The Magma Marine Kettle boat grill offers a good cooking experience, though the barbecue itself is not without its flaws as Phill Sampson found out
Magma are one of the big names in marine barbecues. The company was founded almost 50 years ago by Californian twin brothers Jim and Jerry Mashburn who were set on developing durable, saltwater-resistant barbies for sailboats. Today, Magma covers all bases with a wide range of some of the best boat grills and barbecues, including the Magma Marine Kettle we feature here.
Available in two sizes – the 15-inch Original or the 17-inch Party – we opted for the smaller of the two, which is recommended for up to four people, together with an optional single-point-of-contact rail mount.
Constructed from 100% 18-9 mirror polished stainless steel, Magma’s Marine Kettle is literally a dazzler – don’t forget your sunnies. Designed to be fuelled by disposable Camping Gaz propane/butane mix gas cylinders, the Kettle employs a combination of radiant plate heat distribution and convection heating to achieve a hot, even cooking temperature using minimal gas.
The gas supply is connected by way of a clever venturi tube which can be rotated as need be to allow the control valve regulator to be easily reached. The unit’s balanced, hinged lid is a great asset for use on board a boat – it won’t slam shut and can be used as a windbreak on gusty days, although Magma recommend cooking is done with the lid closed. Lastly, the unit has a neat grease collection tray.
We found putting the Kettle together a little more difficult than actually using it. Rather bizarrely the manual has a large warning sign on its cover reading, “STOP before returning this item to the dealer” Inside, there’s a full two pages of warnings – are they trying to put us off? we wondered.
Finally we came to the assembly instructions. The one component that had us guessing was the radiant plate, which wobbles around a bit until the grill plate firmly locks it into position. That aside, and after a bit of fiddling with the lid’s 9/16” American-size nuts (a 14mm spanner did the job for us) our Magma Marine Kettle was ready to go, sitting happily atop the rail mount.
Magma Marine Kettle in use
In fact, with a such a simple mount this boat grill would fit onto any boat’s rail. But as Chef Phil pointed out, it wasn’t all plain sailing: “We did have a little problem though where part way through cooking the kettle actually began to swivel on the mount.
Luckily we caught it and retightened the retaining bolt, but it was still a little suspect and we had to take care not to lose the food – I didn’t want to be calling out ‘Sausage Overboard!’ So I think there’s a bit of work needed on that mount to make it more secure.
Magma’s venturi system which holds the gas cylinder is great because you can move the cylinder around to suit the contours of the boat. The flame is also very controllable and this barbecue does everything it says on the box: The lid doesn’t slam shut; it can be used a wind break if needed, and the radiant plate certainly does seem to spread out the heat evenly across the whole globe – it’s a neat piece of kit.”
Pros
- Even heat spread | Very controllable cooking
Cons
- A bit more work needed on the mount system
