Well, I'd have to say this product does do what it was design to do - it cooks eggs, bacon, and pancakes fine. But, there is a major design flaw as far as I'm concerned. When you cook something with lots of grease (e.g. bacon), the grease just runs off the sides through the holes (visible in the picture) into the body of the grill with the burners are. It then ignites creating a turbo cook mode! I was able to turn the gas off completely and cook the entire meal off bacon fat. As 'green-friendly' as this maybe, I really didn't care for the approach. What a MESS to clean up!
If you only plan to cook eggs or panacakes, it works fine. Just make sure you have it PERFECTLY level. I lost an entire egg through one of the side holes due to a little slant. You can imagine what my stove looked like after this breakfast ;-) Coleman RoadTrip Cast Aluminum Accessory Griddle
We just bought the Road Trip Grill to add to our camping arsonal. We love it, but in attempting to use the griddle accessory, we found a major design flaw. It has slot-like holes all around the inside of the lip. So when the description says "great for bacon", I would not reccomend that unless you like grease fires in the morning with your eggs. We couldn't figure out why it was made this way, but I probably won't be using it for that again.
This is a must have for camping. We don't eat bacon, so haven't had the problems of other users. We have used it for eggs and pancakes, but my favorite is grilled ham and cheese sandwiches on an overcast beach day. Pam spray makes clean up as easy as wiping it down with a paper towel. These are light and easy to store, we bought the RoadTrip rolling case and the griddles can be stored in the grill when you use the velcro straps to hold the grill closed. I store the heavier grills in the inside compartments of the case and everything is kept together.
Some people have expressed problems with using the griddle plate for bacon. We used an original blue Roadtrip which had water in the grease catcher. We learned to line the pan with tinfoil before adding the water to make cleanup easier. We cooked literally a pound of bacon at a time without fire problems with water in the lined pan.
We now have a red RoadTrip LXE which isn't designed for water in the pan. We also line this pan with tinfoil for cleaning purpose. When we use the griddle plate for bacon we line the LXE pan with tinfoil and don't punch the drain hole through. We then add water to the lined pan and cook our bacon. Later when everything is cooled down we put a can under the drain hole and punch the tinfoil through to drain the water from the pan. No problems yet with flame ups when we use this method. FWIW. AP
The BBQ comes with one grill and one griddle, if you intend on using it as a BBQ, you'll quickly need a 2nd grill to make the whole stove-top a grill surface. These grills are aluminum and while they move the heat very quickly, they also don't carry it as long or as even as the iron version. The upside is that they're lightweight and relatively easy to clean. One downside, upon my first use and being careful, some of the teflon already started coming off the top edges...I seriously doubt they'll last very long, so be extra super-careful and don't let anyone near them with anything but a soft-plastic or heat-tolerant rubber.
When I first purchased this grill and then for the next year or two I also thought it was terrific. Then things started to go haywire.
The lock that keeps the top fastened to the bottom was poorly designed. It eventually loosened and now one either had to hold the two pieces together or put an elastic ("bungee") cord around it or it will comes apart.
Next, the grease cup caught fire. If that wasn't bad enough, it is located right by the propane cylinder. We were able to extinguish the fire before it heated the propane bottle but not before the grease cdup melted.
THEN, while pre-heating it, the center of one of the grills completely melted through. I read the instructions before using te unit and I recall it saying not to COOK with the lid closed. I have absolutely no recollection of it saying not to PRE-HEAT with the lid closed. Net result: Another grill for $33.
As I can't readily locate my instruction manual, I'll need to find one online or somewhere to see if there is a warning about that. If so, then it's my fault. If not, then Coleman has a potential disaster on it's hands.
In any event, I've reported it to the Consumer Product Safety Commission after having gotten no satisfaction from Coleman other than them saying "the lid isn't supposed to be down."
If you buy one, make sure EVERYBODY who uses it knows that under no circumstances ever put the lid down while the flame is on. Most people who grill a lot are used to following the cooking instructions of always pre-heating--don't do it with this grill.
This product would be better if it didn't have the open slots on the side for (bacon) grease and pancake batter to drip through; it would save on the clean up. Would prefer a solid design with maybe higher edges to prevent run off. - Camping Grills - Coleman Grill - Portable Grill - Propane Grill'
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