Before I begin this quick review of my PMG Fire Bowl I would like to say thankyou to Grilliput, my mother hasn't laughed so much since father died. She was mooching around the local outdoor store looking for new fleece, I was trying to ignore the flashbacks to my childhood and the persistent echo of "Stop complaining, you'll grow into it" ringing in my ears across the intervening decades. When the clacking of hangers on the rail stopped and the dread welled up inside me instead of being handed some garish orange/blue jacket she'd been previously eyeing was pointing at a display stand...
"Oh look they've got my vegetable steamer"
The sales assistant must of been new and the more he tried to explain her boggle then mother's giggles got worse until she could bear it no more and blurted out "But it's £5 veg steamer!" loud enough for entire shop to hear. Undaunted he carried on with the pitch until mother who was having none of it slipped into parental mode...
"Wait there young man while I nip up the cookware shop and get one to show you"
At that point I lost it as well, with tears of laughter streaming down my face took mother by the arm and made for the exit.
Anyhow.. mother wouldn't part with hers for evaluation but last summer I was lucky and picked one up (a collapsible steamer not a Grilliput) from the local charity shop along with a cooling rack for a couple of quid. The combo's made several trips out since then so I feel its done enough to warrant a review and I've been pleasantly surprised how well this Poor Man's Grilliput has coped with my needs during that time. Sure it does feel a little flimsy like one could destroy with bare hands but by the same token if you do manage to squash it then it bends back into shape easy enough. So that ticks a big bushcraft criteria, it's fixable in the field.
Windshield/Pot Stand for meths/hexi burner or multi-fuel stove configuration.
Even if you used it this way and for nothing else then you'd still love it. The petals have enough play to pass a fuel pipe between them and yes you really can stand a small pot full of water on the vertical petals without the weight splaying them out. It's a friction/self supporting structure thing but if you were concerned about how much weight it would support the construction makes adding some vertical bolts to create an internal pot stand pretty straightforward. Think of it like a trangia triangle but at a fraction of the price. So good value for money in my book.
However do watch out! for some meths stoves can become a little lively as a result of the reflected heat significantly increasing the rate of fuel vaporisation. For winter camping that could almost be considered a feature but in summer conditions having a three foot jet of flame from a stove does raise some eyebrows. Should your meths stove behave this way just put an inch or so of damp soil or sand into the steamer and bed the burner down into the coolness.
Alternatively just use it like a short hobo stove or brazier feeding it twigs for quick brews & meals, it's probably safer. Burns hot and fast easily comparable to the classic Ikea stove. With a more conventional bushcraft fire-lay it still comes in handy as a rear heat reflector and in an emergency you may even be able to improve cell-phone reception thanks to its dish antenna like shape. Pop in a stubby candle for a night light and squish up so you can stand a tin mug on it to keep the contents chugably warm.
Not forgetting of course it makes a terrific raised fire bowl for a grill should you ever find yourself on an a conventional campsite or doing a romantic picnic where bannock and coffee is not going to impress.
But wait there's more
At heart it's a steamer not a firebox so with a regular campfire you can enjoy healthy crunchy vegetables, fish cooked to perfection and banish forever the culinary misery of sloppy rice from your repertoire, as long as it fits inside your cookware you're on a winner. Curiously it's almost the same diameter as the WildStoves woodgas stove if that helps with anybody mentally repacking their gear at this moment. Pasta,noodles,eggs,dumplings,shell-fish and bannock/bread apparently also do well being steamed but that's a whole other adventure.
Bonus uses:
Pastafarians take note this steamer also doubles as a colander that's less bulky than the traditional headgear.
Plus I'm pretty sure I've seen them used as post-apocalyptic body armour in a couple of Sci-Fi movies but I'm still tracking that angle down.
Summing up the PMG fire bowl and grill combination it's user serviceable, value for money, multi-functional, widely available, innovative & stylish design,lightweight, easy to transport, simple to clean, way more eco-friendly than a disposable bar-b-q and perhaps more importantly £40 odd quid cheaper than its only rival.
I was going to post some video but tucked away on YouTube there's already some from others who've discovered this feature packed piece of kit long before me and they deserve the views more than I do.
https://youtu.be/ww1SPca5zJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb3XEIaBlSE
https://youtu.be/vfl2wjor5Hg
Specs at a glance - PMG / Veg steamer:
Weight: 180grams
Size (folded): 140mm x 80mm
Size (opened): 240mm x 80mm
Specifications of Grilliput fire bowl
Weight: 290g
Size (folded) 17.5cm x 7cm
Size (opened): 29cm x 7cm
Keen eyed ultralight hiking enthusiasts will have immediately spotted the PMG is somewhat lighter than the Grilliput thanks to the plethora of holes. The downside is it sheds a little more ash on the ground and there's an increased risk of thermal scorching that may ignite drier grass. If really worried I'd put either sheet of tinfoil under it or more likely just wet down the ground beneath before firing it up.
In fairness to Grilliput as befits a balanced appraisal of my budget gear their product is also a tiny bit bigger than my re-purposed vegetable steamer. This could be a problem for some with a lot of hungry mouths wanting feeding but for solo trips and picnics with the wife mine continues to be a perfectly good size for what we need.
My grill is standard kitchen issue cooling rack 263g, 430mm x 270mm available new in most £1 shops and nothing a few snips with wire cutters couldn't tweek if that's a little to big or heavy for you. Though the ability to just slide a pot or kettle off the heat rather than have to lift away does make for a nicely organised camp kitchen setup. Of course it's got no support legs but if you can't find sticks in the woods, some rocks on a beach or four empty beer cans on a campsite then you've probably got bigger problems.
Tip# fill the beer cans with water it makes things more stable, there's no risk of the cans melting and you've got something to put the fire out with when you're done.
"Oh look they've got my vegetable steamer"
The sales assistant must of been new and the more he tried to explain her boggle then mother's giggles got worse until she could bear it no more and blurted out "But it's £5 veg steamer!" loud enough for entire shop to hear. Undaunted he carried on with the pitch until mother who was having none of it slipped into parental mode...
"Wait there young man while I nip up the cookware shop and get one to show you"
At that point I lost it as well, with tears of laughter streaming down my face took mother by the arm and made for the exit.
Anyhow.. mother wouldn't part with hers for evaluation but last summer I was lucky and picked one up (a collapsible steamer not a Grilliput) from the local charity shop along with a cooling rack for a couple of quid. The combo's made several trips out since then so I feel its done enough to warrant a review and I've been pleasantly surprised how well this Poor Man's Grilliput has coped with my needs during that time. Sure it does feel a little flimsy like one could destroy with bare hands but by the same token if you do manage to squash it then it bends back into shape easy enough. So that ticks a big bushcraft criteria, it's fixable in the field.
Windshield/Pot Stand for meths/hexi burner or multi-fuel stove configuration.
Even if you used it this way and for nothing else then you'd still love it. The petals have enough play to pass a fuel pipe between them and yes you really can stand a small pot full of water on the vertical petals without the weight splaying them out. It's a friction/self supporting structure thing but if you were concerned about how much weight it would support the construction makes adding some vertical bolts to create an internal pot stand pretty straightforward. Think of it like a trangia triangle but at a fraction of the price. So good value for money in my book.
However do watch out! for some meths stoves can become a little lively as a result of the reflected heat significantly increasing the rate of fuel vaporisation. For winter camping that could almost be considered a feature but in summer conditions having a three foot jet of flame from a stove does raise some eyebrows. Should your meths stove behave this way just put an inch or so of damp soil or sand into the steamer and bed the burner down into the coolness.
Alternatively just use it like a short hobo stove or brazier feeding it twigs for quick brews & meals, it's probably safer. Burns hot and fast easily comparable to the classic Ikea stove. With a more conventional bushcraft fire-lay it still comes in handy as a rear heat reflector and in an emergency you may even be able to improve cell-phone reception thanks to its dish antenna like shape. Pop in a stubby candle for a night light and squish up so you can stand a tin mug on it to keep the contents chugably warm.
Not forgetting of course it makes a terrific raised fire bowl for a grill should you ever find yourself on an a conventional campsite or doing a romantic picnic where bannock and coffee is not going to impress.
But wait there's more
At heart it's a steamer not a firebox so with a regular campfire you can enjoy healthy crunchy vegetables, fish cooked to perfection and banish forever the culinary misery of sloppy rice from your repertoire, as long as it fits inside your cookware you're on a winner. Curiously it's almost the same diameter as the WildStoves woodgas stove if that helps with anybody mentally repacking their gear at this moment. Pasta,noodles,eggs,dumplings,shell-fish and bannock/bread apparently also do well being steamed but that's a whole other adventure.
Bonus uses:
Pastafarians take note this steamer also doubles as a colander that's less bulky than the traditional headgear.
Plus I'm pretty sure I've seen them used as post-apocalyptic body armour in a couple of Sci-Fi movies but I'm still tracking that angle down.
Summing up the PMG fire bowl and grill combination it's user serviceable, value for money, multi-functional, widely available, innovative & stylish design,lightweight, easy to transport, simple to clean, way more eco-friendly than a disposable bar-b-q and perhaps more importantly £40 odd quid cheaper than its only rival.
I was going to post some video but tucked away on YouTube there's already some from others who've discovered this feature packed piece of kit long before me and they deserve the views more than I do.
https://youtu.be/ww1SPca5zJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb3XEIaBlSE
https://youtu.be/vfl2wjor5Hg
Specs at a glance - PMG / Veg steamer:
Weight: 180grams
Size (folded): 140mm x 80mm
Size (opened): 240mm x 80mm
Specifications of Grilliput fire bowl
Weight: 290g
Size (folded) 17.5cm x 7cm
Size (opened): 29cm x 7cm
Keen eyed ultralight hiking enthusiasts will have immediately spotted the PMG is somewhat lighter than the Grilliput thanks to the plethora of holes. The downside is it sheds a little more ash on the ground and there's an increased risk of thermal scorching that may ignite drier grass. If really worried I'd put either sheet of tinfoil under it or more likely just wet down the ground beneath before firing it up.
In fairness to Grilliput as befits a balanced appraisal of my budget gear their product is also a tiny bit bigger than my re-purposed vegetable steamer. This could be a problem for some with a lot of hungry mouths wanting feeding but for solo trips and picnics with the wife mine continues to be a perfectly good size for what we need.
My grill is standard kitchen issue cooling rack 263g, 430mm x 270mm available new in most £1 shops and nothing a few snips with wire cutters couldn't tweek if that's a little to big or heavy for you. Though the ability to just slide a pot or kettle off the heat rather than have to lift away does make for a nicely organised camp kitchen setup. Of course it's got no support legs but if you can't find sticks in the woods, some rocks on a beach or four empty beer cans on a campsite then you've probably got bigger problems.
Tip# fill the beer cans with water it makes things more stable, there's no risk of the cans melting and you've got something to put the fire out with when you're done.
