Best LPG Chargrill for Mobile Catering UK: What to Buy and What to Avoid (2026)

Last updated: September 2026

Buy a chargrill for a food trailer and there’s a trap most people walk straight into. The grill arrives, it looks right, it’s the correct size — and it won’t run on your propane cylinder without being converted first. It’s the single most expensive mistake in this category, and it has nothing to do with how good the grill is.

In 30 seconds:

• Only two chargrills in our range run propane straight out of the box — the Parry PGC6P and the Roller Grill CGS600. Everything else is natural-gas ready with an LPG conversion kit in the box.
• A conversion kit in the box is not a converted grill. Someone qualified has to fit it and sign it off before you trade.
• Prices run from £629 for a 60cm unit to £1,469 for a 600mm Lincat. Size is about how many covers you push, not how big your trailer is.
• Lava rock or radiant? Lava rock gives you the smoke and the char marks. Radiant is cleaner, lights faster and doesn’t need rocks replacing.
• A chargrill is a serious propane draw. Work out your cylinder before you work out your menu.

Not sure how long a cylinder will last you? Run the numbers with our LPG cylinder run-time calculator. It takes two minutes and it’s the difference between a full service and a dead grill at 1pm.

Why a chargrill and not a griddle?

A griddle is a flat plate. It cooks by contact, and everything that comes off it tastes the same. A chargrill cooks over open flame through bars. You get sear marks, dripping fat turning to smoke, and that smell drifting down the queue. For burgers, steaks, chicken thighs and halloumi it’s the difference between food people buy and food people queue for.

If flat-plate cooking is what you actually need, stop here and read the LPG griddle buying guide instead. The two do different jobs and plenty of traders buy the wrong one.

Why propane matters more here than anywhere else

Mobile catering runs on propane at 37 mbar. Not butane — butane stops vaporising near 2°C, so a British spring morning will kill it. Not natural gas either, because there’s no mains supply at a festival pitch.

Chargrills are the one category where this bites hardest. Most commercial charbroilers are built for fixed kitchens on mains natural gas. The LPG version is a conversion, not a separate product. That’s fine — as long as you know it before you buy.

The honest summary

The biggest mistake in this category isn’t buying too small. It’s buying a natural-gas grill and assuming the conversion kit in the box means it’s ready. You find out on your first trading day that it isn’t. Budget for the conversion and the sign-off, or buy a model that’s propane from the factory.

Propane out of the box, or natural gas with a kit?

This is the first question, before size, before price. Here’s where every chargrill we stock actually sits.

Read that last column carefully. It’s the reason this guide names figures for one model and not the others — more on that below.

What “conversion kit included” really means

It means the injectors and the regulator fitting you need are in the box. It doesn’t mean the grill is set up for propane. A suitably qualified LPG engineer has to fit them, set the pressure to 37 mbar and check it over.

Plan for that cost and that delay. If you want the longer version of this decision, we’ve written it up in LPG vs natural gas for mobile catering.

Parry PGC6P — the one we’d put in a trailer first

Quick specs

• Output: 10.86 kW on propane
• Fuel: LPG propane at 37 mbar, straight from the factory
• Propane connection: 1/2″ BSP male
• Dimensions: 600 × 725 × 340 mm (W × D × H)
• Weight: 32 kg unpacked, 42.5 kg packed
• Zones: two burners, dual zone, three position settings
• Safety: piezo ignition plus flame failure device
• Warranty: 2 years. Made in Britain
• Price: from £1,388
• View the Parry PGC6P →

Best for

Burger vans, street food trailers and event caterers doing 80 to 200 covers a service. It’s the sensible default for a single-grill setup.

Why it leads this guide

• It’s propane from the factory — no conversion, no engineer visit, no delay
• It’s the only chargrill in our range with a full manufacturer data sheet on file
• 32 kg is a genuine two-person lift in and out of a trailer
• Dual zone means you can hold cooked food on one side and sear on the other
• Removable fat drainage drawer, which matters more than you’d think at 9pm

Don’t buy it for

• High-volume festival trading where you need more than two zones
• Whole-bird or hog work — that’s a different appliance entirely
• Setups with no counter space, unless you buy the stand with it

The trade-off

At 10.86 kW it’s not the most powerful grill here on paper. It doesn’t need to be. Power on a chargrill is spread across the bar area, and a 600mm unit concentrates it where the food sits. Lava rocks are a consumable — budget for a 2 kg bag now and then.

Roller Grill CGS600 — the second propane-ready option

Quick specs

• Fuel: LPG propane
• Listed output: 8.6 kW (our product listing — no manufacturer sheet on file)
• Zones: two independently controlled star burners
• Cooking levels: three adjustable heights
• Grill type: lava rock
• Price: from £1,223
• View the Roller Grill CGS600 →

Best for

Traders who want the three-height adjustment. Being able to drop the bars away from the flame is genuinely useful when you’re holding food back during a rush.

What it’s good at

• Two zones you can run at completely different heats
• Three cooking heights, so you control char without turning burners off
• Lava rock heat retention, which evens out the hot spots

Honest note

We hold no manufacturer data sheet for this one, so the 8.6 kW figure above comes from our own product listing rather than a maker’s spec sheet. Treat it as indicative. If you need a confirmed figure for an LPG safety calculation, ask us and we’ll get it in writing before you order.

The Lincat CG4/P and CG6/P — radiant, no rocks

Both Lincats use radiant heat rather than lava rock. The “/P” in the model code is Lincat’s propane designation.

What radiant changes

• No rocks to buy, clean or replace
• Faster to temperature from cold
• Less smoke, which cuts both ways — cleaner extraction, less of that smell down the queue
• Easier end-of-night clean, because there’s nothing porous holding fat

Sizes and prices

• CG4/P — 450mm footprint, from £1,129
• CG6/P — 600mm footprint, from £1,469

Why there are no kW figures here

Because we can’t verify them. Our two listings disagree with each other, and we hold no Lincat data sheet for either model. Publishing a number we can’t stand behind is worse than publishing none, so we’ve left it out and we’re chasing the sheets. Ask us before you order if the figure matters for your propane sizing.

The Infernus charbroilers — cheap per centimetre, but check the fuel

The Infernus range is where the money goes furthest on grill area. It’s also where the natural-gas trap lives.

The range

• 60cm, INF-CB60LAVA — from £629. Cast iron grate, adjustable legs, thermocouple and safety valves
• 90cm, INF-CB900 — from £719. Three burners, six removable cast iron grates
• 150cm, INF-CB1500 — from £1,099. Five burners, ten grates, 150cm of cooking width

Best for

High-volume festival and event trading where you need a long grill and the budget won’t stretch to a premium brand.

The catch, in plain English

The 90cm and 150cm units are supplied natural-gas ready. The LPG conversion kit is in the box. It still has to be fitted and signed off by someone qualified before you trade on propane. The 60cm ships with a conversion kit too.

That’s not a reason to avoid them. It is a reason to factor the conversion into the price and the lead time. A £719 grill that needs converting isn’t a £719 grill.

Trade-off

You get a lot of grill for the money and a solid build — cast iron grates, piezo ignition, flame failure protection, deep oil collectors. What you don’t get is a manufacturer data sheet we can hand you, or a factory propane setup.

Where our spec data has gaps — and what we’re doing about it

We think you should know what we know and what we don’t.

What’s verified

• Parry PGC6P — full manufacturer specification sheet on file. Every figure in its section above comes from it
• Every price and stock position in this guide, checked live the day it was published
• Every fuel-as-supplied position, taken from the product records

What isn’t

• No manufacturer data sheet for the Roller Grill CGS600, either Lincat, or any Infernus model
• The two Lincat listings contradict each other on output, so we’ve published no figure for either
• Where a figure comes from our own listing rather than a maker’s sheet, we’ve said so in the line itself

We’re chasing the missing sheets. Until they land, anything we can’t source is either labelled or left out. If you need a confirmed output figure for an LPG safety check, ask us and we’ll get it from the manufacturer in writing.

Sizing: how much grill do you actually need?

Don’t size by trailer width. Size by covers.

• Up to 80 covers a service — a 450mm to 600mm countertop unit is plenty
• 80 to 200 covers — 600mm, ideally dual zone so you can hold and sear at once
• 200+ covers, or a festival weekend — 90cm or wider, or two smaller grills you can run independently

Why two smaller grills often beat one big one

If one grill fails on a Saturday, you’re done trading. Two means you limp through. Two also lets you shut one down in a quiet hour and save propane.

Browse the full range on the LPG chargrill machines page.

Propane, cylinders and run time

A chargrill is one of the thirstiest appliances you’ll put in a trailer. Running it alongside a fryer and a griddle changes your cylinder plan completely.

• Work out the total kW of everything running at once, not each item separately
• Size the regulator and pipework for the whole load, not the biggest single appliance
• Carry a spare cylinder. Always
• Cold weather slows vaporisation — a nearly empty cylinder struggles on a frosty morning

Two things worth reading before you commit: how to store LPG cylinders in a food trailer, and the LPG maintenance and safety check schedule.

Lava rock or radiant: which should you buy?

Buy lava rock if

• Smoke and char are part of what you’re selling
• You cook fatty products — burgers, chicken thighs, sausages
• You don’t mind replacing rocks periodically

Buy radiant if

• You want a faster start from cold
• Your pitch has tight extraction or smoke restrictions
• You want less to clean and nothing to replace
• You’re cooking leaner products where flare-ups are a nuisance

Neither is better. They’re different tools, and the right one depends on what’s on your menu and where you park.

Six mistakes we see people make

1. Assuming a conversion kit means it’s converted. It’s parts in a box, not a finished job
2. Sizing by trailer width instead of covers. A big grill you half-use burns propane for nothing
3. Forgetting extraction. A chargrill makes far more smoke than a griddle. Your canopy has to cope
4. Undersizing the regulator. Adding a chargrill to an existing setup often means resizing the whole propane supply
5. Skipping the fat drawer clean. It’s a fire risk, and it’s the first thing an inspector looks at
6. Buying on kW alone. Output spread over a big grill is not the same as concentrated heat where the food sits

Other kit that sits next to a chargrill

Most traders don’t run a chargrill on its own. If you’re planning the whole cook line, the salamander grill guide covers finishing and melting. The LPG oven and range guide covers everything that needs a closed cavity.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best LPG chargrill for mobile catering?

The Parry PGC6P, from £1,388. It’s the only chargrill in our range that is propane from the factory and has a full manufacturer data sheet on file. It gives 10.86 kW at 37 mbar across two independently controlled zones and weighs 32 kg.

Can I run a natural gas chargrill on propane?

Only after it has been converted. Most commercial charbroilers ship natural-gas ready with an LPG conversion kit included. The kit has to be fitted and the appliance set to 37 mbar by a suitably qualified LPG engineer before you trade.

Can I use butane instead of propane in a catering chargrill?

No. Butane stops vaporising properly near 2°C, so it fails on cold mornings — exactly when you need it. Every commercial mobile catering appliance in the UK is rated for propane at 37 mbar. Butane belongs on a patio, not in a trailer.

How much does an LPG chargrill cost?

From £629 for a 60cm Infernus up to £1,469 for a 600mm Lincat CG6/P. The propane-ready models sit from £1,223. If you buy a natural-gas model, add the cost of conversion and sign-off on top of the sticker price.

What size chargrill do I need for a burger van?

A 450mm to 600mm countertop unit handles up to around 80 covers a service. Between 80 and 200 covers, buy 600mm and make sure it’s dual zone. Above 200 covers or for festival weekends, go to 90cm or run two smaller grills.

Is lava rock or radiant better for a food trailer?

Lava rock gives more smoke and char, which suits burgers and fatty cuts. Radiant heats faster from cold, makes less smoke and has nothing to replace. Choose lava rock if the char is part of your product, radiant if your pitch has smoke restrictions or you want less cleaning.

How long will a propane cylinder last running a chargrill?

It depends on the total load, not the grill alone. Work out the combined kW of everything running at once, then use our LPG cylinder run-time calculator. Always carry a spare — a chargrill is one of the heaviest draws in a trailer.

Do I need an LPG safety certificate for a chargrill?

Any LPG appliance in a commercial mobile catering unit needs to be installed and checked by a suitably qualified engineer. Most event organisers will also ask to see current paperwork before they let you pitch. Build that into your plan rather than treating it as an afterthought.