Blackstone Griddle Cooking Station

Product Description

A few days ago I showed you the super sweet Meat Shredding Claws as a super cheap option for a Father's Day gift. Today I pass along the super sweet Blackstone Griddle as a super not-cheap option for a Father's Day gift.... [Read more]

Features

• Cook for a Crowd: Make up to 47 fried eggs, 21 pancakes, 30 burgers, or 27 steaks on this spacious 768 square inch griddle. Invite family and friends over for a delicious outdoor meal and enjoy efficiently cooking for a large gathering.
• Omnivore Griddle Plate Technology: This griddle was designed with built-in wind guards, heats more evenly across the griddle top, has better thermal shock stability, and uses less fuel per cook.
• Optimal Heat Control: Cook multiple items on the griddle top at different temperatures thanks to four independently controlled burners.
• Increased Cooking Versatility: This cooking unit can handle anything from traditional barbecue foods to stir fry, hashbrowns, pancakes, and smash burgers.
• Easy Grease Cleanup: This flat top grill is equipped with the Blackstone-patented Rear Grease Management System. Simply guide food debris and grease to the back of the griddle to collect in the rear grease cup for easy disposal.
• Additional Features: Two folding side shelves with tool hooks, four wheels, and a paper towel holder make every part of the cooking process easier from wheeling your griddle to the ideal cooking spot to cleaning up after your meal.

Top Reviews

Outstanding griddle for the money.
by MilesToGo (5 out of 5 stars)
May 30, 2017

This review is for the 36" Blackstone griddle (model 1554) which I have been using for over a year now. Overall I have found this griddle to be an outstanding value, especially for its price point. You might be able to find a better griddle, but you will spend a LOT more money.

Some simple assembly is required. My griddle came in a single box. Cut the two plastic straps and the box lid lifts right off. The components seem well packed. I used a 10mm wrench, an adjustable wrench, and a Philips screwdriver to assemble. Once I had it unpacked, assembly took about 15 mins. If I had someone assisting, we probably would have been done in 10 mins or less. Blackstone has a helpful 3 min assembly video you can watch either on Blackstone's site or on youtube search for "Blackstone 36" Griddle Assembly". I weighed the griddle top in at 55.5lbs. If you're not comfortable lifting a bulky item of this weight, get someone to help you.

If you discover a problem with your new griddle, email or call Blackstone directly. Page 23 in my manual had their customer service phone and email. I had a small issue and found their customer service to be extremely helpful. Replies to email were prompt and when I phoned, I was talking to a real human being within seconds (a real human being who spoke American as a primary language). Keep in mind, customer service operates M-F 9a-5p Mountain Standard Time.

The griddle top comes coated in a protective oil to prevent rust. As noted in the instructions, your first step after assembly is to wash this oil off. I used dish soap in hot water. I followed this up with plain hot water to get the soap off. I towel dried the surface and then fired up the grill for a few mins to cook off any remaining moisture.

The top is carbon steel (not Teflon nor stainless steel) and if not seasoned it will rust. For many griddle users, at this point they slap on some oil or bacon and immediately start cooking. Over time they build up the seasoning that helps protect the griddle surface from rusting and the food from sticking. In my case I wanted to do a more methodical seasoning.

For a methodical, long lasting seasoning of the griddle, you follow similar steps as you would with seasoning cast iron cookware. Blackstone has a youtube video called "Blackstone Griddle Top Recovery". This video was made to show people how to restore a rusted griddle top; however, at 2min39sec into this video they cover the topic of seasoning.

The Blackstone video agreed with several articles I read about seasoning cast iron cookware with flax oil. Make sure you get the organic, cold pressed, unrefined, refrigerated flax oil. You don't want any ingredients in the oil other than flax oil. Check the date on it, and shake well before using. It is expensive oil, but you don't need a large bottle. I did 6 coatings on my griddle and used just a little more than 3oz total of the oil. Each successive layer used less oil.

The seasoning coat/layer consisted of :
1. wiping on a thin layer of flax oil over the cooking surface (I applied with a paper towel).
2. wipe off excess oil (I used paper towel).
3. turning on all the burners for 30 mins or so to basically burn the oil in (I ran a little longer than 30 min).
4. turn the burners off and let the griddle cool

Repeat the process. Blackstone recommends at least 4-5 coats. The cast iron cookware seasoning articles I read recommended 6 coats.

Optimal seasoning will leave you with a shiny black cooking surface. After 6 coats of flax oil, I was nearing the optimal shiny black surface.

Check level. Before starting to cook on the griddle, check level. Use a construction level or a marble or anything you have handy. You want to be sure that liquid will flow towards the drain. My patio slopes away from the house, so I had to set the left wheels of the griddle on a scrap of plywood to get the grease to head to the drain hole.

Cooking. Even with a great seasoned cooking surface, I add a dash of oil with many of the things I cook (for example, eggs).

Cleaning the griddle: Helped along by my well seasoned cooking surface, I find the griddle quick to clean. It typically takes me 3-5 mins. I found a video from a griddle user on youtube that was helpful. Search youtube for "Easy way to clean the Blackstone Griddle (Revised)". Guy in the video uses spray oil, but I use liquid oil.

My only complaint about the griddle would be the same issue that other reviews have mentioned: Blackstone still hasn't conquered the grease drain problem. Randomly the grease running off will miss the cup and start running down the griddle leg. So use a paperclip or a piece of wire. If you stick it in the hole down to the grease cup, the grease will run down the wire instead of the surface tension causing fluids to flow up under the grease gutter. Or you can wrap a small piece of foil around the end of the drain to direct grease down.
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Mediocre customer service (finally came through)
by Mark A Smith (3 out of 5 stars)
February 14, 2019

UPDATE: Blackstone finally replaced my warped griddletop after months of emails. The replacement confirmation email came 2 weeks after my review was posted to Amazon. I do not know if the poor review (see below) was intrumental in the replacement. I have yet to season the new griddle (it's a time-consuming process).
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I think this might be my first review on Amazon. I spent countless hours researching what flat top griddle to purchase. I was looking for high quality, portability, and at least 36" wide. I settled on the Blackstone griddle for it's size and foldable legs. I spent a full 20lb bottle of propane seasoning the griddle. Once seasoned, it was a blast to use. I have had so much fun cooking various dishes on it. I have used it to cook pancakes for 120 ppl. Now for the cons:
1) the grease trap located at the center rear is not a great location. I would have much preferred the standard trough found on almost all other flat top options.
2) after about 5 months of use the griddled taco'd. While cooking up a usual dish, teppanyaki, the griddle made a loud pop and became permanently warped. None of the welds appear to have broken. But it is no longer an effective griddle.
3) Customer Service: I have laenred their customer service is either incompetent or actively ignores warranty claims. All attempts to work out a warranty replacement or other option has been either ignored or I have been told I need to contact a different Blackstone employee, but not provided a way to contact the person.

I am writing this review as a last ditch effort hoping someone at the company will take notice and help me resolve my warped griddle.
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Great except for the grease drain design..
by James M (4 out of 5 stars)
May 30, 2017

Awesome grill and would have been 5 stars if not for the serious hot grease running down the leg from a poorly designed drain setup... I reemed the hole out to 1" and tig welded a steel tube in, that's really what Blackstone should do from the factory...
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Perfect for Mongolian BBQ - but one flaw
by Michael Moers (5 out of 5 stars)
August 2, 2017

This has hands down been my favorite purchase in a long time! this griddle is high quality, BUT has one flaw-- explained at the end- Other than that- the griddle is fantastic- I have seasoned it and used it 5 or six times since purchase, and get nothing but rave reviews about how great the Mongolian BBQ is - I also purchased the folding shelves add-on, and I cant imagine how anyone can cook without them- they are needed to hold all the plates, and fixings for the meal.

Now for the flaw- the grease drip trough and catch pan need to be re-engineered. There is a shallow trough that runs the length of the griddle, that drains to the right - the trough extends out about 2" and has a hole drilled in it. Then there is a catch can that sits under the hole. for most drippings, this is fine. But when you have a lot of oil, grease etc, trying to drain, it starts to miss the catch can, and drips down the leg of the griddle, and puddles on the ground. I have bought the mod extension sold by another seller on here to help with this problem, but it is still not a perfect solution. The fact that there is another seller trying to fix this problem should let Blackstone know they have an issue.
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Love this griddle! But needs a grease drain mod
by Jay Man (5 out of 5 stars)
September 23, 2016

Great griddle for the price! I was using the Camp Chef with the griddle attachment before and the Blackstone is way better! It came packaged extremely well and is built well also and heats up evenly. The table that goes with this is a lot of money, but I would highly recommend it! Blackstone 36" Griddle Surround Table Accessory (Grill not included)

Also you need to do a grease mod on this, becuase it is a design flaw and without it, the grease runs along the bottom and down the front of the griddle, which is very messy! I used a piece of 3/4 inch copper I had lying around, so I cut a piece at 1 1/4 inches long, then I filed a wedge into it to fit the bottom of the grease hole, then I used J-B Weld 8297 HighHeat 500 Degree Epoxy Putty - 2 oz to attach it since I don't have a welder and it worked out great! Lots of ideas on grease mods out there!

The only maintenance that is required, is the burner tubes should be taken off before use in the spring and cleaned out! This is for any gas grill, because spiders can make webs in the tubes and cause back fire which will melt the knobs and damage your grill. There is a special tool to clean the inside of the tubes out. This has not happened to me yet and I own a few grills, but I do clean them.

UPDATE 3/28/2017 - It is still working great, but since I am constantly moving mine in and out of the garage, I made the legs more stable! If you don't plan on folding it up, use a 10 x 3/4 self drilling screw and screw one in on each leg to make it more stable.
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This is the best thing to ever happen to me
by Scott (5 out of 5 stars)
April 30, 2016

This is the best thing to ever happen to me. I have an awesome son and a beautiful wife but they pale in comparison to my griddle.
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Got my grill today, I saw a lot of ...
by Mark K. (4 out of 5 stars)
June 22, 2017

Got my grill today, I saw a lot of reviews that covered the grease dripping issue, I think they have made a design change as mine has a bead of weld just aft of the grease dripping hole. this appears to allow the runoff to drip into the pa. I'm still in the process of seasoning it, once that is done I'll update my review
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GRILLIN' LIKE A VILLAIN
by Bridgette Fortuna (5 out of 5 stars)
July 13, 2018

If you ever want to see your boyfriend have an erection and grill at the same time, buy him this. He pushes it around outside like we're at a teppan grill. I look out of the window and admire my tough guy, delicately flipping my gardenburger on this monstrous grill. Trust me, size matters. Get the 36". We bought the canvas cover to prevent rust and to hide it from the elements. I know that if my boyfriend ever cheats on me that this will be the first thing that I vandalize, because he loves it THAT much. Even more than his Star Trek light up phone he bought in 1984.
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No customer services!
by Joey McCurry (1 out of 5 stars)
September 16, 2018

I purchased the griddle 2 months ago and love using it, however the igniter has stopped working and I cannot get anyone from Blackstone to contact me back. All I want is a new igniter to replace the bad one. Blackstone has horrible customer service to the tune of NONE! Apparently they do not stand behind their products because they never return your email...
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Quality issues with the cook top/service
by Nicksname (1 out of 5 stars)
July 9, 2018

I bought two 36" griddles, one for me and one as a gift. The cooking surface of the front 3" of one of the griddles top has issues. While most of the griddle is slightly rough the first 3 inches have a different texture and spots. I scrubbed it (as the directions say) repeatedly but the front won't season like the rest of the cooktop even though I coated it with oil and confirmed it was getting up to temp. Most of the top is now seasoned/blackened but first 3 inches are completely different and seems defective. I tried to contact the company directly but they won't respond. I have a good deal of experience seasoning cooking surfaces so this isn't a user error and the other griddle did not have this issue. There are obviously quality control issues. I would recommend buying a different brand.

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