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<<The grill on mine is usless (sorry less than useless) so it has never been used.>>

I have yet to find a camping cooker with a grill worthy of the name.

We are a family of six and have a double burner with grill which has been consigned to the garden shed for many years in favour of the simple suitcase style burners. We find that two of these are ample for our needs.

Advantages:

The kettle certainly boils far quicker on these. I have to remember to turn it down very low to cook a tin of baked beans as it heats through in seconds!

You can always have spare cartridges to hand and replacing them takes a matter of seconds.

They can be used on any surface as the underneath of the base does not get hot.

They are small, portable, but incredibly stable (a huge consideration when the kids were tiny). We have cooked a fry-up breakfast at French aires after an all-night drive, we have taken them to the beach and cooked hot-dogs for when the kids have come out of the water feeling cold.

They light as easily (maybe even more easily) than lighting a gas ring at home - just turn the gas dial round and off it goes.

Disadvatages

If you are going to be spending hours cooking casseroles etc, the gas could prove pricey. In our case, a cylinder (~£1.20) lasts a couple of days in each cooker with 'normal' use - but the benefits far outweigh the cost in our case.

As with all cooking appliances there are safety considerations which need to be taken seriously - the main one for these is that the pans used on it should not be so large that they cover the airvents around the gas cylinder causing it to overheat. Normal sized domestic pans seem to be OK.

There have been a few horror stories of late regarding some of these stoves, but after having witnessed a couple of scary flare-ups involving dual fuel stoves this weekend (I had almost been converted!!) I think that with all these things it is down to how carefully we use any of these appliances.