blackstone griddle with four pancakes

Blackstone Griddle Review

After seeing portable griddles at the RV show this year, we wanted to try one. Is Blackstone the best propane griddle. Here is our Blackstone Griddle review.

Why We Wanted a Blackstone Griddle

You know we love cooking while camping. Whether it’s making burgers on our portable Weber grill or creating a tasty cobbler in a dutch oven. One thing has been an issue, though. Making pancakes. The two burner stove in our outside kitchen is too small for a rectangular griddle. Making breakfast on the stove inside the camper often sets off the smoke detector, even with all the windows open.

Judy and I had a great time checking out the RVs at the RV shows earlier this year. One of the things we noticed was that some manufacturers were including griddles rather than stoves in their outside kitchens. I was interested. With an outside camping griddle, you can cook a large batch of pancakes or French Toast without having to worry about setting off the smoke alarm.

After seeing the griddles, I was really interested in trying one. It seemed like it might be the perfect addition to our camp kitchen. Lucky me. Judy got me a Blackstone 17 table top griddle for Father’s Day. I had heard that this was the best propane griddle and was really looking forward to trying it.

We saw some other great ideas at the RV show. Check out our post 7 Innovations at the Tidewater RV Show and check out all of the outdoor kitchen grills & griddles we saw at the Richmond RV Show.

Blackstone Griddle Pancake Breakfast

I tried our Blackstone Griddle. Of course the first thing I made was pancakes and sausage. The griddle was a good tool for making a tasty breakfast.

pancakes sausage breakfast cooked on a blackstone griddle
Pancake Breakfast

The Blackstone is a great size for cooking for anywhere from two to five people. A larger griddle is available if you need to cook for bigger groups. While we make four pancakes at a time, the griddle could have easily held six. I added 18 sausage links and there was plenty of room.

You may need to experiment a bit to find the right temperature. We found that it needed to be set just above the two bar mark to get the right temperature for pancakes. You’ll also note that there are some parts of the grill that get hotter than others. Directly over the H-burner is the hottest. The area toward the front of the griddle is the coolest. This image from during the seasoning process should help you identify the hot spots.

blackstone_griddle_hot_spots
Griddle Hot Spots

Blackstone Griddle Unboxing, Setup and Seasoning

I’ll share with you the steps to get your griddle ready to cook some tasty meals. To demonstrate the process of getting a Blackstone griddle ready to use, we made a video covering unboxing, setup and seasoning. Check out our Blackstone Griddle Unboxing & Seasoning YouTube video.

Blackstone Unboxing Video on YouTube
We Demonstrate How to Setup Your Blackstone

The Blackstone griddle has three main parts. A base with an H-burner, the griddle top and a gas regulator.

Blackstone griddle base with h-burner shown in Blackstone griddle review
Blackstone Griddle Base

Setup is pretty easy as there are few parts. You just need to screw in four legs. The main task in getting the griddle ready is to clean and season the top.

Cleaning the top is easy. Just use a cloth rag and some lightly soapy water. The griddle top will likely be a bit sticky when you take it out of the box. Just rub it until it is no longer sticky, then wipe it dry with a fresh cloth.

Once it is clean, you need to add a thin layer of oil. Just about any kind of cooking oil will work. To season ours, I used canola oil. Blackstone makes a special seasoning and conditioning oil. I’m sure it works great. But they do note that you can also use any cooking oil.

Once the griddle is oiled, put the griddle top on the base and turn the temperature to high. It should start to smoke. The griddle surface will darken, turning to brown and black. You will likely need to repeat the oiling and heating process several times. The key is to add multiple thin layers of oil – it’s better to repeat the process multiple times rather than try to add one thick layer of oil. A thicker layer may not be as even or perform as well as what you get by using thin layers. Note that the parts of the grill directly over the H-burner get much hotter.

blackstone griddle seasoning smoking
Oil and Heat Season the Griddle Top

Another way to season it is to use a gas grill. Once the griddle is oiled, put it in your grill, raise the temperature and close the lid. This will add heat more evenly, helping to ensure the griddle top is well seasoned.

Blackstone griddle after seasoning
Seasoned Blackstone Griddle Top

Once seasoned, add a small layer of oil after using the griddle to protect the surface and ensure it remains ready for use.

How to Connect Your Blackstone Griddle to Propane Gas

There are two ways to connect your griddle to gas. The first is to use a small propane gas cylinder. These are usually green. While portable, there are few options to recycle them and they can be challenging to refill.

Blackstone Griddle shown with small green propane cylinder in Blackstone griddle review
Blackstone with Gas Cylinder

The other way to connect your Blackstone to propane is to use a hose to connect it to a large propane gas cylinder, the kind you find on the front of your travel trailer or used in a gas grill.

Blackstone Griddle shown with propane gas hose in Blackstone griddle review
Blackstone with Gas Hose

If you are going to connect your griddle to a large propane cylinder, you need to have the right hose. There are two kinds of propane hoses available. One style has a large connection on one end that connects directly to the propane tank. The other has a smaller end that can connect to a propane tree, enabling multiple devices to connect to the tank.

Two types of propane gas hose
Two Types of Propane Gas Hose

Blackstone Griddle Accessories

There are a few things that you’ll need that don’t come with the grill. At a minimum, you’ll need a spatula, a portable propane cylinder or propane gas hose, and large propane cylinder. You may also want to consider a travel bag, griddle cover and table.

There are many additional accessories available. Whether you need them will depend on what you want to cook on your griddle. If you plan to make burgers, you may want a hamburger press. For eggs, consider egg rings.

We have been testing a few accessories to see what works best. You can check out our comparison of the Blackstone and Cuisinart spatula sets at Best Griddle Spatula Set.

Be sure to check back here for future reviews and updates. Or, subscribe to our email list so you won’t miss a thing.

Where to Buy a Blackstone Griddle.

You can buy a Blackstone Griddle just about anywhere; on Amazon, at a hardware or big-box store. For your convenience, I’m adding links to a few buying options here. Note: these are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase by using the link there is no additional cost to you, but we earn a commission that helps enable us to continue sharing helpful information.

Amazon Links

Camping World Links

Coleman Propane Gas Hose at Camping World

Blackstone Griddle Review Summary

Overall, I like the Blackstone Griddle. I think it will be a nice addition to our camp kitchen. Setup was easy, though it was a bit of work to get it seasoned and ready for use. I was able to cook a tasty pancake and sausage breakfast. I also prepared some amazing hamburgers on the griddle. Find details for how to make them at Wisconsin Smashburger Recipe and the Smashburger YouTube Video. I’m looking forward to trying other things on the griddle. What’s next? I guess you’ll have to come back to find out.

Blackstone Griddle Review Rita Approves
Rita Approves the Blackstone Griddle

What do you have in your camp kitchen? Have you tried a Blackstone griddle? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

If you liked this Blackstone Griddle Review, you might also be interested in our Easy Camping Grill Setup post that describes a quick way to setup a portable Weber grill.

Copyright 2020 Travel Trail Sail. All Rights Reserved.

15 Comments

  1. Yes it a good grill. But I bought a large gill and it been a year to get a part for the grill. It was missing the face plate to hold up the doors. To this day I still can’t hang the doors because the won’t send me the face plate.
    So customer service is bad.
    N

    1. Hi Terry,

      Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry to hear about your poor support experience. That must be frustrating. Hopefully your situation get’s resolved soon.

      Regards,
      Erling

  2. We have the 36 inch griddle. Love it. Can make anything on it. Also bought the grill for on it. That works great too

    1. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to check out the grill accessory. What is your favorite thing to cook on your griddle?

  3. I found stainless steel replacement griddles on eBay made for these.
    Makes clean up so much easier.

    1. Thanks for the tip on the stainless griddle top. The Blackstone top seems pretty easy to clean so far. Any tips for cooking on or cleaning the stainless version?

  4. I looked at the Blackstone griddles and I liked them, but, I chose the Blue Rhino Razor fold up and after seasoning and cooking on it I wouldn’t trade it for anything, it’s awesome.

    1. Thanks for sharing. The Blue Rhino folding griddle looks interesting. I like the idea of the lid and folding stand. It looks like they also have a small, portable griddle without the stand. It would be fun to do a side-by-side test of the Blackstone and Blue Rhino to see how they compare.

  5. Love the Blackstone Griddle. The portable one. How hot does it get under? What can it be set on to use? Guessing something that will melt isn’t the best type of table?

    1. I haven’t measured the temperature under the griddle yet. I’ll try to do that soon. For safety, it is best to use something fairly heat resistant. A few options you might consider for a table are the Blackstone portable steel griddle stand or a portable aluminum top camping table like the Camco Folding Grill Table I used in the pictures for this post. People in campgrounds often put their griddle or grill on a wood picnic table. There are even a few neat custom wood griddle tables online if you search. Of course, you could also place your griddle on a stone or concrete surface, too. I hope that helps.

  6. Best outdoor griddle/grill I have ever owned. Easy cleanup, no muss, no fuss set up. Ours is the original 17-inch model since there is only the two of us. We later added the grill cover which is awesome. Unfortunately a friend bought the later model but could not get a cover that works with it. We also bought a Blackstone gas line with the regulator and connected it to a 20-lb tank. Cook your meal, scrape the surface with their scrapper paddle, wipe it down with a damp cloth, the coat the griddle with a little cooking oil, and your done.

    1. Great to hear your experience with the Blackstone 17 inch griddle. What’s your favorite thing to cook on it?

  7. We love our full size Blackstone. However we went with the blue rhino for camping and after our first trip I can say it’s a winner. Nice big cooking area, nice folding design, integrated grease catch and easy to move around.

  8. The only reason that I have not bought one yet, is the fact that I have not found a low pressure grill that I can hook up to my rv’s outside gas hook up.

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