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Lodge Logic LPGI3 Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle Review
Lodge Logic LPGI3 Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle Overviews
Seasoned and ready to use. The griddle of your dreams! Larger than the Grid Iron griddle this reversible two-burner griddle features a slight slope for a generous grease gutter. Cooking surface is 19 1/4 x 8 1/2
24 double oven electric : Lodge Logic LPGI3 Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle >Compare Prices<
Lodge Logic LPGI3 Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle Feature
- 24 double oven electric : Lodge Logic LPGI3 Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle Check Product Rating
Customer Reviews
I absolutely adore this griddle, and I use it almost every day.At first, I wasn't sure that I wanted a cast iron griddle. They are HEAVY and not dishwasher safe . . . so I tried a few nonstick brands first --top dollar brands with high ratings.I hated them. The nonstick surface was inferior. On a reversible griddle, the underside became sticky and difficult to clean. The heat was distributed unevenly. One claimed to be dishwasher safe, yet when I put it in the dishwasher, some of the nonstick surface came off.I am extremely health conscious, and I use very little oil when I cook. Food often stuck to the "non-stick" surface -- go figure.I wanted to find a great griddle that I could use for many things, including cooking like the chefs in Japanese Steak Houses -- I dreamed of using a small dash of my favorite oil and flinging shrimp, chicken and veggies on the griddle like a pro. No, I didn't think I could toss my tools in the air or catch the shrimp in my pocket . . . I just wanted the flavor and the ease of cooking.By this time, I was on a quest, and the non-stick stuff just wasn't cutting it. I did a little research, and I learned that pros recommend the Lodge griddle, so despite my apprehension, I thought I'd give it a try.Wow! The pre-seasoned surface is perfect and better than any non-stick surface I have ever used. Just a tiny bit of non-stick spray is all I need, and everything from pancakes to eggs flip with ease. Grilling Japanese style works perfectly.On the grill side: whole steaks, chicken, fish -- fabulous, fast, and everything has those beautiful grill lines. Nice for grilled vegetables, too.The griddle is indeed heavy, but it's okay. I wouldn't recommend lifting it if you have serious muscle or joint problems, and I wouldn't want to drop it on my foot, but otherwise, go for it. I'm a softie, and if I can handle it, so can you.As for not being able to put the griddle in the dishwasher: I don't believe I'm going to say this, but I don't care about having to handwash it. The griddle cleans so easily, a few swipes and I'm done. If I forget to clean it and wake up to it the next morning (okay, so I'm not Suzy Homemaker), I just lay it straight across the top of my sink -- not IN the sink, but rather, balanced from edge to edge, on top . . . and I run a little water over it, let it set for a few minutes, and it's easy to clean.A word of advice: Just as it says in the instructions, you need to clean the griddle without soap (water only) to preserve the pre-seasoned finish. However, should you want to use soap, you can. There are instructions included in how to re-season the griddle -- it's easy.I frankly didn't like the idea of not cleaning with soap. I didn't feel as though the germs were destroyed . . . but soap doesn't really kill germs, it merely works as a surfactant that makes water wetter so things become easier to clean.If you want to kill germs, heat is one of the best ways to do it. Every time you use the griddle, you preheat it on the range for about five minutes or so -- you're killing far more germs than if you had used soap!You can also rub your griddle with a very light coating of oil, stick it in a hot oven and disinfect it that way (this is also similar to how you reseason it).This is one of the easiest, most wonderful kitchen tools I own. It is a breeze to use, I feel like a pro flipping all that food around. Everything comes out great, and it is very easy to use, and food does not stick.I have since added six more pieces of cast iron to my collection, one triangle cornbread/scone, a round muffin/biscuit, and four cast iron skillets. Two of the skillets are antique -- talk about well-seasoned! I do not use the bread/muffin bakers as much as I thought I would, but I use the skillets almost every day. I love them.PS: I remember reading somewhere that using cast iron also adds iron to your diet. A nice extra, yes?
Goodness - I see two chief complaints posted here: First, some people say it's heavy. Well, yes, it is. It's over 200 square inches of iron, folks. The weight is clearly advertised, so I'm having a hard time understanding this complaint. The second complaint some have is uneven heating. Lodge could fix that - all they have to do is make it thicker - and much heavier, and even more people would be unhappy about the weight.Since the number of comments about the weight and the uneven heating seem about equal, I'd say Lodge did a great job of hitting a happy middle ground. Personally, I count on a little uneven heating, I'll sear breakfast chops on one end over a high burner and flip eggs on the other over a lower burner - I've even been known to run mine on just one burner, cooking on one end and warming on the other. When I was a grill cook, that's how I ran my grill, hotter at one end. You also have to allow for some "settle time" for cast iron - compared to aluminum, it's a fairly slow heat conductor, which gives cast iron it's wonderful thermal stability. But it takes time for the heat to distribute, so give it a few minutes.I can't comment on the factory coating - I strip and season the cooking surfaces on all my iron, new or used. I made one modification to mine, which Andrew pointed out - I took a dremel and ground a shallow notch in the outer lip of one end of the grease gutter to help pouring the grease out - if you do this, be sure to smooth the edges of the notch to avoid heat stress cracks - they love to start at sharp corners - and don't make it too deep - just a small notch makes a big difference when dumping grease.While I'm at it - I'm a heretic - a blasphemer - an apostate. My confession? I sometimes clean mine with soap - to be more precise, detergent, which most modern dish soaps actually are. I think the "no soap" thing is a bit of mythology that's come down to us from Great-Grandma, whose dish soap was basically lye and some type of animal fat (my grandma used bacon grease for her soap). So yeah, maybe lye soap was a bad idea, but it had a very different chemistry from today's dish detergents, and as far as I can tell, modern detergent won't touch the baked-on grundge on the bottom of my aluminum and enamel cookware, and they don't touch my properly seasoned iron either. I do always make sure to rinse very thoroughly, and re-oil after cleaning, however, as that thin film of oil is life to cast iron.I love this grill on the cooktop, but if you want to see this beauty at it's best, and you have at least a 20" charcoal grill, set it on your charcoal grate and have some fun. I don't think mine ever cooled off during the week or so after hurricane Charley, while we had no electricity. I had stocked up on hardwood charcoal before the storm, and as my neighbor's fridges warmed, and their freezers thawed, they kept bringing me food to cook before it spoiled - and of course, they shared with the cook. The neighbors saved some of their food, the Lodge grill got quite a workout, and my family ate very well!It's a well-made product. It's American. And it's a great value. What's not to love? Just don't drop it on your foot - did I mention it's heavy?
I just received my griddle last week and I've been using it daily with excelent results every time. Mine arrived with a few minor scratches on the preseasoning but all of them seem to be disappearing quite soon (I spray a little pam all over the griddle before using it). I cooked some hamburgers on the grill side which turned out delicious and they got those great grill marks on them also. I've had no sticking problems at all with this thing so far. Cleanup is easy providing you have a stiff brush, a large sink and the strong arms required to carry it from the stove to the sink every time you wash it (this thing weighs 15 pounds). I highly recommend this griddle to anyone, it's very well constructed and looks like it will last a lifetime with proper care.
Length:: 1:49 MinsWith all the reviews raving about this griddle, I was quite excited about my purchase. I had planned on using this on my gas range over two burners for cooking pancakes and such. The dimensions of my burners seemed to be a great match for the size of the griddle, but it turned out to be unusable. I returned it.On many gas ranges this griddle will not lay flat, but will be tippy and unstable. The reason for this is the handle cutouts on the griddle. It is a little hard to explain so I have uploaded a video to illustrate.If it weren't for the cutout handles, this griddle would be perfect and would work on a much larger set of stove top ranges. However, the current design limits its use for many potential users.Other than that, the quality appears good. I have several other Lodge products and have been happy with them.Update: I didn't measure the dimensions between the inside edges of the handles before I returned it. This would be helpful those considering this griddle. If anyone has this griddle, if they could post this measurement in the comments, that would be great.If you found this review helpful, let me know with your vote below.
I've owned this grill for over a year now, and I want to let you know how it has worked out so far.It fits over two burners, so it's great for cooking several items at once. It heats evenly but tends to overheat a little with the burner at the highest setting. (DUH!). Even then, I have not experience damage to my stove-top.I love the way it "releases" everything it cooks. I have cooked the best Japanese style grilled beef/potatoes, South American arepas and cachapas, and everything in between. You name it, it can do it!. Even after I grill fish, or anything which makes a mess, all you do is pour some water on it while it's hot, and wipe it down with a terry cloth. No soap is needed. Then I cover the surface with a light oil rub and it's ready for storing. In fact, mine sits on the stove top for the most part, and it blends nicely with my kitchen. I recommend that for older folks having difficulty lifting it. You practically never have to move it, if you don't want to.I live in a condominium and chose not to buy a patio grill. I don't need it with this grill.I bought another for my sister!!
When I received my Lodge grill/griddle a few days ago, I was stunned with how just plain beautiful it is. It is going to sit on my stove all the time, across the burners on one side, probably with the grilling side up to remind me that I can grill anything any time I want to.I've never had a double-burner grill before, so I've experimented with turning on one or both burners; setting the burners on different settings; and cooking foods one normally would not cook on a grill on the grill side (eggs this morning, along with the bacon).There is no better way to get the hang of cast iron cooking than to cook eggs. If you've got the seasoning right and the temperature right, you've got the best non-stick egg-cooking surface in the world. If you don't have it right and the eggs stick, just scour the pan with one of those dark green pot-scrubber pads (no soap!), rinse well, rub in some oil with your fingers or a napkin, and try again. If you don't cook something very acidic like tomato sauce in/on your cast iron, it will get so splendidly non-stick you will think you died and went to heaven.I used my eggs-on-the-grill experiment to get a feel for the best temperature for the piece with only one burner on. The first time I did it, the eggs hardly stuck at all...so that's a great testament to the pre-seasoning.What's nice is that, even when using only one burner, the entire piece heats up, so when you've finished cooking something on the side with the hot burner, you can move it over to the other side (the one with the burner off) and the food stays beautifully warm while you cook something else. I haven't tried pancakes on the griddle side yet (because I'm in the early stages of Atkins' diet), but I can tell this would be super for cooking up stacks of nice, warm, perfectly cooked pancakes.When I first got it, it did smoke a good bit; I think this is because I had the heat too high...or maybe it just needed to smoke a little to settle it down. It's not smoking now.I know this is a rambling review...I really just wanted to say this is a beautiful piece and I'm very happy to have it in my kitchen.
Assuming you know what you're getting into by using cast iron (detailed in many other reviews), this is a great grill/griddle, with only one flaw. The grease gutter has nothing to guide the pouring of grease. I can now cook bacon for the whole family in one shot, but with no little spout or other mechanism, getting the grease out of the gutter is a little dangerous.
I have been happy with the nonstick aspect of this product, but it does not distribute heat. Period. I read other reviews that said you had to let it heat up for awhile before you start in order to give it time to distribute the heat. Well, no matter how long I let it heat up, or what I set the heat at, it doesn't help. If I put eight small pancakes in two rows, the top two will burn, the middle four will burn on the half closest to the center line and be undercooked on the half closest to the outside, and the bottom two will be undercooked all over. In order to get evenly cooked pancakes you have to constantly rotate and shift the pancakes around, which is ridiculous. I tried different things for several months and finally went back to using my frying pan. Needless to say I am very disappointed, because pancakes were the main thing I bought the product for.The complete lack of heat distribution does come in handy on the grill side, though, if you want some things cooked well done and some cooked medium rare, or if you have different thicknesses of meat. And it is pretty easy to clean, much easier than a real grill.Also, whichever side of the product is down gets discolored in a perfect ring above the gas flames. I have been wondering if the people who are getting good results with this thing are using an electric range and the people (like me) who are not are using gas. If that is the case, the manufacturer should recommend the product only for electric ranges and go back to the drawing board for something that works with gas.
This is my first review on amazon so people may not find it reliable, but let me just say that the only reason I never reviewed anything before is cuz I never found something this great!I am a home chef and I spent months, literally MONTHS, deciding on an indoor grill. I was really hesitant to get cast iron because so many were complaining about food sticking, burning, etc. but I had heard wayyy too much negativity about electric/non-stick grills and griddles. So after reading almost all 200-something of the reviews for this product, I decided to give it a shot.Based on all the reviews, I knew I should probably season this thing before the first use, but I was too excited to try it out right away. I went with some "experimental" pancakes (just mixed water into flour and baking powder) so that if they were ruined, it wouldn't be too much of a loss. I took the advice of all the others and was careful about pre-heating, timing, temperature control, etc. This was my first time cooking with cast iron so I was really positive that my first try wouldn't be successful -- but lo and behold, PERFECT PANCAKES! They were all the exact same, solid, golden brown color and perfectly cooked through. They didn't stick at all even though I hadn't seasoned the griddle (just brushed lightly with oil before pouring on the batter), and I think the reason people are having problems with sticking is because they try to turn the food over too soon. You have to wait for the first side to be COMPLETELY done, and you'll know it's completely done when one slight push will release it from the surface. I don't think there's really anything that would get stuck so badly that high heat wouldn't release it, so even if you have some particles of food stuck, just crank up the heat until they loosen up.Obviously, it wasn't as slick and smooth as non-stick, but I'm positive that with a few more seasonings, it would be pretty darn close and will give you better tasting, better quality food. I also don't understand why people are making such an issue out of having to season it and calling it "hard work." All you're doing is brushing it with oil and sticking it in the oven, probably once a month depending on how much you use it. What's so hard about that?I haven't tried the grill side yet so maybe I won't have as much luck with meat on the first try, but the plate definitely does heat up and cook EVENLY and quickly, so I'm not as skeptical as I was before. I think it's just a matter of patience and practice, trial and error. If you're into different cooking techniques, particularly grilling, this is definitely worth getting. But if you're buying this without having any real grilling or cast iron experience and think it would be as simple as throwing some ingredients on and watching them transform into a delicious meal without any effort, you are likely to be disappointed. You really have to learn how to use it properly to get good results. Using this grill requires patience, time, knowledge, and effort, but it's well worth it in the end!!Oh and by the way, it's really not THAT heavy. If I can move it around without too much strain, anyone can (I'm about 5 ft tall and 90 lbs)EDIT (5/17/10): I have been using this grill regularly for a year now and fully stand by what I said before -- this is a cooking tool that you have to learn how to use and if done properly, you will fall in LOVE with this thing. I now enjoy delicious steaks/bbq chicken/grilled corn on the cob/etc all throughout winter instead of just summer. Yes you do have to season it regularly (I use this grill probably once a week and season it very well once a month.) I lovvve the griddle side as well for pancakes, french toast, sautee'ing veggies.. the large surface makes it sooo much easier than using a frying pan when making big batches of these things. You name it, this grill can do it. PLEEEASE don't get nonstick, it will be a total waste of your money when the enamel starts sticking to food and peeling off. This is a great item to have for anyone who enjoys cooking. I will mention again that it takes patience and practice, just like outdoor grilling.
Just sent the following query off to the manufacturer. Perhaps a previous user can offer some assistance in advance of the manufacturer's answer?"I purchased the Lodge Logic Pro 20-by-10-1/2-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle LPG13 at Amazon.com based on all of its favorable reviews. I noted that this was pre-seasoned cast iron and supposedly non-stick.However, I ran into a problem on its first use, despite having followed all of the 'Use and Care Instructions'. After first spraying the grill side with lots of Pam, I grilled some chicken breasts and pineapple chunks that had been marinaded in pineapple syrup. I then let the grill cool prior to immersing it in hot water and hand-scrubbing it with a stiff brush (NO SOAP).Unfortunately, some of the chicken - along with much of the sugar in the pineapple syrup - stuck to the grill and cannot be removed! I even tried a 'Pots & Pans' cycle in the dishwasher (NO DETERGENT) without success. The burnt-in sugar is caked-on and baked-in, leaving large patches of rough bumps all over the griddle's surface. How may this be safely removed? Oven cleaner? Is there SOMEthing you can recommend?"************** UPDATE - EMAIL RESPONSE TO QUERY FROM LODGE **************Scour the griddle with a steel wool pad. Rinse in hot water and dry thoroughly. Then re-season.Seasoning Process:1. Apply a thin layer of vegetable oil to the entire surface (including lid if applicable), both inside and out.2. Line the lower oven rack with aluminum foil (to catch any drippings), and preheat oven to 350? F.3. Place cookware upside down on upper oven rack and bake for one hour.4. Turn oven off and let cookware cool before removing from oven.*COOKING TIPS*Start both burners on low heat and work up to medium heat, adding plenty of cooking oil. Make sure the food is always at room temperature.It is best to clean while the griddle is warm from cooking.
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