Solo Stove is best known for their smokeless fire pits, but they’ve been slowly expanding their offerings over the last few years, releasing pizza ovens, coolers, and smaller accessories of all sorts. This time around, they’re adding a backyard cooker to the lineup in the form of the Solo Stove Steelfire 30 Stainless Griddle.
Why a griddle instead of a grill? We’re not entirely sure, but other companies, such as Traeger, have been seeing success in the backyard griddle category, so it’s also not surprising that they’re going this route.
The Solo Stove Steelfire 30 Stainless Griddle is a propane-fired griddle designed for tabletop use, allowing you to easily integrate it into most backyard cooking setups. It has a cooking surface measuring 486.5 square inches, allowing you to cook a decent amount of food in one go, with the griddle using an oddly-shaped burner design that’s able to heat up every section of the griddle at all times, with no cold spots. According to the outfit, those burners combine with the three-ply stainless steel griddle surface to heat up 35 percent faster than cast iron griddles, allowing for shorter preheating times.
How fast does it heat up? The outfit claims it can reach your desired temperatures (anywhere from 300 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit) in just seven minutes, allowing you to get on with the cooking in short order. A pair of knobs out front lets you adjust the heat setting for each burner separately, so you can use just one side of the griddle if you’re not cooking a big batch in one go. There’s an integrated grease trap, too, so all the grease and juices go straight to a separate tray you can dispose later, ensuring the griddle can resist buildup for easy maintenance.
The Solo Stove Steelfire 30 Stainless Griddle doesn’t require regular seasoning like your traditional cast iron grills. However, you do have to let it preheat fully and add cooking oil before throwing your food onto the cooking surface to make sure your food sears properly without sticking. Construction is powder-coated stainless steel, so it’s durable, rust-resistant, and built to serve you for years. Dimensions are 33.75 x 12.6 x 27.5 inches (width x height x depth), so this shouldn’t be that hard to find room for in the porch or the backyard. It is quite heavy, though, tipping the scales at 59 pounds, so it’s not going to be fun to move around.
Alternatively, you can order the griddle with a stand that measures 34 x 33.2 x 23.8 inches (width x height x depth), allowing you to use it without the need to set up a separate table. The stand is made from powder-coated steel, so it’s just as hardwearing as the griddle, all while coming with wheels for easily moving around the area (it weighs nearly 52 pounds, so those wheels will come in handy) and flip-up shelves for setting down cooking tools and supplies.
