Skotti Grill- Essentials Bundle – iReviewGear.com

My Story:

Okay, here is the situation. You have a trip planned and you are packing the car. Like most of us you probably have over packed and are looking to save some space. That greasy BBQ is just going to have to stay at home because you simply don’t have room or you don’t want to deal with the certain mess it will make in the car. So, the BBQ stays home and you eat nothing but boiled hotdogs on white bread. That’s probably a bit extreme, but you see the dilemma.

When visiting the Summer Outdoor Retailer show in SLC this year I cam across a very unique product that I knew I had to get my hands on, the Skotti Grill. Sure, a BBQ is just a BBQ right? Wrong! While they all have the same purpose, nothing I have ever seen has come close to the new innovation Skotti Grill has put into an old favorite. They might not be the first C&C cut and self assembled grill, but they certainly are the best I have ever seen. Though it shouldn’t be a surprise, I mean, what more can you expect from German engineering?

By now you have been through the “Just the Facts” section that included a great video from Skotti Grill, so you already have an idea what we are talking about. So, lets just dive into how I used it and what my thoughts were. I first used my Skotti Grill- Essential Bundle at a softball tournament. This kit includes the grill, the cap, tongs and the carrying bags for all. I was also given two of the Skotti “Boks” which I’ll talk about a little later.

While setting the grill up I had plenty of peering eyes as people had never seen anything like this grill. Like any man, I attempted to set the grill up by memory from watching the video and an in-person demonstration. Yes, this means without use of the instructions, and that proved to be doable, but I would have saved some heartache by giving them a once over. After a couple times of setting the grill up I can have it completely ready to go in about 5 minutes. Now, with an assembled grill it was time to cook.

Aside from the fact that we are dealing with a completely collapsible grill, the other very unique thing about the Skotti Grill is that it has the ability to use Iso/Butane fuel and soon enough will have an adapter to also use propane. If you can’t find fuel or you simply forgot it, no worries, you can use wood or charcoal as well. This makes the Skotti the most versatile grill I have ever used.

For my use, I opted to stick with the ISO/Butane fuel as this was a new fuel source for me in regard to grilling. I was very familiar with it for backpacking stoves and whatnot, but never had used if for a BBQ application. I plan to revisit the other fuel options later in the year when the open flame bans are over.

Enough about fuel, back at the game with the grill assembled and ready to cook I fired it up and threw on the meat. Once the grilling was complete I had some very happy family members sitting down for customary ballpark food.

I used the grill for several other cooks throughout the next couple weeks and culminated my testing at another softball tournament. This time I wanted to use the whole package and I set the menu to allow for use of the “Boks” which are a uniquely shaped pot that is purpose built for the Skotti Grill. Each Boks comes with it’s own handle and a silicon gasket sealable lid. These things are legit!  

I used the Boks to boil water for some instant potatoes and to heat up some baked beans. I was able to finish this cook and use the lids to set those dishes off to the side and stay warm while I worked on the steak.

After the steak was done I was able to bring everything together for a meal that nobody at the softball park would have ever dreamed of. It became the talk of the park and I was spent more time showing off the Skotti Grill and answering questions that I did anything else.

Once the cook is over the grill can be packed down and stored in a wagon. Yes, I said wagon. This thing is a freaking godsend for the family on the go who requires space saving gear.

Every product is sure to have it’s own unique issues, and I found a couple with the Skotti Grill that are worth mentioning. The first, is due to the collapsible design of this grill it is not sealed. This allows for some of the grease from cooking to leak it’s way down the base and onto the surface it’s sitting on. Not a huge deal if you’re cooking on the ground but if you’re on a surface that you don’t want grease on you will need to put something down. This issue was present for me in every use of the grill.

The second issue I ran into was slightly more concerning as it made use of the grill impossible unless fixed. While I was very carful with the grill and never dropped it or had any memory of it being handled roughly, somehow one of the ears was bent. You can see below that the pinch of the ear, though ever so slight, made assembly impossible and without tools it was extremely difficult to repair this. Luckily, I’m a pretty handy guy and was able to figure it out with some very unconventional methods and “tools”, but it worked. You would be surprised how tough this steel is and how difficult it was to bend back into shape so I really was scratching my head trying to figure out how it had bent in the first place. No worries though, I got it back into working order in a short time.

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What can be done better?

To be honest, I can’t think of anything that I would change. I see no way to solve the grease issue other than to recognize it exits and to plan for it. The bent ear is not a mark against the grill at all as it was surely caused by me. It was only mentioned as it did create a temporary problem for me and could be something another might experience as well. Overall this is a very solid product that I have very much enjoyed using. It will make it’s way into my “Forever Gear” pile as it is something I never plan to get rid of due to it’s amazing versatility and the overall joy it brings me while using it.

A man is happiest around a BBQ!