I've come to the conclusion that the newer electric skillets just aren't as good as the old ones--not sure if the same applies to griddles. Our Presto skillet (purchased in early-mid 2007) was on sale at Kohl's and I probably had a coupon, so it was pretty inexpensive. I use it to make pancakes and French toast. It's ok; I need to turn stuff 180° for even cooking. Also, our old skillet (Rival?) cooked the potato latkes much quicker than the newer one--we had two skillets going at once.

I bought a West Bend electric griddle at Bed Bath & Beyond and love it. It cooks evenly all across the griddle, with no obvious element "path". My pancakes come out evenly cooked, even in the first batch. The West Bend came in 2nd in a Cooks Illustrated equipment test. The Cooks Illustrated winner was the Broil King USG-10G, about 3x-4x the price of the West Bend. Both machines are 1500 watts, but the Broil King is slightly bigger. However, I think the West Bend may be discontinued, so you may have to order it online from BB&B before it goes away entirely. If you'd prefer the Broil King, you can find it at Amazon or other online sites.

Here is a link that might be useful: West Bend Griddle at BB&B

I have the Presto Big Griddle which cooks an entire pound of bacon, a dozen scrambled eggs or a full recipe of pancakes at a time. It's the biggest one I found and I use it in the dining room as well as the kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Presto Big Griddle

Thanks for the replies. Wow, I checked out all your recommended griddles, plus others, and according to user reviews, they all seem to have the problem of uneven heating areas due to thin cooking metal and the path of the heating element. Very disappointing, and I'm now not convinced that they will be appreciably better than the one I have.

I did find this West Bend 76220 that had about as good reviews as any other griddle, and did not seem to have the complaints about uneven heating. Anybody have experience with it?

Here is a link that might be useful: West Bend 76220 20 by 10 Inch Griddle

Juliet, I just realized the West Bend I found on Amazon is the same one you recommended on BB&B. Interestingly, it is about $30 cheaper at BB&B.

Thanks Juliet3 for your recommendation on the West Bend 76220. I got it off of Bed Bath and Beyond for their close out price.

I just want to say, this is worlds better than the Black and Decker. The heat dispersion over the griddle surface is far superior and pancakes come out evenly heated.

Thanks so much for posting an update, mtrot. So many times we never hear "the rest of the story" from a poster. It really helps others in their decision making to hear what happened, plus it's always nice for the person who provided input to realize the sharing of their experience was appreciated.

Now off to see if BB&B has any griddles left :-D

I have the Broilking Professional Griddle which lists at $99.95. It does a great job and is also the highest rated by Cook's Illustrated.

Greg