I had a griddle on my 48" Viking. That thing made the best fried eggs ever. If you need to serve a large breakfast, it can't be beat.

Pertaining to the griddle part of the equation only, this is what we do:

We take it out when needed, and keep it conveniently tucked away when not In use.

I have add one for the following reasons.

It gives you flexibility with your burners. It is probably more of an issue with 6 burners. Not only can you use 6/8;burners when you need them but you can place the griddle anywhere on the burners. I have picked up the whole griddle and put it in the oven on my range.

You can have your choice of metals for the griddle. I look at it like really big cookware so that matters to me.

I have these by Royal Industries.

http://royalindustriesinc.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_22_48

They are heavy aluminum which conducts heat more quickly than steel. This makes it heat more evenly and they respond quickly when you turn them up or down. They make them in bare metal which will season eventually or nonstick. They are inexpensive so you can have both. Some people want steel and Chef King makes that. They are heavier to move. They have a 4 burner too. One characteristic of steel whether it is an add on or built in is that it has warmer and cooler areas. Some people like this for cooking and holding.

https://www.dvorsons.com/ChefKing/Griddles.htm

The Royal 2 burner add on has much more cooking area. The add on isn’t confined to the width of the burner grates. On my range(Wolf), it was almost 50% more area on 2 burners than the built in.

You have the potential for a lot more heat with an add on. The heat for built ins is around 15K BTUs over the two burners. Depending on the burners you have, 15K on each burner gives you 30K, something like BlueStar would be even more. You can adjust the heat for each end separately.

You can pick up the griddle and wash it in the sink with an add on.

The advantages to built in-

easily reproducible temperatures. You turn it to 350°F you get that same temperature. For the add on it is more like using a pan. You have to eyeball it.

Some people might like the stability of the griddle being built in. Some people just want the look of the built in.

If a built in is a high priority, Wolf uses an infrared burner to try to heat the steel more evenly. Also check the thickness of the steel. I have seen it in a couple places that it is twice the thickness of BS.

This is the BS griddle burner. VVV

@wekick thanks for the detailed reply. Yea if I go with a 48 I think the griddle is a no brainer. I think at 36 it becomes much more of a debate. Also I do know that wolf has a more consistent temperature griddle with slightly thicker steel but the burners on the bluestar seem better which seems more important.

@darbuka I noticed your Thermador range top. I am considering this and am wondering how the simmer function works on the other burners besides the X-lo burner? That is, can I turn any of the other five burners down to the lowest setting and be satisfied with the simmer setting (that it's not too high)?

@User: "Don’t forget the ventilation and MUA that will cost as much as the range."

Ah. No. Not even close.

OP, thermostatic griddles have more even heat across their surface, maintain temps better and have better recovery time. Well worth it. We had a 36" Wolf w/ a 12" that served us very well for 15 years. We now have a 48" RNB w/ a 24" griddle. It is not as even across its surface as the Wolf nor does it maintain as tight of temps over time but is still far better than any kind of burner top griddle.

Following this discussion as well for our future remodel too @Jesse Schroffel are you at all worried about the cleaning of the BS burners?

@opaone can I ask why you switched from Wolf to Blue Star and when you had your Wolf did you ever use your griddle as a slow cooking burner?

Thank you!!

Compared to BS the new Wolf burners (we had the older semi-sealed) are inefficient, difficult to cook on and create uncomfortable heat for the cook. They throw a lot of heat out to the sides of the pan and around the pan and not so much to the middle where it's needed. For us that was the decision.

Compliments of Covid we've not done any entertaining since we've had the RNB but I think it should work well for sauces and other things (We should try it even if we don't need to). Turn one side on low and leave the other side off and you've got an inline french top. Move stuff around to find the right heat.

Here's an old thread (there's many) about the same debate. I find that the grill is more flexible as Trevor suggested and that my removable griddle over the grill heats more evenly than when I have tried to use it over the burners. Removable griddle = easier cleanup.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3183344/6-burner-pro-rangetop-vs-4-burner-with-grill#n=24

@opaone

“Compared to BS the new Wolf burners (we had the older semi-sealed) are inefficient, difficult to cook on and create uncomfortable heat for the cook. They throw a lot of heat out to the sides of the pan and around the pan and not so much to the middle where it's needed.”

——

I actually have the new Wolf burners and they work great. They don’t throw heat out past the sides of the pan unless you are using a 5” sauce pan on highest heat. There is a small pan burner.

The difference in performance in burners has nothing to do with the open, sealed or semi sealed burner tray. Along with shape, it has to do with being capped or not. The old Wolf burners were capped burners. The cap gives you a little flare on highest heat but with the dual stacked burners it isn’t as much as something like 5 star. This is an 11” pan on high heat.

The star burner gives a better dispersal of heat which is a benefit for cast iron or steel cookware which are poor conductors of heat. The pan needs to be sized to the burner to take advantage of this. If your pans have enough copper or aluminum, the pan disperses the heat on a ring burner. I move my pans around anyway so even my CI and steel work fine. The BS star because it is uncapped and the burner ports are aligned along the sides of the rays of the star does keep more heat to the middle as you turn it up which may be good for a wok but not so much for a 14” CI skillet.

This compares a capped(Thermador) star vs uncapped (BS) star

If you are using a burner with the heat going around the pan no matter which burner, you need to turn it down.

“thermostatic griddles have more even heat across their surface, maintain temps better and have better recovery time”

——

The thermostatic control has nothing to do with how evenly a griddle surface heats. evenness of heat has to do with heat source, the metal the griddle is made of and the thickness.

The BS and Wolf heat source are pictured above in my post but Thermador has this with an aluminum griddle so probably more even and responsive than the other two as a thermostatically controlled griddle.

These things will also determine how fast a surface will recover temperature or how quickly it changes if you change the setting.

It might be helpful to read about how different materials heat.

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/120/Common-Materials-of-Cookware

The temperature of the surface varies more with the thermostat because the heat source comes on and off. With an add on over a gas burner, the heat is constant once adjusted just like cooking with a pan.

"The temperature of the surface varies more with the thermostat because the heat source comes on and off. With an add on over a gas burner, the heat is constant once adjusted just like cooking with a pan."

Not really. When using a burner top (or grill top) griddle there is NO setting that will result in a constant temp. If you set it low enough to maintain 350°f without cooking then as soon as you add food it will quickly drop down to perhaps 200°f and then have a very long recovery period. If you set it high enough for proper recovery then it will range up to maybe 600°f before stabilizing.

This is why thermostatic griddles have thermostats - to measure the temp of the griddle and make automatic adjustments to keep it within a specific range of perhaps ±25°f of set temp. To accomplish this with a burner top you'd need someone to constantly measure the temp and make adjustments to the burners.

You are largely correct about evenness across the surface and these are why the BS griddle is not as even across its surface as Wolf. Wolf has IR burners which are more even than the tubes that BS uses and it has thicker griddle material. The thicker material also helps to even out the temp variations over time that the thermostat is controlling which results in slower temp changes and in Wolf being able to maintain a tighter temp range over time. A few years ago I posted the results of my tests of both of these.

Generally thermostatic griddles, in addition to a thermostatic control, will always have better heat source and better material than burner top so are referenced as a class of griddle that includes all of these attributes. So when someone says 'thermostatic griddle' or 'thermostatic flat top' they are referring to this class of appliances not just to the control.

@rabbit2348, to answer your question about how the Thermador rangetop burners simmer...only the left rear burner is a true simmer. That burner has a continuous extremely low flame. The other burners simmer by cycling on and off.

What you do is turn the flame down until it disappears...without turning the knob all the way to off. The blue light will be on at the knob, at this point. Then, every minute or two, it will turn itself on to the lowest flame, staying on for a couple of minutes...and then cycle off again. Bluestar and Capital C users will scoff at this. However, we have adjusted, and have no issues.

Neither of us wanted open burners. We compared the Wolf rangetop with Thermador. The star burners on the Thermador, are much more efficient than the single row circular burners on Wolf. The center of the stars reach the middle of pots and pans, where the circular burners do not. Also, the Thermador is much easier to clean. The drip cavities are made of thick, high quality porcelain. Anything that sticks to the porcelain, comes up with the scrubby side of blue sponge, and dish soap, or if the spill has been left for days, a bit of Mr. Clean on the scrubby side. Hope this helps!

@opaone

”When using a burner top (or grill top) griddle there is NO setting that will result in a constant temp.”

—-—

You are mixing apples and oranges. The amount of heat from the thermostatically controlled griddle goes on and off depending on the parameters of the thermostat. With a burner, you turn it on and heat goes to the griddle at a fixed rate.

“add food it will quickly drop down to perhaps 200°f and then have a very long recovery period. If you set it high enough for proper recovery then it will range up to maybe 600°f before stabilizing.”

——

200°F and 600°F???? What???

You get a drop when you add food to a griddle no matter what you have.

If you put a piece of meat on the griddle, it pulls heat out of that spot no matter what griddle you have.

-If you have a Thermador griddle, aluminum, the heat comes in from the surrounding parts of the griddle and eventually the temperature drops over by the sensor and triggers the heat to come on and the heat makes it’s way back over across the griddle surface.

-with BS, it does the same thing but takes longer because steel conducts the heat more slowly

-with an aluminum griddle over burners, the skill of the user comes into play. I might know my cooking equipment and preheat where I know it needs to be to avoid much heat loss. As soon as I load it, I might turn it down. The amount of heat applied is constant unless I make an adjustment. I still have a feed back mechanism like a thermostat but it is my eyes. I only need to make an adjustment rarely. I bet a lot of people do this with a thermostatically controlled griddle to avoid heat loss.

“To accomplish this with a burner top you'd need someone to constantly measure the temp and make adjustments to the burners.”

——

I don’t need to measure. I watch how my food cooks. Do you use an electric frying pan or pans on your BS burner? do you measure the temperature constantly to make adjustments on the BS?

“Generally thermostatic griddles, in addition to a thermostatic control, will always have better heat source and better material than burner top so are referenced as a class of griddle that includes all of these attributes”

—-—

You might want to read some of the articles I have posted now and in the past to catch up on the science behind all of this. I’ll give you that the built in looks more “cheffy”. There are different characteristics to all kinds of set ups. They appeal to different types of cooks for different reasons. There is just no one best.

@darbuck Thank you for the very helpful information. I was trying to decide between the Wolf and the Thermador. I'm going to go with Thermador.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. I ended up going with a 48” bluestar with the griddle. If I had gone 36” would have been a much bigger debate. I know the wolf griddle is better but I just really wanted the bluestar burner. I do much more high heat cooking than super low simmering.

"You are mixing apples and oranges. The amount of heat from the thermostatically controlled griddle goes on and off depending on the parameters of the thermostat. With a burner, you turn it on and heat goes to the griddle at a fixed rate."

If it were that simple then thermostatic griddles would simply have burners that provided heat to the griddle at a fixed rate. But it's not that simple. There's a reason that thermostatic griddles turn the heat on/off so frequently and why professional chef's and cooks and many amateurs all use these thermostatic griddles...

With your setup of a griddle overlayed on burners and doing the set & forget constant heat routine you get huge temp swings. In a 70°f room with a griddle that you want to maintain 350°f then you'll need to apply about 130°f of heat - this is the heat required to replace that lost to ambient air at the griddle surface. So far so good.

While the heat lost to 70° ambient air is relatively constant, that lost to cooking food is not, so the amount of heat applied needs to vary in order to maintain a constant griddle temp.

Example: Pour a bunch of pancakes or throw on some frozen burgers on a 350° griddle and the amount of heat lost is much greater.

- With burners providing heat at a fixed rate the griddle temp will slowly drop to perhaps 200°f and then begin to rise slowly because it is still getting only the fixed 130° of heat that had been necessary to maintain the temp in ambient air. So it will take about 15-30 minutes to get back to 350°f.

- A thermostatic griddle on the other hand handles this differently. As soon as the temp drops to 325° it turns on it's burners providing perhaps 900°f of heat and so it jumps back up to 350 somewhat quickly. In reality it will let it rise to about 375 and then when it drops back to 325 it will turn on the burners again until 375 - lather rinse repeat.

You can try to replicate a thermostatic with your burners by turning them on/off/up/down but that's a nearly full-time job just monitoring the temps and adjusting the burners. Why not have a thermostat do it for you and more accurately?

You can also turn up your fixed heat higher. You're still dealing with fixed heat though so you still have wider temp swings, a deeper dwell and a longer recovery except instead of 15-30 minutes recovery you might have 10-20 minutes (vs <1 min for thermostatic) but now your griddle will get too hot.

If you were to chart the temps... The thermostatic would be a sawtooth jumping up and down between 325 and 375 - closely averaging 350. The fixed heat source would be more steady until food is added and then it would decline to 200 and then slowly begin heating up again until it reaches is balance temp 20 minutes later.

"I don’t need to measure. I watch how my food cooks. Do you use an electric frying pan or pans on your BS burner? do you measure the temperature constantly to make adjustments on the BS?"

Griddles are a different tool than frypans over a burner and serve a different purpose. Many things can be cooked both ways and some come out just as well both ways but many things are much different when cooked on one or the other.

A key feature of a griddle or flat-top is the reliable repeatable constant temp. Whether for pancakes or veggies or sauces or steaks. The big flat surface is a feature as well and the most visible feature but it's only one half of the reason for having a griddle or flat-top.

On the other hand, sometimes you want the big flat surface but with varying heat. Some people refer to a plate over burners with fixed heat or manually controlled heat a plancha. I'm not sure how accurate that is, though in many cases where it's over a single powerful burner it probably is a plancha. In any case though, this is very different from a griddle or flat-top as the heat varies much more - over time (longer dwell and recovery) and across the surface (hotter middle). Alex Roberts is the chef at Alma in Minneapolis and is a master w/ a plancha. A feature is that when you throw food on it's hot surface it cools down and then slowly recovers. But nearby his plancha is a constant temp flat-top - two very different tools for different purposes and different results.

For example. Pancakes come out better on a constant temp griddle. Veggies are IMO usually better on a plancha (or a griddle overlayed on burners) that is very hot and so sears them but then as it cools continues to cook at a reduced temp. Burgers or steaks on a griddle or flat-top will be more even inside and out while burgers on a plancha are more likely to be less done inside than out so take your pick. Sauces - constant temp griddle.

We have a 24" thermostatic griddle. And also a 12"x22" plate that just like yours can be placed over burners to use as a pseudo plancha. This is no different than having steel frypans and stainless frypans and nonstick frypans. Don't expect a good fond from a nonstick.