kettlewell]

But, yeah, you want to mount it to some sort of table. I used a piece of Starboard-like PVC board on top of an outdoor cabinet. A rail mount would be hard to make sturdy and stable enough.

I really like the rail mount of the Magma grills for a few reasons. Most of the drippings fall overboard. It's always there ready to go at a moment's notice with no setup required. The heat and smoke blow harmlessly away from the boat.

[davil]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

On top of the grate and use it for everything from bread, pizza, to steaks and roast pork. We frequently turn of the bbq and cook burgers, chops or steaks from the residual heat from the stone.

=================

those pics are inspiring

specially the pizza and the bell peppers!!!

[landsend]

My original Magma with the standard gas regulator wouldn't get hot enough to cook properly.
A friend lent me his high flow regulator and believe me it changed everything.I can cook steaks etc as if on a charcoal grill. $32 I think.

[Franziska]

We use a, back than, 65€ fan assisted charcoal grill from Amazon.



https://amzn.eu/d/ctwugPF


Uses 5 pieces of charcoal for a meal for the two of us.

We replaced the internal battery with a lead for a USB powerbank and added a wok by IKEA as cover.



We place it on the table when we use it.


Advantage is, it uses very little charcoal and if anything would go wrong you can grab it and toss it over board if you need to.
The outside stays cool when it's in use.


Zero problems in 2 years use. Simple, low budget and efficient.

If on a monohull we would add some sort of strap down mechanism, but then again we usually only use it at anchor.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by landsend

My original Magma with the standard gas regulator wouldn't get hot enough to cook properly.
A friend lent me his high flow regulator and believe me it changed everything.I can cook steaks etc as if on a charcoal grill. $32 I think.

Yes! The Weber regulator is weak even if it's not in the common failure mode where it goes into some "safe" (very low) mode. But it's possible to trigger that mode just by shutting it off improperly. There's a complicated reset procedure you'd need to perform or it will never get hot again. A glaring weakness in an otherwise pretty good line of grills.