I'm not familiar with Blackstone. What I can say is that the technology for electric griddles is simple and old, so just about any of them, of decent quality, should work fine. Re heating evenly, I thought that was the point of electric--not to have the shape of the burner issue. Perhaps you can check out the details on line, but it should have the heating element shaped like the surface, in loops or zigzags or something.

Cast iron evens out extremely well and retains heat. Regular, thin surfaces are more reactive to temperature changes. Just in on the stove or in the oven griddles/pans, I prefer thin carbon steel for cooking eggs and any kind of pancake from crepes to lumberjack, and cast iron for meats and vegetables. I have a heavy clad steel griddle that I rarely use--it's very high quality but I haven't found anything it's best at. I'm not sure any of that translates to electric, however.

I don't care for non-stick at all. I do use enamelled cast iron, as well as seasoned bare and carbon steel, which also needs seasoning. Neither are prone to sticking, but do require a little fat. I think that is more about how you cook and how you feel about non-stick, than what anyone else can tell you, and I offer my choices as something to bounce your thoughts off of, only. I have an old electric that my mother handed down to me but I forget to use it, and don't really need it. It has removeable plates, however. That makes cleaning a lot easier.

That was one of my hesitations with the Blackstone ...the nonstick. I can't tell if it's a great product or if its just the appliance of the day. I tossed all my nonstick years ago and have a whole bunch of well-seasoned cast iron, but the griddle doesn't like straddling my coil burners. We have a small round one that's dedicated to eggs and heating up an occasional tortilla. Mostly he'd want all the pancakes to come out the same color, so yeah, I'm looking at element patterns, lol.

I looked at a number of review sites from known sources and they differ on criteria, and results, but all seem to like the Zojirushi for evenness of cooking. The Amazon listing says "Durable and easy-to-clean ceramic cooking surface with titanium enhanced nonstick coating". To the best of my knowledge, both ceramic and titanium are non-reactive in your system, but I don't know what other chemicals might be in it, but I'd also guess they're older and known. The Blackstone electric griddle also has ceramic with titanium. The Zo is narrower, which might make storage easier, but you might want the wider one for your purpose. Blackstone wasn't in the reviews, but it's probably in a different category. One customer review on Amazon said the heating wasn't perfectly even but it wasn't a big deal. If you're looking for USA made, however, Blackstone might be the best if not only.

I got this one as a present, probably 20 years ago... and I still use it. My child used it practically everyday when they lived with me. I love it! I am thinking of getting the newer version, as the handles have been beaten to death by us. I had to get a tape measure, but I am pretty sure it's 22". Actually, that may be smaller than the surface. It's giant enough to cook for a crowd. Found it! It's 24.72"

I just have a cheap Presto brand, and I pretty much use it only for pancakes or bacon. I can get 8 pancakes on it, about 4 inches across, but there is one cool spot and so 7 of the pancakes are approximately the same color and the 8th one is always pale on the outside half. It was cheap, I've had it for years and it works. Because I only use it for pancakes and Elery doesn't even like pancakes, it gets used only when the grandkids are here, so about 4 or 5 times a year, so I wouldn't get enough use out of a more expensive one to justify it.

Annie