Four griddles, two tools
Lodge’s griddle range looks like a size ladder and isn’t. There are two genuinely different products in it:
- Two-burner slabs. The 20 x 10.5-inch Pro-Grid at 13.5 lb and the 16.75 x 9.5-inch reversible at 9.38 lb. These exist to cook a whole batch at once — a family’s pancakes, eight rashers of bacon, four smash burgers.
- Single-burner discs. The 11-inch square at 5.9 lb and the 10.5-inch round at 4.51 lb. These are for one or two items: a quesadilla, two grilled cheeses, a stack of tortillas.
If you buy the wrong category you will not use the thing. A two-burner griddle in a household of two is a weekend tool that lives at the back of a cupboard; a single-burner disc for a family of five is three rounds of pancakes and a cold table.
Why we rate the 16.75-inch over the 20-inch
The Pro-Grid is the more impressive object and the reversible is the one people keep using. Three reasons, in order of how much they matter:
1. Your sink. A 20-inch griddle does not lie flat in most domestic sinks. That means washing it at an angle, one half at a time, every single time you use it. The 16.75-inch is not guaranteed to fit either, but it fits far more often.
2. Four pounds. 13.5 lb versus 9.38 lb sounds like a modest gap until you are lifting it out of a cupboard at floor level with a wet hand. Weight is what decides whether heavy cookware gets used or admired.
3. The area difference is smaller than the length suggests.The big griddle is 210 square inches; the smaller one is about 159. That is a real difference — roughly a quarter — but the smaller griddle still gives you around 40 per cent more flat surface than a 12-inch skillet, which is the comparison that matters when you are deciding whether you need a griddle at all.
The flaw every two-burner griddle has
The strip between the two burners has no flame under it, and iron does not move heat sideways quickly. So the middle of any two-burner griddle runs cooler than the two hot zones, and no amount of money fixes it — it is a property of the metal, not a manufacturing defect.
What works is Lodge’s own preheating advice, applied with more patience than it asks for. Lodge suggests three to five minutes on medium-low for cookware generally; on a 20-inch griddle, give it ten on medium-low and let the heat migrate. Then use the plate deliberately: pancakes and burgers over the burners, finished food parked in the middle to stay warm. Anyone selling you a cast iron griddle with “perfectly even heat” is describing something iron cannot do.
The grill side, honestly
Both two-burner Lodges are reversible, and the ridged face is the reason a lot of people buy them. It is worth setting expectations: griddle-back ridges are shallower than a dedicated grill pan’s, so you get marks and rather less of the fat drainage that makes a grill pan useful. The genuine advantage of the reversible design is scale — a two-burner grill surface is enormous, which matters if you are cooking for a crowd indoors.
If the marks are the point rather than a bonus, buy a proper grill pan instead and keep the griddle flat.
Seasoning a griddle is the awkward part
The method is identical to a skillet — a thin coat of oil taken past its smoke point until it polymerizes — but the logistics are not. A 20-inch griddle sits diagonally in most domestic ovens, if it fits at all. In practice people season a big griddle in sections on the stovetop, or on a gas grill with the lid down, which is genuinely the better tool for the job and one Lodge itself describes for cooking. Our seasoning guide covers the method and the oil guide covers what to use.
The verdict
Buy the 16.75 x 9.5-inch reversible if you cook breakfast for three or four. Buy the 20-inch Pro-Grid only if you regularly feed five or more and you have measured your sink and your cupboard first — it is the better griddle and the worse purchase for most kitchens.
If you mostly cook for one or two, skip both. The 11-inch square gives you more usable area than a round of similar width because you are not throwing away the corners, at under six pounds. The full ranking is in best cast iron griddles.