Rectella BAR-BE-Quick Instant

I love having barbecues in the summer, all my friends gathered in the garden drinking and relaxing . Unfortunately, I hate actually cleaning barbecues, which is where disposable barbecues come in very handy. This particular barbecue comes in pretty cheaply, with a pack of five being available for less than a tenner in Argos .

It consists of a foil tray (and an outer cardboard box that you must remove before lighting) and is already filled with charcoal, and is very simple to light, with no faffing about with fluid or firelighters. Simply light it and within a few minutes it's heating up nicely. It's also very light at just 250g, and easy to carry about with you, so perhaps ideal for camping and festivals.You do need to think carefully about where you put it though - putting it on a wooden surface for example with scorch the woodwork, whereas nestling it in dry grass might start a fire . Luckily I have a small half wall in my garden the perfect height to balance this on. We did also use one on a metal fire escape in Eastbourne, so we have found them pretty flexible, and possible to use even without a garden .

This heats up to cooking temperature quite quickly, within 20mins , and according to the packet they last for 1.5 hours of cooking time, although personally I found they lasted closer to two hours. The cookng area however is not particularly large (just 25.5 cm by 32.5cm), although it could still accommodate plenty of sausages and burgers. What we enjoyed, having several veggie friends, was that it was easy to have two on the go at once, one veggie BBQ and the other meaty.

The food cooks fine - no better and no worse than on a real BBQ. What is much better though is that there is no cleaning involved - simply leave the barbecue to extinguish itself, and once it is perfectly cooled, sling it in the bin. Nothing could be easier!

I very much recommend this - whether you're simply too lazy to clean a real barbecue, strapped for space, or need something convenient for festivals, this does the job, and incredibly cheaply too .