Side by Side Comparison of: Hamilton Beach vs Oster

Great Grill/Griddle! I was looking for a grill but I happened to come across this one. But a grill and a griddle for under $40 so I got it. Works great! And you have the option of a grill on one side and griddle on the other. Or a grill/grill or griddle/griddle. Great buy!

Got this for my husband birthday and he absolutely loves it! He is a pancake fanatic and says this is the bed griddle he's had ( weve been through 4)

Bought this as a gift, but I was there when it got tried out the first time and there were no complaints. Having two separately controlled burners was really nice. The little grease catching pan seemed to work fine and the heat levels were great for cooking all breakfast items.

I absolutely love it! It's convenient and easy-to-use. I also adore how easy it is to clean and the split grill/fry pan option. I'm always making kalbi and veggies on opposite ends. Don't forget about pancakes and eggs. Fast and easy.

A lot of reviews have stated that grease runs into the coils... this is so if you aren't using the product right! As a food service professional I love this. Easy to use after long night and early mornings. The grease or liquids drain properly if it goes through the drain hole. If you let it overflow on the top or bottom your screwed and it's very difficult to clean up but it's very easy if you use it right! Love that I can just pop the grill plates into the dishwasher and start my day!

This griddle is BIG. Read the instructions for assembly and configuration. The instructions are very well laid out. My wife was extremely happy with the dual temp controls. I liked the dual faces griddles, the slotted meat griddle sides are sloped so that grease drains to the center drip pan. the flat sides are not sloped making it easier to cook pancakes and eggs. I would definitely recommend this product.

I love this Oster product. The nonstick surface is easy to use, clean and store. It heats up quickly and holds several pancakes at once. The machine has a reversible grill for steaks, chops and ribs with a tray suspended beneath to catch juices. Make sure it is cooled down completely before storing away. I would highly recommend this product.

I did not realize the impact making pancakes for your family could have on their childhood memories until my husband and I recalled what special Saturday or Sunday pancake breakfasts were when our mother's made pancakes. This griddle got great reviews and it's lived up to it's reputation. I loved ours so much I sent one to our grown daughter and her family. Now our grandson's favorite breakfast is Mickey Mouse pancakes. This one makes the pretty golden brown crusts at 350=375 degrees that we all love on our pancakes. Start making family memories this weekend.

This is an excellent grill. As advertised; no gimmicks. It's worth the money. I do a lot of cooking and i alternate between stove, oven and grill very often, depending on what i am cooking. I bought it and i have been using it very frequently, almost every day. It does the job, it's great!. I recommend it to any one who is planning to buy an electric grill. There's no mess after you cook; just run warm water with a rag or sponge and dish washing liquid and the grease and residue comes right off, no need to scrub it. It's just excellent and it's worth buying it. It is a must have for the kitchen lovers, it just simplify the work.

I bought this skillet after reading other reviews that said this model cooks evenly. I had previously been disappointed with a Farberware skillet that cooked very unevenly, so this was important to me. This model did not disappoint. When cooking French toast or pancakes, there was no noticeable difference in browning between the edges and the middle. I also like that the griddle easily disconnects from the base, making it very easy to clean. I definitely recommend this skillet!

I wanted an indoor grill since going outside to use the BBQ in winter isn't always advisable in the climate I live in. I completely rid myself from all the traditional non stick coatings on everything in my home. I have a ceramic coated frying pan that I love very much and was pleased to finally find a grill with a ceramic coating. The only thing missing is a cover like you would have on a BBQ, but I improvise and use a piece of tin foil with some holes in it. It is very easy to clean, just use a rag with soap and water, no scrubbing necessary. There's also an aluminum drip tray below the grill to catch the grease and juices. I just fill it up with water before using the grill then nothing sticks to it. Makes for easy cleanup. So far I've cooked steaks, chicken and pork chops on it and was very pleased with the results. It's not a replacement for the outdoor BBQ, but it's a close second.

I have been using my DuraCeramic Reversible Grill and Griddle at least once each week for more than two months now and couldn't be happier. It heats evenly, cleans easily and is so versatile. The included booklet says nothing about cooking times so here are the settings I use: For eggs, bacon, and hamburgers I set the control to 325 degrees. For chops and ham I use 350 degrees. I grill fish or cook pancakes at 400 degrees and steaks at 425. Its important to preheat the grill/griddle before use. You can't expect fast or even cooking on a cold appliance. Cleanup is easy; I use paper towels to wipe cooking residue off the surface of the grill/griddle and grill pan and then wash all three pieces in hot soapy water with a soft sponge. My appliance still looks like new and does a great job of cooking. Even the whitefish was tender, flaky and didn't stick.

Easy to clean and use:) It's a little difficult to snap the griddles back into place- I might not be giving them enough credit, but I feel as though I might break them while trying to re-attach.

It cooks evenly cleans up very easily. Great for using in the winter when it's too cold to go outside and grill. Looking for an actual grill. Others we looked at only had smooth side and not the raised grill part. Impressed with it.

Great product. Very flexible, I was cooking bacon on the grill and eggs on the griddle. Temperature is very even through the surface on the griddle side. Have four stars because it's not add even add the griddle side, so not very consistent there. But acceptable for the overall quality. Cleaning up is easier too. Don't have to put the whole griddle in the sink to clean off, just pop the metal cooking surface off and clean.

I have used this item for some time now and feel comfortable leaving a review. I ended up having to return the original due to one of the knobs falling off and the metal pin falling out. Since receiving the second one I haven't had a single problem and it's so nice being able to cook different things at the same time such as bacon and pancakes.

This grill/griddle is sturdy and works well. We like the flexibility of being able to use it as a grill and a griddle although it is not as spacious as a normal griddle. Since we are empty nesters, it is nice to be able to use the griddle for cooking bacon and also use the griddle at the same time for eggs or pancakes. I do wish it folded in half for storage as it appeared to do in the picture.

Speaking as a highly trained chef, this is quite a convenient home griddle. Takes a few minutes longer than I would like to heat up but cleaning is a breeze. Simply unclip the surface and right into the sink with a wet rag (no scrubby needed, nor should one be used). Our old griddle didn't come apart like this one did and only had one temperature setting, making it less than desirable for multiple items.I would definitely purchase this again!We use it to make a range of items from warming sandwiches, quesadillas, risotto cakes, all natural hot dogs and buns, eggs and more!

The surface of the grill is very nice, very non-sticky. It doesn't get 4 stars from me because the power plug is lose, and the light on the dial flickers on and off, so I'm constantly adjusting the dial as I cook, and the heat doesn't seem to directly relate to what the dial is pointed at, my husband thought I should send it back the dial is so lose.Also, I'll mention something somebody else noted, the edge of the grill is quite shallow, this means if you pour eggs out on the surface to scramble them it will run over the edge into the grease pan or down the surface into the grease holes. I put potatoes as a damn in front of the grease holes, to stop this, but it didn't help enough for 3 eggs, I ended up having to prop the end up and pour eggs from the still clean grease pan, back onto the surface. I think toast with a hole in the center will be my next try cooking eggs on this.

I just use this as a griddle. I bought it hoping to get something with even heating, no hot spots. In this regard it is almost perfectly. About 3/4" along the ends (where the drip slots are and the opposite end) are slightly cooler than the rest of the surface. Everywhere else in between, from edge to edge, the heat is very uniform, no hot spots, no cold spots. Perfect for pancakes, bacon, etc. It also has a very good non-stick surface. I just wish the drip tray caught everything that falls thru the gap between the cooking surface and the frame. If it did that, and the drip tray could be slid out the front without removing the cooking surface, then I'd have given it 5 stars.

This griddle cooks great but I don't like how butter splatters all over when I'm making french toast. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but my cheap $20 griddle didn't do that until 5 years later which is the very reason I decided to get a new one and upgrade to this one. I have yet to try grilling with it on the other side of the cook plate so maybe I will enjoy it more this cold season. You can also detach the cooking plate and put it in the dishwasher which is nice however I still wash it by hand since it's so big - just something I do with large pans, etc.

Let's cut to the chase.PROS -Double sidedCeramic coatingHeats up fastEasy to cleanSolid and well madeNo Teflon or other chemicalsCONS -Cooking area is a bit small/tightNot slippery nonstick like a brand new piece of TeflonThe temp dial is a bit flimsyOverall, this grill/griddle was a pleasant, affordable and welcome upgrade after our old Sunbeam griddle died. We did not want to buy a chemical coating like Teflon, so as long as you are careful and use non-metallic tools (which you have had to all these years anyway) and season the grill/griddle from time to time you will be OK. The Sunbeam model we had offered a larger cooking surface but was griddle only. For the 3 of us, this grill is fine. If you have a large family, you might to buy something bigger but I doubt you will find a reversible version, which means you will wind up buying a grill and a griddle.To date, we have grilled and griddled everything with this almost every single day since buying it a month ago. Fruit, pancakes, peppers, burgers, steaks, chicken, fish, turkey, sausages, bacon, pork chops, etc. I wanted to really run it through the wringer to make sure it was worth keeping. It is. Everything cooked properly, evenly and the nonstick ceramic was a pleasure. I don't think I could go back to anything else.Clean up is easy. This item quickly can be disassembled by simply lifting the handles and pulling upward, giving you access to the drip pan. All parts can then be cleaned and stored away in moments. Our old Sunbeam had a plastic grease drip pan that never worked well and was annoying to clean and often could overflow. The Oster's drip pan is a large aluminum pan below the grill that is rock solid and catches everything.There are only two things I would change -#1 - Bump the quality of the temp dial and give me something more precise and tuned.#2 - Either increase the cooking surface size or offer a similar model with a larger cooking area.Highly Recommended !!!

This Grill/Griddle get hot and get hot fast. Read one report that it doesnt get hot enough. I cant agree. We have gone thru a few and this is by far the hottest. One suggestion. If cooking a thick steak or chicken place a cover over it. It will cook much faster. Lets face it, nothing is truly better to cook on other that a gas or charcoal grill. I would definately recommend this product. One catch it doesnt really clean great. It cleans up well but eventually leaves some staining. Oh anther thing I would still recommend a non stick spray or olive oil just to make sure your eggs come off nicely.

I had a teflon grill/griddle (West Bend I think) that I bought 15 years ago or more. I loved it but it was done. I bought a Oster electric skillet from Target last year. It sucked. The food stuck the very first time in used it and it never got any better, oddly enough. So I decided to research my next purchase and I started with stainless steel. All the reviews I found said that the stainless outside the heating elements carried no heat. This means the effective cooking area is smaller than advertised.I didn't really like the idea of ceramic but there were multiple reviews stating that the cooking surface held its temperature and heated evenly. I like to cook pancakes and I want them to look beautiful as well as taste good.This grill does it! It's true that its almost too slippery. The first time I cooked I did use a little oil. I found that the oil got thick and sticky and inhibited the non-stickiness. I have since gone without and all is well.It takes a long time to come up to temperature and the "heating" light is on a lot but I do find it to be consistent and even.I've had it for 2 months or so and have cooked on it 5 or 6 times

Smaller then I wanted and the drainage in the center takes away valuable space. The grill has come in handy and overall I'm happy with the purchase but if I had to do it over I would look at another optio

Thought it would be a little bigger, and the knobs are cheaply made and wobbly. It works and serves it purpose, but for the price i thought it would had been better quality

Meh, it works. Nonstick finish is coming off after a year or two of using it sparingly. Also the numbers on the nobs are coming off. Also pretty hard to clean. Even after soaking it for 3 days, not even joking, chicken was still stuck on it. If possible I would recommend a propane grill, even a small camping one if you have too, over this. The flat side was great for pancakes though. Flat griddles are usually cheaper though. I would have just gotten a cheaper non reversable flat one if I could do it again.

I bought this for my son. I have one that is a year old. Cooking oil removes the temperature numbers from the dials quickly. You then have to guess what the setting it is on. It also allows grease to get on top of the heating elements and inside the unit. The good thing about it is the removeable grill plates that you can soak in the sink. I don't expect it to last another year. I'll probably buy another brand as a replacement. Most of these portable grills seem to turn into junk in a year or so.

I have been using this product for almost a year now and I suppose its done the job. It heats up fairly quickly and drains nicely into the pull-out tray underneath, and the reversible grill plates come off easily for cleaning. Complaints would be that the grilling surface seems to have lost a lot of its coating and now food wants to stick to it more easily, and not long after I started using it the numbers on the temperature control knobs rubbed off completely. Overall it's just OK, I would definitely try something different next time.

I was very excited upon placing my order; however, I must say my expectations weren't quite met. Like others have said, the nonstick finish isn't particularly great. Things stick, albeit not as bad as with no finish. In addition, after only three washings there is a spot where the finish has started to wear. Others have complained about the knobs. I have had no problems with them, but something about their movement seems cheap. They don't glide smoothly, plus they also have a sound. Overall, I'm not that dissatisfied, but do kind of wish I would have gotten something different.

It didn't come with an instruction manual, so I didn't know you were suppose to treat it before using, so everything started sticking, and the surface is now stained. I got online to find a manual, and we started treating it with butter, not margarine, and it has helped, but the stains are still there, I really like it, as long as my food doesn't stick, just wished I would have known to treat it from the beginning.

It was supposed to be the best on the market but the cord doesn't fit tightly enough . I wouldn't buy one again.

Worked great for first few uses. 9 months of using weekly & I'm starting to get a buildup around what I assume are the heating elements & food is now starting to stick to those spots.

Small, I have a hard time fitting 6 pancakes or I have to make them smaller than usual. The worst part is that the material is so slippery that it is hard to flip food, I have to maneuver with spatula and another tool to stop it from slipping everywhere. Yes, it is non-stick for the dough but I add fruit (bananas and blueberries) to my pancakes and those stick everywhere.It does the job, I'm just not thrilled with this item.

I guess it's okay, but not the really slick surface I expected. Pancakes, especially those with blueberries and/or bananas, stick. After a couple of tries,, I found that treating the surface with an oiled paper towel took care of the problem. Considering this was supposed to be the best griddle out there, I'm not that impressed. I have a frying pan, (Contempoary Cooking) that has such a slick surface that nothing sticks, which was what I was expecting, but didn't get. So, back to the drawing board guys, you can do better.

Great product. A few things I should warn before purchasing however. The grease tray doesn't match the grease holes on the cooking tray exactly so sometimes if the tray is shifted, it will miss as any grease or food particles fall through. The base has two thin arms that hold the grease tray up and one of mine in one corner was broken, not causing the above problem, and not enough to warrant a return, but enough to mention due to the price of the item. It cooks Great on both sides and is very easy to clean. The detachable base makes storage so much easier. It is great quality overall and I am glad to have bought it.

I bought this to replace our waffle maker and our griddle. I wanted something that folded up (which our old griddle did), but no one seems to make them anymore. I thought this was one that folded, but it doesn't. Looking at the photo, it looked like you would be able to fold it where the space in the middle is, but it's just there so you can have a griddle and a grill at the same time or swap them out. I sent it back and ended up getting the Cuisinart 5-in-1 panini maker with the waffle irons to change out and it definitely suits its purpose.If I had read the description more carefully I would've known it didn't fold, but my search was specifically for a folding one and this came up. My bad for not paying closer attention. It's pretty bulky as well.

at first I thought it would be great, and a great idea. but it is very small and had a hard time trying to fit everything on it for a breakfast for 4.wish I had looked around a little more, as I would not have bought this one.it's used now so I can't return.nice idea if It was just me.

It's very small and the plates don't seem to be angled towards the grease slot so everything pools up on the outer edges. There's no way to turn it off while it is plugged in. The grills don't get very hot at all so good luck cooking something like meat on it (I tried to cook some sausage and it took probably 45 minutes and I had to put a pot lid over them to retain some heat... ridiculous). But, the plates are dishwasher safe so that's nice.

I have not used this very much and sad to say the lettering is rubbing off of the dials so I have no idea what the temperature is. I also do not like that you have to unplug it to actually turn it off. Not a very good product.

When it actually works it's great! The problem is that it's got some sort of short or something. It'll be in the middle of cooking and lights go out, ready lights turn off and the heat isn't on, then it'll turn back on...it's a pain and it'll cost more money to fix then what I paid.

When the grease goes into the trap, it runs down underneath the griddle plates, instead of into the grease trap. Took me half an hour to clean the coils and tray after the first use. Tried it again, same thing. It's fine for things like pancakes, but nothing that emits a lot of grease, like bacon!

10/04/17 UPDATE From 5 stars to 2! It still splatters all over the place. The so called non stick is a JOKE! Basically stopped working completely. Have to use some butter but of course that will splatter all over. I haven't sprayed non stick on it because it will get all over the stove top. Yes I know I could move it and spray but it will still get on other things. Has got two long stains over what appears to be the heating coils below. They cannot be removed. I didn't try steel wool but I don't want to destroy the surface. Then again since the so call non stick no longer works maybe that won't be such a bad idea. the stains seem to be really deep. I truly dislike this thing! About the only good thing I can say is it starts getting hot really quick.===================================================================================================ORIGINAL REVIEW:You may wonder why the 5 stars when it has some faults. One was mine and not its. Basically it appears to be very well made. More the non stick material than anything else. I was dying to try it out so I cooked up a small steak. It was really well done when I prefer med rare. Now for the faults.1. Would it kill Oster to make up a small temp/time chart for a bunch of items that it will be used for? I have always used the grills with the topthat flips over so both sides are cooked at the same time. Their chart, if I could find one would not be much use. I found just such a chart by Omaha Steaks but it only has steak thickness & desired doneness. The chart however does not mention cooking temp so it looks like I'll have to come up with my own chart.2. Not having a top it splattered grease on the handles. This could be HUGE problem! I didn't use any butter. If this turns out to be too muchof a problem I will seriously look into their 2 sided grills made of the same material.3. This sucker is huge! Takes up a large portion of my stove top.4. It was too big to fit in my dishwasher. It's a portable one though I don't move it around. (Don't ask.) This is the one I was able tofix. I simply used my battery operated screwdriver & removed the 4 screws securing the two handles. Even though I had alreadywashed it. With the handles attached it stuck up from the sink a lot!. With the two handles removed it barely fit into my dishwasher.Phew! Here's a tip if you want to do the same thing. There are 4 metal spacers that set into recesses in the handles & frame. But theydo NOT stay there on their own. Scotch tape wasn't working but duct tape seems to have worked well. Hmmmmm I might simplynot replace the handles next time. I have no reason to move the grill while using it. The handles may help the plates nestle into thebase better? Lastly, I found something interesting. All the info here on Amazon for this model states it cooks 20% faster. Than what they never say. The boxthis grill came in proudly states it's 30%. As a famous Alice once said "curiouser & curiouser". GGGGBTW it seems to heat up really FAST!

This griddle works fine. My biggest gripe is the non-stick surface. Within a week, it started to fail. But I continued to use it. It's been 10 months now since I bought it and the surface is bad. See photo..... and that's not food stuck on it. This is the surface gone to the birds.

I wish it wasn't too late to return it. It was non-stick for about a week.

Have used for a couple of months now. It does take a couple minutes longer to reach temperature, but well worth it for how even and well it holds temperature. Easy to clean because tray lifts out. The only wish i have is a slightly larger griddle size.6 month update. Sorry to say that the grill no longer holds a steady temperature an does not heat evenly. Too bad because I really liked it at first.

Great idea, but our thermostat insert didn't fit properly and heating elements left dark lines in food. Just didn't have confidence in the unit.

I wish people would write reviews after using the product for a while. In this case, it would have kept me from purchasing it and finding out how poorly it held up to almost daily use after less than 2 months, but more than the 30 days allowed for a return. The grill is slick at first, and then becomes stickier and stickier, even at low temperatures. It becomes hard to keep clean, and after while you need to use oil to keep food from sticking to it. It's a vicious cycle, since browned oil is almost impossible to clean off the grill, especially from its edges.

The temperature controls busted off the third time we used this grill. It also allowed the grease to drain under to the actual burners and caused smoke and grease staining. Waste of money. Do not buy this.

Junk, This is the messiest Griddle I have ever owned, bacon grease would not even drain into the catch basin, and whatever grease did make it close to it would run around it onto the counter top, INTO THE GARBAGE IT WENT SINCE IT WAS TOO LATE FOR A REFUND!!

Used this a few times and the returned it. The numbers on the temperature dial started to come off. It takes almost 20-25 mins to heat up. When it said it was at 350 degrees I tested it with another thermometer and both sides were about 30-40 degrees off.

Do not purchase if you plan to use it longer than 6 months. Both buttons fell off, thought I could turn on by using needle nose pliers, would not heat up. I should have listened to several reviews which stated "buttons will fade and fall off". I contacted Hamilton beach, they charge $16 for new replacement shipping, I refused because it is not worth $16 imo. I guarantee the people giving positive reviews will change them in a few months. I bought a cast iron reversible gill/griddle to replace it.

After using this five time, I must say I am extremely disappointment because it does not hold a consistent temperature. It constantly is heating to try and achieve the set temp. This is disaster from a culinary viewpoint. It definitely make my "Do Not Buy" list. If I had saved the box I would be returning it today.

I bought this less than two months ago and it leaks grease from the bottom. It also sticks (especially eggs) when you cook if you don't put a lot of spray on it. I thought it was a nice idea to have both sides (smooth and griddle) and that you can put the trays in the dishwasher for cleaning. Doesn't help for cleaning if grease is all over the kitchen! One other point to note...it's not as big as it may seem. All around, I'm very disappointed. I can't even return it because it's out of the 30 day return window. Buyer beware on this one!!

Griddle side ok, but grill fails to perform. Cooking ground chuck hamburger (85/15) after the first use the grill was very hard to clean due to burned on residue. The next time I coated the grill with cooking oil, and my results were about the same. After lots of scrubbing with a plastic type sponge (the ones that are so popular) the grill was still black in some areas. Back to my gas grill, it is far less trouble. I must say that the hamburgers were great tasting. The cook top of my stove is vented to the outside and I placed the grill on my stove top and turned on the vent. No problems with smoke, etc.The griddle does good on eggs, bacon and french toast. However, brown spots are appearing on the griddle top. The griddle does not hold set temperature well. After the light goes out the temperature dropped over 25 degrees before coming back on. Oh yes, grease does drip down onto the plastic frame. Not a lot but very annoying an hard to clean.Had to change review. Tried one last time to cook bacon and eggs. Bacon stuck and so did my eggs. While cooking my bacon the grill stopped heating and came back on 4 minutes later. No wonder my bacon was grease soaked.After 10 days or so I decided to return the grill to Amazon. As always, great service from Amazon.

Before buying I looked at a lot of different brands and reviews. I selected this one even though 16% of the reviews were 1 or 2 stars (that is about 48 out of the 286 reviews).This worked fantastic the first 2 weeks, heated evenly, bacon was perfect, burgers were great. After 2 weeks I tried cooking bacon. I pre-heated the unit, then put the bacon on the griddle. I noticed right away the bacon was sticking to the griddle, and where the bacon was touching the griddle it was getting burned, while the other parts were not cooking, it then started smoking. The griddle started to get brown spots.I tried it again and I noticed that the unit was getting very hot, and it was starting to smoke even at 350 degrees. I also noticed that the plug was barely plugged into the unit, and it was very loose. I did read on line that this was a problem with this grill. I am trying to get in touch with Oster now to see if I can get a replacement plug, hopefully that will help.When working this is a fantastic grill/griddle.

I have to agree with those who have said that this was the worse grill/griddle they have ever purchased! I followed the 'seasoning" instructions to the letter and while the first time it worked pretty well, it was all down hill from there, getting progressively worse! I do not use a grill/griddle very often and I have grilled chicken breasts on the grill side once and pancakes on the griddle side less than a half dozen times. The last time (pictures) the pancakes stuck to the griddle so bad I just throw them out. There is also a burnt line that is visible on the griddle surface, just above the heating element (pictures) even though I always followed the recommended temperature recommendations in the instructions. Finally, the last picture was taken after the griddle was washed. I would not recommend this product to anyone.Note: I have since purchased the Cuisinart GR-4N 5 in 1 "Griddler" and I could not be happier with it. Outstanding product and the BEST grill/griddle I have ever purchased. (note) the last picture is after washing

The first griddle we ordered arrived and we used it immediately to make pancakes - only to find the temperature probe would not stay seated in the socket. After several attempts to get the griddle to heat I punted and made the pancaked on our old griddle. Amazon replaced the griddle immediately. When we used the new griddle the first time it worked pretty well. The probe snapped into the socket and stayed. I didn't get the even heating some claim in their reviews, when checked with an infrared thermometer I definitely found hot spots and cool spots but all in all it was usable. The second time I used the griddle (about a month later) it was a different story. I set the heat for 375 and the griddle seemed to be taking a long time to heat up. Once the light went out on the temp probe I poured three lemon ricotta pancakes onto the surface and they immediately started to burn. I scrapped them off the griddle and took out the infrared thermometer - the griddle surface was almost 500 degrees! This is a relatively expensive griddle that didn't work 1/100th as well as my old $19 Presto. That fact that it could get as hot as it did is really scary as well. Unlikely I will ever buy another Oster product after this experience.

I can only assume that my unit was defective. I seasoned it as directed the day it arrived. The next morning I tried cooking eggs and bacon. When I went to flip the eggs, they stuck, with the bottom burned (the rest of the egg came off on the spatula, leaving the burned part still stuck to the griddle--see the picture). That didn't even happen with my Presto, whose nonstick coating was starting to fail. When I was done, I was able to scrape the burned part off with a rigid plastic spatula, but in the meantime, it trashed my egg. 5 stars for Oster's response--they are sending me a new one right away. I will update when I get it. I share another gripe with the others who have noted the crazy design of not having the drip tray larger. In my one cooking experience, I had bits of bacon and egg fall into the gap. That might have been prevented had the lip on the griddle been 1/8" or so higher. Such easy design fixes. In the meantime (Oster told me to try it again just in case), I have put aluminum foil around the edges, under the griddle and over the sides of the drip tray, to at least catch anything that might go over the edge. I almost bought another Honeywell, but its 2 design defects were a deterrent (the splash guard, which is wonderful, pops off because the small plastic clips that hold it on are too short, and the handles should have silicone or something on them, because they get very hot). I am hoping the Oster replacement works, because I really like the fact that it is ceramic, unlike my Presto and Honeywell, which are both teflon.UPDATE: I have now had three of these, and the grill on all of them was very hard to clean, even though I used oil on them. The griddle side was not as non-stick as my cheaper Honeywell. The ceramic coating just doesn't deliver what it should, and things still stick to the surface. I really like the grill marks on the grill and the fact that fat runs out, but the extreme food sticking problem is too much to make this useful. I have downgraded from 2 stars to 1. (I did, however, learn to be more careful picking things up on the griddle side to have fewer incidents of things going over the side or slipping in the open area. My advice: don't buy this.

I ordered this based on its great reviews, but the first one, and it's replacement have cooked highly unevenly (see photo of my striped pancakes). I wonder if Amazon was shipped a bad batch of them, because I can't imagine people would claim that it heats evenly if they had this experience. I love everything else about the griddle, but a griddle that doesn't cook right is junk!