Cadac BBQ - A cautionary tale.

I suspect there was more of a fault than just the gas going out. They have been known to 'over heat' through issues with the operating valve leaking gas and it igniting uncontrollably often causing the aliminium castings to melt. I had a similar issue but caught it just in time.

I have several cadacs and think they are pretty versatile and good for what they offer. In fact I have ditched all my other gas bbq's and use a cadac for everything whilst at the static, at home or in the Motorhome.

Downside of a cadac for me is not being able to raise cooked food off the grilling area without adding another bit to carry around.

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I found it strange to read of all these Cadacs blowing out. We´ve had ours more years than I care to remember, and it has NEVER blown out! If its very windy I position one of our folding chairs in front of it in the direction of the wind as a windbreak, but something has obviously changed over the years for so many people to have problems with Cadacs. Ours has no flame failure device, and has to be lit with a match, so obviously an old model. We wouldn´t be without ours, I use it almost every day when we´re away.
 
Realist said:
No disrespect to the OP but if any flame went out say on your gas cooker at home for a while would you then press the igniter or turn a light on, no.
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Yes, you would, because you will never see a domestic cooker without a FFD on every burner. The danger is only there because we've all become so used to flame failure devices. Most van cookers have them these days too.
 
jockaneezer said:
Maybe we could get all the Cadac owners to take part in a competition at the next rally ?
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I used to buy that stuff as a kid. There was a cycle shop in Penrith that still had stocks of it in the early '60s - sold in cardboard tubes with metal ends. It was great fun - a left me with a healthy respect for acetylene :Eeek: .

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You can still buy it in granulated form online, this stuff shipped from America and is used in their 4th of July salute cannons. I have one made from 1" water pipe, it has a very convincing " bark" to it !
Getting back to the bike shop, I remember my dad telling me about the carbide cycle lamp he had on his pushbike, he said it made a good handwarmer on frosty nights, but if it ran out of water and all you could top it up with was pee, it wasn't so nice ! :oops:
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I’m not surprised bbq’s don’t have flame failure devices fitted. It would be an unnecessary extra cost and something else to go wrong, on something that’s always used outdoors
I am surprised that this Cadac device was able to store up enough gas, with the flame out, to blow the lid off and into your face. That to me, is a clear design failure.
And putting it in the manual is a waste of time - nobody reads them until after the event.
 
Much prefer food cooked on a charcoal bbq. Carrying around bags of charcoal is an issue but with our Lotus bbq it uses so little charcoal it makes it possible. Uses a large mug of charcoal which is enough for a full on meal.
 
Yes me too thanks for the warning,
We have been looking at the Cadac and assumed it had the safety feature but as you pointed out none of them have them

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Cadac's are pretty useless. Always blowing out. Currently using a small Webber with wings and legs. If it sounds like a duck it is a ....... It's really good!
 
Always been satisfied with ours over the years.
but did have a flame blow out yesterday as it was so windy.
not much else on the market either.
 
Tommo and Ca said:
Don't know if this has been discussed before, apologies if it has but, it might be worth mentioning again.
Last night we decided to use our Cadac BBQ as an oven to cook dinner. I turned on the gas and lit it in the normal way, made sure it was burning and left it with the lid on to get hot.
3 or 4 minutes later I returned to check it was warming by waving my hand a few inches above the lid. It had gone out.
No problem, easy to reignite. I pushed in the gas control valve and pressed the ignition.
There was an almighty bang, the lid smashed into my face and I fell back.
The explosion, according to my other half actually shook the MH, (we are full timing) and she came running to help.
I had been extremely lucky, the only injuries sustained was a thick lip, singed arms a ringing in my ears and dented male pride !
Freshly attired in clean boxers I got the Cadac instruction manual out thinking that there might be a warning in there about this kind of situation. The only thing mentioned was that you should give the BBQ a short period of time to ventilate if it fails to ignite after a few attempts pressing the ignition.
Right thought I there must be a problem with the flame failure device, (the fail safe that shuts off the gas if the flame goes out, like your domestic gas appliances) so I called Cadac this morning to get their advice.
To my complete surprise it transpires that their BBQ's (or anybody else's apparently) don't have this safety device fitted. So if your flame goes out the gas will continue to flow and if, like me, you leave the lid on........well see above.
Cadac acknowledged the fact that this wasn't mentioned in their instruction manual and thanked me for my 'feedback', and promised to look into it.
Now that I have had time to reflect I appreciate that I probably should not have left the BBQ unattended, and I should also have removed the lid for a period to allow any gas to dissipate - hindsight is a wonderful thing. I am not looking for comments on my stupidity, (I have had plenty of them already) I simply want to remind anyone who has these types of BBQ of the consequences that a simple lapse of concentration can have. Also a clear warning in the instruction manual highlighting the fact that gas will continue to flow when the flame goes out would be a reasonable request.
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Very interesting. Glad you are ok and no major harm done.
A worthy thread of repeating as we head into the BBQ season as a cautionary tale.
 
Thanks for posting this. Glad to hear that you didn't suffer major injury as a result. A lot of people would have moved quietly on and put it down to experience. For those of us who have Cadacs it would be useful to know a few things like: which model Cadac were you using; how old is it; how often you have used it as an oven before (and has it ever blown out before); what was the gas supply (cannister or van)?
 
I had exactly the same happen to us. Lid flew off, hit me, and breakfast in the dog. That was it. Never again, got rid of it. Three trips with it and could never keep the crappy thing alight. Useless

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Landy Andy said:
I had exactly the same happen to us. Lid flew off, hit me, and breakfast in the dog. That was it. Never again, got rid of it. Three trips with it and could never keep the crappy thing alight. Useless
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They really are!!!!! Massively overpriced even if they were any good, how folks can rave over them is beyond me.
Possibly the only time they could be any good is if you were on a site for a week and able to leave it up, but even that won't make it cook any better or stop blowing it out. :( :(:(
 
chaser said:
They really are!!!!! Massively overpriced even if they were any good, how folks can rave over them is beyond me.
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They rave precisely because they overpaid
Emperor's new clothes
Very few will admit that they got a load of tat having spunked a wad of cash.

It's like holidays - spend a fortune going to The Seychelles, Mauritius or Bali, you're not going to come back saying Benidorm was better - when in fact Bali [for example is the Aussies equivalent to the Costas].
 
Bought one about 15 years ago at Peterborough show. Used it a couple of times, didn’t like it so put it back in it’s box and relegated it to garage roof. Sold it about a month ago for about same price as I paid all those years ago, so pleased to get rid.
Had a portable Outback gas bbq for years but now unable to get replacement burner so got a cheap (£20) portable gas bbq with tin lid (from Argos). Both much better than the expensive Cadac.
 
Learned this lesson the hard way ... probably only avoided setting my hair on fire because I don't have a lot of it :LOL:

I love my Cadac, but I do get fed up peering through that little hole to see if it's still alight

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Sticking with my £50 Lotus copy charcoal BBQ with cast iron cooking plate, a single portable gas ring powered by a gas canister, and a damn good multi purpose pan with a lid, that does just about anything, all on an outside table.
Less than £90 all in and cash left to go to the pub!
Don’t care what it looks like, it all cooks ok and cleans easily and for the amount of use it will get I am well sorted.
👍😊
 
Tommo and Ca said:
Don't know if this has been discussed before, apologies if it has but, it might be worth mentioning again.
Last night we decided to use our Cadac BBQ as an oven to cook dinner. I turned on the gas and lit it in the normal way, made sure it was burning and left it with the lid on to get hot.
3 or 4 minutes later I returned to check it was warming by waving my hand a few inches above the lid. It had gone out.
No problem, easy to reignite. I pushed in the gas control valve and pressed the ignition.
There was an almighty bang, the lid smashed into my face and I fell back.
The explosion, according to my other half actually shook the MH, (we are full timing) and she came running to help.
I had been extremely lucky, the only injuries sustained was a thick lip, singed arms a ringing in my ears and dented male pride !
Freshly attired in clean boxers I got the Cadac instruction manual out thinking that there might be a warning in there about this kind of situation. The only thing mentioned was that you should give the BBQ a short period of time to ventilate if it fails to ignite after a few attempts pressing the ignition.
Right thought I there must be a problem with the flame failure device, (the fail safe that shuts off the gas if the flame goes out, like your domestic gas appliances) so I called Cadac this morning to get their advice.
To my complete surprise it transpires that their BBQ's (or anybody else's apparently) don't have this safety device fitted. So if your flame goes out the gas will continue to flow and if, like me, you leave the lid on........well see above.
Cadac acknowledged the fact that this wasn't mentioned in their instruction manual and thanked me for my 'feedback', and promised to look into it.
Now that I have had time to reflect I appreciate that I probably should not have left the BBQ unattended, and I should also have removed the lid for a period to allow any gas to dissipate - hindsight is a wonderful thing. I am not looking for comments on my stupidity, (I have had plenty of them already) I simply want to remind anyone who has these types of BBQ of the consequences that a simple lapse of concentration can have. Also a clear warning in the instruction manual highlighting the fact that gas will continue to flow when the flame goes out would be a reasonable request.
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🤣🤣
 
We have used a Cadac for 3 years now absolutely no problems 👍
 
We’ve used our Cadac (Grillogas I think) for circa 10 years now since picking it up significantly discounted from Millets who were selling them off at the time. Not had issues with keeping it alight, easy to clean/assemble/disassemble, no disasters encountered yet (tempting fate there) and it works well for us as a convenient external cooking appliance. But YMMV…
 
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We bought a Cadac Safari Chef 2 a few years back, great bit of kit, easy to assemble, use and clean, plus we never had any wind blow out, maybe we just took care on how and where we used it to avoid the wind getting at it.
We still have it, but it had been sidelined because the cooking surface is just a little to small as we are big meat lovers, so we have moved onto a Cadac 2 Cook 2 Pro which is very versatile with the two burners and option to use a grill plate or gas ring on either or both.

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