these hotplate things, do you need to 'season' them or can you pretty much just go and use them off the shelf?
It's cast iron, so it gets better with age. You do need to season them, but it's not as big a deal as it is with a camp oven. The more you season it, the more non-stick it will get.
All we did was scrub it with some detergent (to get the waxy coating off), then just heat it up on the cooktop and rub a lot of oil into it. Do one side reasonably heavily, turn the gas off and let it cool, soaking the oil in. Wipe off any excess oil once cool. Then flip it over, and do the same thing to the other side. Before you put it away, just a light coating of oil on both sides to keep it rust-free.
We've got a cast-iron frypan, and did much the same to it.
We store ours in one of the plasticky-hessian bags, like you buy firewood from Bunnings in. Stops everything in the kitchen box from getting oily/greasey/ash-covered.
It's good - you know you want one...
Thanks!
Matto