B&Co Al Fresco Smokeless BBQ Grill: Review
Of course, I mentioned on Monday this week is National BBQ Week, but how do you celebrate if you don’t have much room? Can you still get your BBQ on, while taking up as little space as possible and not have to rely on one-use kits from the supermarket? Or perhaps you love to camp and would be thrilled to be able to take your own smokeless BBQ with you? Maybe you haven’t got a garden and would need a smokeless indoor BBQ? Then I have an idea for you – a smokeless charcoal barbecue.
B&Co Al Fresco Smokeless BBQ Grill: Review
The B&Co Al Fresco Smokeless BBQ Grill is a smokeless barbecue which is easy to clean because of its non-stick coating (hello mostly dishwasher safe BBQ). It’s able to be placed on a table top as it has a drip tray beneath it and a stainless steel bowl. This al fresco grill is battery powered to provide airflow and needs charcoal as fuel. This small portable BBQ grill will offer up to 100 minutes of cooking on just 250g of charcoal which is 85% less than your conventional BBQ. This portable smoke free BBQ is perfect for small outdoor spaces and for both indoor grills and outdoor use.
The smokeless grill is easy to transport and small in size, making it perfect for taking along on camping trips.
How Does it Perform?
Well I’m going to be honest (as always) we’ve only been able to try it out the once, it arrived with me a little over a week ago and as they wanted it up and out for National BBQ Week (totally understandable) we didn’t get that much chance to play with it.
We had two issues with the outdoor grill, the first was it wouldn’t light. You’re meant to pop some BBQ lighter gel to the base of the main container, once this is lit, you then place the charcoal it isn’t holder on top. However, after over an hour of trying and the breeze blowing it out, we ended up using a mix of gel and paper on top of the coals to finally get it alight.
There we hit the second issue. Now, the instructions say to expect a bit of smoke on first use, what we didn’t expect was to send everyone in the houses around us running for cover as the smoke was so bad. This did calm down after around 10 minutes and was pretty minimal throughout the rest of the time of using it. In the long term, I would be interested to see what startup is like, when we manage to get it alight as instructed and without a strong breeze, as it could be those two situations added to together to make a less than normal startup experience. These are the downsides of a charcoal BBQ, compared to a gas one.
I have to say that was however, the end of our issues. Once it was burning it was ready to cook within minutes and we managed to cook 2 rounds of mouth watering sausages and bacon, some veg and a burger and it still have a whole lot of cooking time left. One thing we all decided was good about this smokeless charcoal BBQ was the fan control system, this allowed you to turn up or down the heat, offering control you would never be able to have on most conventional BBQs.
There were 4 of us in our party and while it says it can cook for up to 6 people at once, I think depending on the ingredients you are using you may be pushing it to get 6 on, for instance we managed 4 rashers of bacon on the cooking surface at one point, but it definitely wouldn’t have taken any more. It’s entertaining size, perfect for sharing between two.
The grill plates are easy to clean with a cloth and washing up liquid, so it is much less hassle than a more traditional BBQ which often takes a long time to clean. This gives you peace of mind and you can relax and enjoy your barbecue.
Overall I think we were pretty impressed with the B&Co Al Fresco Smokeless BBQ Grill, it is definitely something we will try and use again (hopefully without those startup niggles), cooked everything well and gave us a long cooking time for the amount of charcoal that was used.
This grill can be bought from Robert Dyers and while it has an RRP of £99.99 they have it on offer for just £39.93, which I have to admit I would have no problem paying for this.
What do you think of the sound of the B&Co Al Fresco Smokeless BBQ Grill, does it sound like something you would like to try out?
I received the products mentioned in this post free of charge, however, all opinions and thoughts are my own.
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This looks like it would be easier than traditional grills. Not having to deal with coals is a big plus!
It still takes coals just uses less than your conventional BBQ 🙂
This product is genius! So glad I am seeing this post in time for Father’s Day!
It is great isn’t it – I love that it doesn’t take up much space as I live in a tiny place!
I need this! It will be perfect for the balcony in my apartment.
Definitely it is wonderful for smaller spaces.
Looks really great for picnics and camping! How many burgers can you cook in one go? We’re a large family full of impatient eaters. 🙂
I have to admit we only did the one burger on it – depending on size I would guess 4 – 6.
I like the idea of the smokeless grill because it wont leave the smoke smell on your clothes however, does the food still have a smoky taste? I wouldn’t mind getting this.
It does, it still tastes like proper BBQ food 🙂
I need a grill! This looks like a nice, portable one to have.
It is great – perfect for taking on camping trips!
Glad that after the two little niggles, it worked well. It sure does look like a fab piece of equipment, who doesn’t love a BBQ in the summer?
I’m hoping next time it will all go a little more smoothly lol.
I was looking at these the other day as we don’t have a big garden and so this would be a great size for us. I like how compact it is. It’s good to hear that past those initial startup issues you haven’t run in to any other problems just yet. x
It is great for a small garden isn’t it and when it comes to storage you don’t have to worry about it taking up too much room either.
Oh this would work really well for us as we have a balcony and can’t have too much smoke out there as it’s a confined space x
Most definitely that is just the best sort of place for it be used!
We are looking for a new BBQ and this al-fresco smokeless BBQ looks like what we need for this summer as it looks compact and easy to store as well.
It is really great and perfect for taking out and about with you as well.
That looks like a great size for people that don’t have a lot of room for a BBQ. I always have trouble lighting BBQs too.
Funny thing is I used to be great at lighting fires but a BBQ nah lol.
My family really loved having bbq at least once a week and it looks like a good one for us thanks for sharing this with us.
Oh how nice would it be to get together for a BBQ once as week!
Its cute and I do like the color but I guess I am wondering why use this method over a regular BBQ? Why a need for smokeless? I love it when meat tastes smoky though so maybe it’s just me lol.
If your on a campsite or the like I guess it’s just to be courteous when your in a close location to others 🙂
Very cute little piece of gadget. Should be very popular in the summer.
I think it definitely will be I mean who doesn’t love a BBQ over the summer.
The concept reminds of maybe an outdoor version of the George Foreman grill. If I can get the same smokey grilled taste with less of the hassle, I’m there!
Most definitely it has that unique BBQ only taste going on with it.
I love how honest you are about the bbq, and hope that when you get to use it again you don’t have those little hiccups you did have. I am glad that it cooked everything well.
I’m really hoping not as well – always the way with this sort of thing though when you have such a short time to try it – it is bound to be hard haha!
How cool is this little grill! This would be perfect for days we don’t want to use the big charcoal grill! I think I need one of these in my life now
Honestly it is such an awesome little grill to have to hand.
I like tha fact that it is small and portable and you can take it over to your friends/family’s houses.
It is just great for that you really can set it up anywhere.
I like the small size. This would be great to take camping.
Most definitely I think that’s the perfect sort of situation for it.
Wow I never heard of this before. We live in a condo and can’t have grills, but I wonder if we could have this!
Ohh would definitely be worth looking into – you never know!
Im liking this style – on the lookout for a new BBQ – might be just what i need
Ohh I hope you like it if you decide to go for it.
Oo I need to try this out! I like that it’s smokeless. We grill a lot over the summer, so this would be used a lot.
It is really good – really nice if you don’t have a lot of room as well.
This is so for me, since i have no space for a huge barbecue grill and a nice small one is what I have been looking for. I like how stylish it looks too.
It is such a great size, you can just pop it away in a small corner! Fab!
It looks great and I was thinking of getting one but don’t think I will now.
What’s put you off getting one?
It looks very stylish and would make a great house warming present. A bargain at £40!
It really is and it comes with a bag to carry it in! They have thought of everything.
Do you have a copy of the manual at all as, sadly, mine does not appear to have one.
Thanks for your time and help – very much appreciated.
I should be able to get hold of it – it’s at my parents but I can’t imagine they would have thrown the manual away so will check and email ASAP.