Camp Chef Gridiron 36" Griddle -- Anyone have one? Or an opinion about them?
Camp Chef Gridiron 36" Griddles are on sale right now and they generally review pretty well (a little better than Blackstone from the reviews I've seen). Anybody have any knowledge about them? I couldn't find a review on the free side. How do they stack up against a Blackstone (the Omnivore in particular)? Camp Chef puts its grease trap in the front while Blackstone in the rear. I can see advantages to both (easier to clean in the front but you have to work over it), any opinions on this?
(They are currently on sale at Dick's and BBQGuys for $479)
No experience with Camp Chef but I can chime in about a front grease trap vs rear. I think you’d like having a front grease trap better. When using my Pit Boss griddle I find it would be much easier for food to fall through a rear trap than my front grease trap it has, especially if doing something like a stir fry. I find myself mainly turning foods right to left or from front to rear, I’m right handed. It’s easier pushing food from front to rear than vice versa. I could see occasions of food dropping through a rear grease trap if I wasn’t careful.
I've had mine for a couple years now and I completely LOVE the Gridiron. It is built solid as a rock. I like the ability to adjust the tilt of the cook surface (either to level it out on unlevel surfaces, or to deliberately make it unlevel to create a shallow frying area in the rear.) I have very even heating across the entire surface. It also gets HOT (I've temped it at nearly 600F, but it will also maintain nice low temps for those things you don't want to cook hot and fast. The grease trap at the front is very convenient, and accessibility to the grease bucket is easy. My previous flat top cooking experience has been with a griddle cooktop on my camp stoves, so I don't have a comparison to Blackstone or other manufacturers.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I have the older Camp Chef FTG900 - a 46 or 48 inch 6 burner griddle. I very much prefer the front grease trap, having cooked on both rear trap Blackstone and "endless edge" round griddles (Cuisinart 360). Especially if you put your griddle near a deck railing or wall, or even shrubbery behind it, it may be a pain to get back there to grab and change the grease cup - and you can't SEE it from the front to know how full it is getting. I use little disposable foil liners in my Camp Chef grease cup that I clean and reuse, or dispose, depending on how full it gets during a cook.
If I were in the market, I would really consider that Gridiron 36. It has some nice features the prior generation of Camp Chef 4 and 6 burner griddles did not have.
Blackstone does a magnificent job of marketing. They have the appearance as the industry standard which causes a majority of their customers to buy the product without comparison shopping. At just under $500 they don't have a product that matches the quality and functionality of the Gridiron...buy it!
Thank you all for the input. I opted to upgrade to the Gridiron Pro. I purchased directly from Camp Chef with a first time buyer 10% discount. Also, props to Camp Chef for offering a 20% discount to veterans and the military (though it didn't apply to the already heavily discounted griddle (the 10% did)).
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