LoCo vs Blackstone vs CampChef

[heraldstorm]

Greetings griddlers! Of the LoCo, the Blackstone, and the CampChef, which has the most even temps across the surface? Which produces the widest cooking gradients? Obviously on a griddle you want multiple heat zones, is it better to have more burners, or a better cooker? I really like the idea of the blackstones. I'm worried they are a bit thin, and that they are prone to cool gradients between the burners. That said, I have no direct experience. For reference, I've got an SnS plancha drop in for my 22" Weber. I just plain need more space. The plancha is great if I'm cooking for 2 or 3 people, but it does require a ton of space management and swapping in/out.

[tbob4]

I cannot speak to anything but the Blackstone which I have had about two years. It is the 4 burner 36 inch with the air fryer. I love it. I did temp it when I first bought it. It did have some cooler spots on the left front. As far as two- zone cooking, I really don’t do much. The construction n is much more solid than I expected. The only issue I have is that the electric start on the first burner has never worked that well. It doesn’t matter. The second burner starter takes care or both. While the price has gone up over $100 since I bought it, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on the same model again.

[heraldstorm]

Thanks a lot tbob4!

[DavidNorcross]

I have had a couple blackstones, camp chefs and one Grilla Primate. I currently own the primate and it is my favorite of the 3. I have no negatives on either the blackstone or the camp chef. If I had to choose between the 2 it would be Camp Chef because I like the way they handle both grease and wind in comparison, but again they are both good cookers.

[Rocinante]

I have a BS 28" and as long as enough time is given to adequately get to temp, both sides are pretty close with each other. Otherwise, my left side tends to be a little hotter, but nothing that throttling down a little on the burner won't correct. I have been very happy with mine going on 2 years now.

[leol2]

I have the camp chef 600 and love it but i have seen great reviews on the loco

[Mosca]

I've got an SnS plancha drop in for my 22" Weber. I just plain need more space. The plancha is great if I'm cooking for 2 or 3 people, but it does require a ton of space management and swapping in/out.

Off topic, but could you talk a little more about that plancha? The most people I’d ever cook for is probably seven, any more than that and I’m turning on the gasser. Right now I use the S&S stainless half moon for up to 4 burgers, and Grill Grates on the BGE for 4-7.

[heraldstorm]

I love the plancha. It's a nice thick piece of steel, and it has a semicircle cut on two opposite side for airflow and waste disposal. I can cook a rasher of bacon or half a flap steak or about 7 pancakes at a time. Doesn't work well with the slow and sear, doesn't allow a smooth heat gradient. I use a half moon of lit coals right on the bank of the kettle. Cooks great but I prefer to cook all at once rather than in phases. The plancha space limits me to cook in phases. Otherwise, it's fine

[jlazar]

I have the Blackstone 4 burner. Turn first two to the left on desired temp. Next right about half that amount. Last one off. This gives me three zones: 2 cooking, one transition/holding, one for keeping things warm.

[lemayp]

I got a blackstone as a present back in Nov. It was so damaged in shipping that I couldn't use it. Tried to find a replacement locally and ended up getting the razor on sale after Christmas. The right side has a sear burner so its definitely hotter on that side. Cant speak to the other ones, I would try not to have one shipped if possible.

[Jfrosty27]

I saw a Pit Boss Ultimate series griddle at a local Ace Hardware recently. Looked pretty nice. The cook top portion can be lifted (with two people) from the base cart for what I would call semi portability. Anyway, you can get the details at the Pit Boss site.

[Uncle Bob]

Hopefully you won't take anything I say as being critical toward you personally. Your questions, and to a degree the units you're referencing, are pretty standard for folks just getting interested in griddles. My guess is that the idea of the Loco offering "thermostatic temp control" has piqued your interest..........which is what they intend to do. Keep one thing in mind, all of the griddle choices you have to select from have a continuous metal sheet to form the griddle surface. Metal conducts heat and the heat from the first burner at whichever end you start will migrate to the adjacent surfaces. It would take an insulating barrier between each heated zone to "interfere" with that conductivity so that each burner would produce an independent heat profile. That's my problem with the impression that most people draw from the Loco advertising, they think if you set burner one at 400 degrees and the next burner over at 200 that there will be that distinct of a difference between the two. Ain't gonna happen, physics gets in the way. None of that is to say the Loco product is in any way inferior, just that it plays to the lack of practical knowledge of inexperienced griddle users who, reasonably, want reassurance that they won't screw up. All griddles have what are called hot spots and cool/cold spots.........those are relative terms btw. No surprise, learning how to work with the characteristics of whichever griddle you choose is just like learning how to work with the idiosyncrasies of any other cooker. Those temp readouts on the Loco are reassuring, but they really aren't all that unique once you realize that whatever position you turn the knob on the front to is going to have the result it has.

I've got, probably, about 8-9 different brands/types of griddles right now, and have sold off a few more in the past couple years. They each have their pluses and minuses, each their own "personality" which causes you to learn how to work within their capabilities. Folks will most often recommend you make the same choice they did for whatever their priorities were/are, it's called selection bias. Some, myself included, will tell you that you won't really learn what's important/valuable until you've actually cooked on a product and learned what concessions you need make to adjust to that cooker's quirks. With experience you'll learn that the hot spots and cool spots can be tools for cooking control.........speed up/slow down, make your choice as needed.

Now, with all that preamble, to answer your initial question above, the most even temp across the surface, in all my experience, is the Camp Chef dedicated griddle because of the massive (comparatively) heat diffuser on the underside of the griddle. It's a huge heatsink which has advantages and some disadvantages, but for typical griddle usage it will be easy to work with. But the others can be worked with as well, you just need to adjust yourself to what the griddle does, because it ain't gonna adjust to you.

[jfmorris]

I will second the Camp Chef griddles. I've got their 6 burner flat top grill, and it has very even heat. I'm able to setup different temp zones though - I usually run a gradient across the surface, with a cooler zone at one end for putting stuff for holding during the cook.

[Old Glory]

Best piece of advice ever: "Folks will most often recommend you make the same choice they did for whatever their priorities were/are, it's called selection bias. Some, myself included, will tell you that you won't really learn what's important/valuable until you've actually cooked on a product and learned what concessions you need make to adjust to that cooker's quirks. With experience you'll learn that the hot spots and cool spots can be tools for cooking control"

[jfmorris]

If you want a spacious griddle, I'll heartily endorse the 6 burner Camp Chef FTG900 - I've had it since June 2020, and its got pretty darned consistent heat across the surface. The two ends tend to run a bit hotter than the rest, but I compensate by setting those two burners a little lower once I pre-heat.

Most griddle cooking is done around 350 to 400 max. I tend to setup 2 or 3 zones, depending on what I am cooking, and how much. For example, 2 burners on med, 2 on low, 2 off for holding stuff. It's important that you listen to Uncle Bob in the post above, as you will NEVER set one burner to "400" and one next to it to "200" on something like that Loco griddle, and see 200 in that lower temp zone. More likely you will see something closer to 300. It's a gradient across the griddle surface really, due to heat conduction.

I would be happy to dig up pics, but you can fit a massive amount of food on the Camp Chef FTG900 with its 900 sq inch surface. Or you can flip just 5 pancakes like I did this morning, haha. I've fed a lot of food to a lot of folks off that griddle, and its a major tool in my arsenal... Hibachi style stir fry, fajitas and tacos, breakfast, burgers, veggies, chops, steaks, just about anything really other than bone-in or irregular shaped cuts of meat.

I will mention ONE thing with my Camp Chef that kinda bugs me, but its a minor thing. The chrome coated plastic bezels around the temp control knobs on the front are flaking off the fake chrome finish. I don't know if its from the heat, something I used to clean or wipe them with (windex or stainless steel spray cleaner). I doubt anyone other than me would ever pay attention or notice though.

[tbob4]

I was waiting for you and Uncle Bob to weigh in. I really appreciate the details you two put into your reviews.

[glitchy]

Le Griddle? I’m not a griddle guy as Blackstone's grease management annoyed me and has been hard to give another dedicated griddle a shot. Le Griddle and Loco have caught my eye though.

[heraldstorm]

Thanks glitchy! Good to see you!

[heraldstorm]

I do appreciate all of this feedback! Thanks everybody! My primary desire is to have a good slab of metal that will hold up without warping over time, second desire is to have a good grease/debris management system, and third is a nice even gradient. As Uncle Bob puts it, there's no magic line where heat from one burner cuts off and gives way to the heat from the adjacent burner. A nice thick piece of iron will hold the heat well but a smooth silky stainless slab is a dream to cook on. I'm going to look closely at Blackstone, and while I may prefer a Camp Chef, they can be hard to find these days. I do admire the Le Griddle cookers but that's for when I retire and can afford a built-in outdoor kitchen. We all gotta have dreams, right?

Thanks again everyone!

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

Le Griddle? I’m not a griddle guy as Blackstone's grease management annoyed me and has been hard to give another dedicated griddle a shot. Le Griddle and Loco have caught my eye though.

Which Blackstone did you have? I know they've gone through a couple of different iterations of grease management. I have the newer style (I think) with the grease hole in the middle of the back wall. There is a grease catcher behind there where I can put aluminum pans to catch it. I think this works pretty well, overall, certainly better than the videos and complaints I've seen about the earlier ones with the catch up front on one side or the other, and a trough along the front edge. It may not be perfect (I'm not sure what would be), but it isn't bad at all. I guess maybe a hole in the cooking surface going straight down like I see on some, but this would take away from your cooking surface and you'd have to be careful not to let your food drop into the hole. Not a huge problem, but a little bit of a complication - I don't have any issues with my rear-oriented trap.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my Blackstone. I wanted the Camp Chef badly, looked at them for several years, never could find one when I was ready to pull the trigger locally, and I finally gave in and bought the Blackstone 36". I haven't looked back.

I find you don't have to be scrupulous with the cooktop, either. I've left it uncleaned for some time - just a quick scrape of debris after cooking - and then pulled it out weeks or months later and cleaned it quickly and gotten right back to cooking. It is pretty forgiving, honestly. Just heat it up, scrape all the crud off, squirt some water on it, scrape and wipe it, then a coat of oil and back to cooking. Couple times a season I get the avocado oil out and do 4-6 coats of burn-in to reseason things nicely.

Mine catches a lot of wind and this has been a problem at times - I've now 'built' some windguards out of aluminum disposable cookie sheets for the sides. This has made a big difference, but it has shunted some of the heat forward toward me when I'm cooking - but it certainly gets hot as hail on the cooking surface! I can easily hit 500, maybe 600F, though I haven't truly tried to check max temp since I did this.

As I said - overall, I'm pleased with my purchase, even though it wasn't the one I had set my heart on, and I wish I hadn't waffled and hemmed and hawed for 3 years before I got it. I missed out on a lot of good cooking in that time!

[TheAmazingJohnJ]

I had a Blackstone with the grease drain at the front of the unit with a trough that led to a small hole in the front corner where the grease cup hung on the very edge.

It was the most asinine design I've ever seen. You were either going to burn yourself when grease splashed over the trough onto your belly or when the cup fell off the side onto your foot. I gave the thing away after one season and $500 wasted.

[heraldstorm]

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, and Thank You to all service members and their families, for their sacrifice!

I wanted to report back on my decision:

Please forgive my lack of photography skills, but there's my latest grill.

My impression thus far is extremely positive. For anyone taking the same road I did, there are three messages I have:

1) Be gentle when heating the grill. It's a large sheet of steel, and if you make quick, dramatic changes, she'll feel the stress and won't last as long.

2) That said, do not be afraid to bring the heat. You may have to take your time getting there, but some things are better on high heat... especially seasoning the griddle top. I was a little too cautious, and I am having to shore up my seasoning job (oh darn, a reason to play with the new grill).

3) Figure out a way to use cloths instead of paper towels. This thing is like a sick 4 year old. It always wants to be wiped. Ok maybe I'm just obsessive, but I've gone through a roll of paper towels in 1 week. Some have suggested soaking dirty towels in a bucket of degreaser and wringing them well before putting them through the wife's prized washing machine. My better half has flat refused to have that mess anywhere near her laundry so I'm hand washing them as best I can. Either way, your wallet will thank you if you take the time with rags.

Overall, I love the unit. I've made the obligatory smash burgers and grilled onions and mushrooms. I've made pancakes, bacon, and eggs. I made street tacos with chicken. Next week I'll try some teppanyaki. It really is convenient and fast once you adjust to cooking on it. It really brings back memories of the days I worked in burger joints and restaurants. Fortunately the clean-as-you-go rhythm turned out to be a dormant muscle memory for me, and I'd forgotten all about it. Amazing how similar cooking on this is to that.

Anyway, it has plenty of heat power, and the 36 inch surface is more than enough to feed 3 or 4 people. I haven't practiced enough for larger cooks but I'm sure it's doable.

The grease management is what I'd prefer, located center rear, and convenient to clean. Really, the whole thing is easy to clean which really makes using it a lot easier to do. My gravity smoker is a pain to clean and so I have to force myself to go through it thoroughly. This griddle only takes a few minutes to clean up and it's not a huge effort.

So thanks to everyone for their advice and recommendations, and I wish everyone a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. Please take time to consider the sacrifices made so that we can enjoy a day of grilling with family and friends. Those that have paid the ultimate price for our Freedom deserve to be honored and respected.