Portable UCO Grilliput Camping Grill for Outdoor BBQ & Picnics

In terms of cooking. Its very solid and can hold a good bit of weight. Used it for a backpacking weekend and it was the main way we cooked.The reason for 3 stars on light weight, is its really not. Its small enough to hike in. But truth is this grill is 1 of the luxury items I bring. Theoretically I could cook all my meals on a stove burner but the grill allows me to cook different and easier meals.3 stars for cleaning is the 1 flaw I found with it was after cooking on it all weekend. It doesn't fit great back into the tube with the grease and grit caked on. Its hard to wash traditionally on the trail. My solution was to take my Leatherman and use the needle nose portion and scrap the grill grates individually until I can soak them in soapy water.Overall a great buy and the utility is great.I've used this once to grill a steak while out car camping in the forest. It's compact and easy to assemble, but it is heavy. I would not recommend it for backpacking though because of the weight.It's definitely not the fastest setup and take down but it gets the job done and it's pretty sturdy. It's definitely not light but it's stainless steel so careful if you're packing out for a treck in the backwoods and concerned about weight. I'd recommend it and buy it again, but only use it if weight isn't a concern.This little grill is ultra-well designed. No, it isn't easy to clean. You have to wipe down each piece, individually. It is the most compact version of a grill we could find, and nothing else comes close. Use it for loose pieces of meat, vegetables, or sandwiches - also a stovetop-type espresso maker! It is not sturdy enough to support heavy cookware without bending..This grill works well for me, however, if you are one of those minimalist backpackers that drill holes in your toothbrush to save weight and counts every gram in your pack - stop reading now. This is a beefy piece of gear. Made entirely of stainless steel, a large tube with a smaller tube inserted in it filled with stainless rods, capped with solid covers; when broken down it's like carrying a ¾" solid stainless rod. It weighs a whopping 19.6 ounces. That being said it works great. It was hard for me to figure out the construction at first. With no instructions in the box, I spent a half hour trying multiple configurations on my kitchen table until I finally found the right one. You should defiantly assemble at home before trying to in the field on your knees in the dark - trust me. I have used this grill as a stove top over hot coals with multiple pots on it at once as well as a true grill with game meat directly on it. The vertical legs are only about 6 inches long, so you end up being really close to the bed of coals, but sticking it in ground a bit works great for stability. If you plan to cook meat right on the grill in the bush - do yourself a favor and throw in some SOS pads to clean with. Because of how it stores in side itself, it needs to be relatively clean before packing away (this will also keep you from robbing the steel wool from your fire starter kit.) In a pinch one evening while attempting boil some water, I took my Chinese knock off pocket rocket and it fit perfectly under the grill. These allows for better stabilization of a larger pot when cooking. The fire from the pocket rocket does get too hot for the small cross rods and will heat them out of shape - so if you use them for this, just remove the middle one or two where the stove directly hits. Over all, I love having a grill that takes up very little room in my pack - and I think it is worth the weght.So I purchased this product for a light two night backpacking trip. Although I have a portable gas stove I always like having the option of cooking or boiling water over fire and have the stove as a backup. That being said I know you can always cook over fire multiple different ways and boil water by simply sticking the pot on top of fire/coals. That being said I still want a portable grill that I can take backpacking as well as car camping, as I don't really trust the cleaniness of the grills at some campsites.First off the grill is comes in a very portable package but is much heavier than I thought it would be. I don't find that to be a problem for me as I would rather a have a durable grill over a lightweight grill. Most of the weight comes from the sides/frame of the grill and the grills themselves are light, pretty much wires. When I first placed this grill over the fire/coals there a still a small fire going and not everything was reduced to coals. Also the fire source was stacked higher than it should of been, not leaving a lot of room between the grill. Because of this when I started cooking I noticed that the grill wire that didn't have food on them were starting to warp/sag. After reducing the heat source and making sure the majority of the grill/wires were covered I didn't see anymore warping.I'm not sure of UCO's warranty but if the grills were to warpped beyound use I feel like I could easily MacGyver new grill sections from steel wires gauges from Home Depot/Ace. As mentioned before the frame/sides of the grills are a lot thicker and heavy duty so I don't think warpping would not occur as with the legs of the grill. The only part that concerns me are the two end wire/grill which holds the two frame together. If those would get damaged it would impede the grills function (I could probably Jimmy rig a new one but won't be as nice).