Couple quick Blackstone questions...

[1eyefishing]

Had my first experience with one this past week at fish camp. It was pretty handy, but I came away thinking it really didn't get hot enough. It's sauteed the vegetables well and was hot enough to burn butter pretty quickly, but the steaks we put on it took a long time to cook. I also thought some of the bacon and vegetables for not quite sizzling hard and loud enough.
Has anyone found that there unit is not quite hot enough?
this was a smaller one and I think I would want to get a larger one. I'd love for it to be super hot on one side and cool enough to toast some buttered hamburger buns on the opposite side without burning them....
Also, do most people keep their cast iron cooktop in the house while the main unit is outside with a cover on it?
I did notice that the grease trap in the rear was quite a pain to clean out. I think I will try to find some a little aluminum pants/trays to put in the grease trap so I can just pick it out and toss it versus trying to clean the grease trap...

 

[Longhorn 16]

Mine get smoking hot. Was it windy? They do take a minute to heat up and but never had an issue reaching temp unless the lp tank is bad.

 

[Wycliff]

Mine get smoking hot. Was it windy? They do take a minute to heat up and but never had an issue reaching temp unless the lp tank is bad.

Mines the same way, and I have a 36" and a 17"

 

[Studawg170]

My 36" will be slow to heat up sometimes and the flame is low. Turning the valve off on the tank and then opening slowly will fix it....something about equalizing pressure in the gas line

 

[NCHillbilly]

Mine gets forevermore red scalding hot, as Jerry Clower would say. I do most of my cooking on it with the burners turned somewhere between low and medium unless I'm just searing the crap out of something. Try turning off the gas, unhooking and re-hooking the regulator, and turn it back on slowly, as Studawg said.

I leave my cooktop on, clean and lightly oil it with cooking spray, and put the cover on. I've never had it to rust or anything, and it's been on the porch five or six years. The cooktop on my 36" weighs probably somewhere between sixty and a hundred pounds, so, no, it isn't something I'd yank off and bring in the house.

 

[PopPop]

I cooked on a Blue Rhino griddle from Lowes, it did not perform worth a crap. My Blackstone gets plent hot.

 

[ryork]

I agree, I can get mine plenty hot to sear the heck out of about anything. With that said, I love the Blackstone for breakfast, hibachi/stir fry/fried rice type dishes, thin boneless pork chops and such, but I would never cook a steak on it. Just don't think that is what is what meant to do well.

 

[Patriot44]

My Blackstone gets HOT- in fact, I do not use it in the summer too often because you end up sweating over it.

 

[1eyefishing]

I agree, I can get mine plenty hot to sear the heck out of about anything. With that said, I love the Blackstone for breakfast, hibachi/stir fry/fried rice type dishes, thin boneless pork chops and such, but I would never cook a steak on it. Just don't think that is what is what meant to do well.

Thx. 10-4 on the steaks. We only threw the steaks on there because we were at fish camp and didn't have a grill... I figure I can use a lot less grill than the one I have once I get the black stone...
Thanks for the input from all. I think I'm going to pull the trigger soon. Hoping I can find a happy medium between the small one we used at camp and the big 36-in one. I'll be mostly cooking for two, sometimes four, but still want plenty of space...

 

[NCHillbilly]

Thx. 10-4 on the steaks. We only threw the steaks on there because we were at fish camp and didn't have a grill... I figure I can use a lot less grill than the one I have once I get the black stone...
Thanks for the input from all. I think I'm going to pull the trigger soon. Hoping I can find a happy medium between the small one we used at camp and the big 36-in one. I'll be mostly cooking for two, sometimes four, but still want plenty of space...

Get the 36. You will never regret it. I'm usually cooking for two, and I often use the whole surface. That extra surface, even if the burner under it isn't turned on, will keep stuff good and warm while you cook something else. I've cooked on all of them from the 17 to the 36, and I wouldn't buy anything but the 36.

 

[1eyefishing]

Yeah, I could do the 36.
The ones I've been looking at on Amazon don't seem to have the hard top lid. The one we use the other week had a steel lid that will close over the top.
What's up with that?

 

[Head East]

Had some issues with the low temp this morning cooking breakfast. I did what studawg mentioned and it fixed the problem.

 

[HunterFisher]

Mine does same thing especially when I change gas bottle but like above mentioned turn valve off open slowly it will start to work right. I did get a bad bottle before to but it wouldn’t even ignite.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Yeah, I could do the 36.
The ones I've been looking at on Amazon don't seem to have the hard top lid. The one we use the other week had a steel lid that will close over the top.
What's up with that?

Different models. I think the top is a new thing. Mine doesn't have one.

 

[1eyefishing]

Different models. I think the top is a new thing. Mine doesn't have one.

Just looking at their website this morning. Appears that some come with the 'hood' and some don't.
I haven't come across exactly what I want yet. Would love to have one with a gas eye on the side, also.
When I'm in the market for something, I am usually not an impulse buyer. I wait until something reaches out and grabs me by the throat and says "buy me"!

 

[Patriot44]

Mine doesn't have a top but I do have a cover. The problem is that water puddles in it. I have a plastic container under the cover on the griddle so that the water runs off. I do plan to get a friend that works in a machine shop to get me one made up. The catch basin and drain suck on the new ones- have been planning on a redesign for a while now and hopefully now that baseball is over I will have time.

 

[1eyefishing]

Mine doesn't have a top but I do have a cover. The problem is that water puddles in it. I have a plastic container under the cover on the griddle so that the water runs off. I do plan to get a friend that works in a machine shop to get me one made up. The catch basin and drain suck on the new ones- have been planning on a redesign for a while now and hopefully now that baseball is over I will have time.

I saw on their website that they are now making the little disposable aluminum muffin pans as I talked about in a earlier post. Something like a 30-pack for pretty cheap...

 

[nkbigdog]

I saw on their website that they are now making the little disposable aluminum muffin pans as I talked about in a earlier post. Something like a 30-pack for pretty cheap...

Thanks for the heads up on the aluminum liner! Walmart has them for half the price and you can pick it up at your local store, when you order online..

 

[Wycliff]

Just looking at their website this morning. Appears that some come with the 'hood' and some don't.
I haven't come across exactly what I want yet. Would love to have one with a gas eye on the side, also.
When I'm in the market for something, I am usually not an impulse buyer. I wait until something reaches out and grabs me by the throat and says "buy me"!

Saw one the other day at Walmart that had a fryer on the side that came off and it had a double burner under it