FireDisc Portable Cooker Expert Review

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The Skinny:

• 380 square inches of cooking area with 3 temperature zones
• Ultra-high-carbon steel construction provides consistent heat
• Cast iron burner offers powerful output of 15,000 BTUs
• Ample space savings with interlocking stand design

The Skinny:

• 380 square inches of cooking area with 3 temperature zones
• Ultra-high-carbon steel construction provides consistent heat
• Cast iron burner offers powerful output of 15,000 BTUs
• Ample space savings with interlocking stand design
• Cleaning doesn’t get simpler than this

You’re already thinking it. With its frankly logical yet curious design, the FireDisc original portable cooker soaks up attention. Yet, every architectural choice that went into this build pays off and feels purposeful: for instance, forget the soap. Hose it off, dry it off, and it’s clean in under a minute. Yet, assemble this cooking station next to a beefy kamado charcoal grill and you’ll watch the latter silently, enviously seethe over those spindly legs — seemingly designed to hog all the airflow it ravenously craves.

If the kamado is a linebacker, the FireDisc is a professional dancer. (Albeit, an admittedly stationary one.) The former heats up hard, tackles harder, and is incredibly slow to stop. Conversely, the FireDisc is an elegant, nimble cooking station with wide range in both temperature zones and usability. It’s also a highly portable cooker that pirouettes, dives, and glides through everything from griddle-style cooking to frying and beyond. And it keeps limber, too, folding to a maximum 36 inches of height in a 5” gap. Does FireDisc ask for much? Not at all. But mastering it just might feel like poetry in motion.

Quality:

• FireDisc’s main attraction stretches to a 22” diameter for a total of 380 square inches of cooking room. It’s constructed from ultra-high-carbon steel, helping every cooking session improve the flavor with age; if you’re thinking of cast iron seasoning, you’re on the right track. Lining the disc is a 2 ½” tall Heat Ring™, clocking in at 3.87 mm thick. Below the cooking disc, you’ll find the cast iron SureFlame™ burner, which measured 4.3 mm thick and pumps out a piping-hot 15,000 BTUs of grilling power.

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But what good is all that heft and heat if this portable grilling station lacks the right leg support? Here comes the convenient folding stand, waltzing right in; not only does it emphasize space-savings, but the material positively shines with an industrial, heavy-duty silicone powder coating that appears durable enough to last sessions to come. There are no screws, nuts, or bolts to tangle with; assembly is painless. Our calipers captured a thickness of 6.23 mm on the stand walls, and we weighed the entire assembled station at just shy of 60 lbs.

Here’s where that leaves us: these thicknesses and types of material are built for this sort of portable grilling. We advise taking extra care with any cooker with a fairly light disc, and we’d say double that if it’s constructed of stainless steel and still light. From our years of testing, we’ve experienced too many issues with hot and cold spots, along with temperature control and consistency issues. FireDisc weighs a little more, which is exactly what we want to see, but it pushes that into its results. Speaking of results…

Performance:

• FireDisc is designed for concentric heating zones — the closer to the bullseye, the hotter the heat. Leading off with our standard 30-minute, low-temperature preheat test, we found the following results: the center ring measuring at approximately 450°F, middle-field held its footing at about 200°F, and the outer ring tapped out at 120°F. After fully cooling, we ran the same test again at maximum heat to find the inner circle peaking at 675°F; the middle ground held out at a respectable 580°F; the outlier ring maintained 220°F. That sort of temperature variety ensures you’re not juggling delicate dishes while your sturdier stuff sears in the center.

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Now, for the meat and potatoes: how does FireDisc stand up to real-world grilling? To answer that, we started by setting up for a good old-fashioned fry. Once we got the cooking oil on medium-low to 375°F, the FireDisc’s great materials and natural heat cultivation took it from there — the temperature remains consistent without tampering with the burner. Next, we preheated on high to grill up the tried-and-true combo of seared ribeye steaks and caramelized vegetables. While our sliced bell peppers and brussels sprouts caramelized in the outer zone, the center delivered a nice sear on our steaks with a tasty, thorough crust.

We mentioned potatoes for a reason: the breakfast hash. Beginning with bacon, we let the natural slope of the center collect all that delicious, rendered fat; after moving the strips to the outer ring, we followed suite with browned breakfast sausage crumbles, a sautéed heaping of bell pepper slices, and simmered potato in the resulting mixture of fats and juices. Halfway in, we tossed in red onions for steam, threw in eggs, and garnished it all with chives. All throughout the experience, the temperature reliability really kept things smooth and steady. For our final test, we decided to throw any sense of moderation to the wayside with a jaw-dropping heaping of grilled bananas foster pound cake. It came out incredibly. We’ll let you drool over the video for that one; the English language simply doesn’t do justice to such great heights of delicious decadence.

Features:

While “what you see is what you get” comes to mind, FireDisc still found a few novel ways to surprise us. For starters, let’s talk about that ultra-high carbon steel cooking disc. While this could have effectively been a gigantic wok, the engineers went a step further with the center-slanted design. As seen in our performance testing, it rather effectively pools oils, juices, and rendering fat — saving the rest of your grub from the “swimming” treatment.

You’ll undoubtedly appreciate the two large fire-retardant grips welded onto the edge. The grips feel satisfying to handle (pun intended), and they make maneuvering such a heavy-duty cooking surface that much easier. Turning our attention beneath the disc, that 15,000-BTU burner packs a great wallop; in breezier environments, a separate wind helmet accessory safely wraps the exposed burner with metal walls. If you’re more worried about the firepower itself, an optional accessory hookup provides the means to connect a larger 20-lb propane tank.

But the real winner here is, of course, the stand. The metallic legs that support the cooking surface interlock together for supreme sturdiness, but they effortlessly unhook into a pair of simple, flat pieces that’ll fit in many slim spaces. Affixed to the feet are four rubber-tipped Disc Cleats™ that provide added stabilization. Then there’s the silicone powder coating, adding durability and attractive flair. And who doesn’t love the bold statement from that attractive red finish? Turn up the heat, feed the FireDisc portable cooker attention, and watch it dance.

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