How Hot Does A Blackstone Griddle Get?

Blackstone griddles can get extremely hot. That’s kind of the point, you need heat to cook on it. But exactly how hot does a Blackstone griddle get? We’ll give you the answer.

I have a 36 inch Blackstone griddle in my backyard and it’s taken some practice to find just the right settings to maximize heat and cooking time.

When I first started cooking on the Blackstone, I thought I needed to crank the heat all the way up to maximum.

Boy was I wrong. I ended up with a lot of burnt pancakes and scorched eggs before I learned from my mistakes.

These days I almost never cook at a higher temperature than medium unless I’m trying to get a good sear on a steak or some smash burgers.

But the question remains. If you want to turn on all burners to maximum under optimal conditions, exactly how hot does a Blackstone griddle get?

The “Official” Answer

According to Blackstone themselves:

Under ideal conditions, Blackstone’s gas griddles can reach over 650 F, but there are very few instances where you would ever need to cook at this high temperature.

But that’s under ideal conditions. Like when a car commercial states their model can go from zero to sixty in 5.6 seconds, that’s on a closed course with a professional driver and perfect weather conditions.

Forget about ideal conditions. What we really want to know is how hot does a Blackstone griddle get under real life conditions…

Related: Can You Boil Water On A Blackstone Griddle?

The “Real Life” Answer

In order to determine how hot a Blackstone can get, I first tried some real-life trials using an infrared thermometer to take the temperature of the griddle surface. and then scoured the internet to find other samples to reference.

For my 36 inch Blackstone, the maximum temperature I was able to achieve was 618 F. My buddy Matt has the same model and I asked him to test the temperature on his. The max temp he got was 612 F.

So we were both very close, but I wanted to dig a little deeper. After some online sleuthing, I found a YouTube video where a griller tried three different Blackstone models and he was able to achieve a temperature of 635 F to 640 F. That’s slightly higher than Matt and I got but close enough to call it even.

In this Reddit thread, a Blackstone owner states he left it on high for an hour and it got to a temperature of 777 F. That seems hard to believe, but he doesn’t give enough information to really understand the circumstances or prove his claim.

Does Weather Affect A Blackstone’s Griddle Temperature?

Absolutely. Ambient air temperature, wind, and the sun can all impact the temperature of a griddle’s cooking surface.

The colder it is outside, the longer it will take to bring the griddle up to cooking temperature and the more propane it will take to get it there.

To get an idea of how much the weather can affect your Blackstone’s temperature, just check the temp with an infrared thermometer before you fire it up.

I’m writing this on an overcast December afternoon in New Jersey and the outside air temperature is 19 F. I just checked the temperature of the Blackstone’s cooking surface and it came in at a chilly 26.4 F.

Now compare that to the temperature when I took it during the dog days of August. Sitting outside in the direct warm sun, the griddle was at 148 F before I even turned it on.

Blackstone Griddle Temperature Guide

Many Blackstone recipes will tell you to set your griddle to medium heat or medium-high heat, but what does that really mean?

Use the table below as a quick and easy reference to understanding your griddle’s temperature.

Summary

So how hot does a Blackstone griddle get? Under the right conditions it can reach up to 650 F. In real-life conditions it can get pretty close to that and maybe even beyond according to some users.

The outside weather conditions will definitely affect your griddle’s performance. If you’re cooking outside in the middle of winter in Saskatchewan, you’re just not going to get your griddle as hot as you could if you were cooking in summertime Miami.