Buy all your VW California Accessories at the Club Shop Visit Shop

Cooking with no gas and no ehu

L

Lisa and Simon

Messages
7
Location
Coventry
Vehicle
T6 Beach 150
Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.
 
Lisa and Simon said:
Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
My wife is coeliac so I can appreciate how restrictive this is. Without EHU or gas bottles you have no viable way of generating heat… the inverter will allow low wattage items to draw power but I would’ve thought a viable electric Hob would absolutely smash through your leisure battery charge…. You could probably find a camping kettle that’ll work but all you can really ‘cook’ with that would be GF pot noodle equivalent

Clearly you’ll be taking along a stash of dry foods like GF breads, fridge items etc. But you really need a way of boiling water to cook GF pasta, meats etc. The smallest you might be able to get away with is something like a jet boil that’s intended to heat up cold water to boiling… but it does use gas. Or you could try an an alternate fuel cooker like meths (Trangia?) or solid fuel like a bbq…

Personally I’d try to bypass the rules and sneak in with gas. You have a very restrictive diet which I think justifies the exception if used discretely.

(Clearly there’s some sort of event insurance thing here though - I doubt the rule is for their own fun)
 
Lisa and Simon said:
Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Could you use a Cob or similar?
 
JunglieD said:
(Clearly there’s some sort of event insurance thing here though - I doubt the rule is for their own fun)
Click to expand...
expect they do not want campers cooking their brain and getting high on inhaling it.
 
Lisa and Simon said:
Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Real cooking on something like a hot plate is not going to work off the leisure battery.

You could use a 12V kettle for boiling water and then prepare freeze-dried meals. Some of the more expensive Scandinavian brands can be pretty good. I’ve never specifically looked for their gluten-free recipes.

The alternative would be a 12V slow cooker. Some forum members have posted positive reviews. My guess is you could use them to cook off the leisure battery for one, maybe two days.
 
Last edited:
Lisa and Simon said:
Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Which festival? No gas "bottles" - does that include the small canisters for a cadac etc?
 
You have 1kWh 0,5kWh of usable energy in your leisure battery. You can't do any significant cooking with that.
 
Last edited:
We have a Caravelle, with a California roof fitted so I’m not sure on space beneath the Californias driver and passenger seats however we fitted a large lithium battery under the drivers seat and a 3KW inverter beneath the passengers and we cook with induction rather than carry gas.
Other option might be a power pack rather than running a separate battery and inverter, handy for power cuts too.
 
What festival is it? I have never been to a festival that didn't allow cooking or brewing a cuppa - are you sure the restrictions don't apply to not taking gas into the arena, but you can keep them in the camping area?
 
Lisa and Simon said:
Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Take a bbq sorted.
 
Sounds like a right barrel of laughs that. Food prices at festivals are a p1ss take so eating there 3 times a day and queueing for ever will tire very quick. Cancel it and go somewhere else
 
My granddaughter went to a festival last year and the same rules applied. NO bbqs and NO gas cookers.
They were in tents so there are obvious dangers there. Not sure about if you were in a Camper van or motorhome where the risk is minimal.
They had to buy all their hot food on site , so that was chips 3 times a day.
 
Ch1pbutty said:
No more risk than a campsite
Click to expand...
Exactly. About time we got back to the old days. 2019 when adults were allowed to make their own decisions about risk. This is done to sell food. How do cook it in their stalls? Oh I bet the sellers use gas or electric or both. They aren't going to make every camper and motorhome chuck out their gas on the way in. Where is this ridiculous festival? I need to not go there
 
Ch1pbutty said:
No more risk than a campsite
Click to expand...
There’s not normally hundreds or thousands of tents full of young people on a “Campsite” which has dedicated areas for each tent.The risk factor is massive so the rules state NO BBQs and NO gas cookers.
 
flying banana said:
Sounds like a right barrel of laughs that. Food prices at festivals are a p1ss take so eating there 3 times a day and queueing for ever will tire very quick. Cancel it and go somewhere else
Click to expand...
You can’t blame the vendors for the extortionate food prices. The festival organisers charge thousands£ just for vendors to get a pitch.
Therefor £8 for a burger £6 for a bag of chips £4 for a cup of undrinkable coffee.
If you are prepared to pay hundreds£ to go to a festival then another £100 for food is not going to Bankrupt you.
Most festivals have dedicated areas for tents and other areas for camper vans/motorhomes so wouldn’t imagine the same rules applied for the 2 different areas.
Tents tend to be quite flammable when you cook inside them.
 
Thanks everyone, I’m unable to reply to all your posts separately, not sure why! The festival is the Derbyshire sausage and cider. You are allowed fixed gas bottles in motorhome and caravans.
I have found today on there t’s and c’s you are able to take certain types of things to cook on. See attached.

91344F96-BFE0-43B3-9CE3-12EB8FB6036E.jpeg
 
Lisa and Simon said:
Thanks everyone, I’m unable to reply to all your posts separately, not sure why! The festival is the Derbyshire sausage and cider. You are allowed fixed gas bottles in motorhome and caravans.
I have found today on there t’s and c’s you are able to take certain types of things to cook on. See attached.

View attachment 104936
Click to expand...
Sounds like the Ridge monkey BBQ would work a treat then. You can use as a coal BBQ here and have for later as a gas powered one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Norfolk Jim
Electric Cookers
2 3
Replies
66
Views
4K
Toot-toot
Toot-toot
scraynes
Single Burner gas stove in Rear locker?
2
Replies
43
Views
5K
motacyclist
motacyclist
Grey one
Cooking assistance in Beach
4 5 6
Replies
128
Views
31K
Barbara
Barbara
NickAero
Booking, Cooking and Chocking
Replies
3
Views
646
WelshGas
WelshGas
Tarquers
Leisure battery charging
Replies
18
Views
4K
Steve1
Steve1

Useful links

VW California Club

  • Comfort Insurance
  • VIP Membership
  • Comfort Insurance
  • CampervanBits Accessories
  • Conquest
  • Hire a Vw California

About us

The VW California Club is the worlds largest resource for all owners and enthusiasts of VW California campervans.

Our Partners

Our Partners

Back
Top