A common question we get about the Steelmade Flat Top is "Won't there be hot spots on the Flat Top directly above the burners?"
The truth is that every make, model, and style of cookware will have at least one hot spot directly above the heat source. Regardless of how thick the material is or how diffuse the heat source is the laws of thermal dynamics will always apply. We combat this issue by using a much thicker steel than is commonly found in pots, pans, and even competing griddle products on the market.
For comparison, cast iron skillets are at most 1/8" thick and competing griddles from Blackstone and Camp Chef are made from 1/8" thick steel. The Steelmade Flat Top is fabricated from 3/16" steel - that's 50% thicker to make the cooking temperatures much more even across the entire cooking surface.
We have compiled a library of thermal images that demonstrate the performance of the Steelmade Flat Top on various stoves and grills.
The "Gold Standard" - a commercial Flat Top with a 1" thick steel cooktop and 8 gas burners. Even this expensive beast has hot and cold spots. A good cook knows how to use this to their advantage while cooking different ingredients and large meals.
The popular Blackstone Griddle has small propane burners very close to the bottom of the cooktop. That combined with the thin 1/8" steel construction creates prominent hot spots across the surface.
The Steelmade Flat Top has 2 distinct advantages over the competition. First, it's made from thicker 3/16" steel for a greater thermal mass and more even heat dispersion. Secondly, because it is used on regular propane or charcoal grills, the distance from the heat source to the bottom of the Flat Top is much greater. This spreads the heat much more evenly across the entire cooktop. Think of a flashlight being held very close to a wall and how tight and intense the beam is. Now imaging backing away from the wall and how the beam spreads and becomes much more even. This is exactly how heat works as well. The further away from the heat source the more even and diffuse the heat will be.
5 Burner Gas Stoves provide the most even heating across the Flat Top because of their oblong burners in the center. This also makes establishing different cooking zones easier.
4 Burner Glass Ceramic Stoves provide very even cooking across the entire surface. There is a temperature difference in the middle where it will be slightly cooler, but it's still plenty hot for normal cooking and makes for a perfect "warming zone" while making large meals.
4 Burner Coil Stoves are in direct contact with the bottom of the Flat Top and create the clearest "hot spots" of any stove type. However, this is where the thick 3/16" steel shines in diffusing the heat to allow even cooking across most of the Flat Top.
