Spoiler: there is no competition, that title was kind of a joke. I really just wanted to write a whole post about why a Blackstone is so much better than a grill for camping. If you are new to camping let me save you the trouble, do not waste your money on a regular camping grill, just invest in the portable Blackstone from the get-go. Okay, okay, clearly there are differing opinions out there, and you do you, but this is our opinion on why a Blackstone is the way to go.
The Blackstone does everything the basic grill does. It runs on propane so is super portable, and gets way hot. It is NOT the same as an electric griddle. I admit it, that is what I thought at first. And electic griddles are fine for making some eggs and pancakes in the morning, but it is just not gonna cut it for searing your meat. Camping grills are fine and get the job done. But the Blackstone covers both of those bases, all in one. And when space is at a premium, that is a big deal.
You can cook ANYTHING on a Blackstone. Sure, it is great for burgers, hot dogs, everything you normally cook on your camping grill. But can you cook eggs, bacon, pancakes, and hash browns, all at the same time on your grill? No you can’t. Well, you could try it with til foil but you will curse a lot and your food will come our mediocre at best. If you cook all of those things on your Blackstone they will be awesome. And don’t get me started on veggetables. Of course our husbands refuse to eat them, but the camping wifes love it. Not only can you do zucchini, eggplant, carrots, and corn on the cob, like you do on a grill, but you can do mushrooms and onions, asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and anything else you could roast, saute, or broil. Once we did personal pizzas. We did cheese steaks. Sausage and peppers. We are gonna try fried rice next. I wanna see you do that on a grill.
They clean up pretty nice. Not gonna lie, I thought this would be messier than it is. I would say it actually beats the nasty grill as far as clean up since none of the gunk falls between the grates. It’s still kinda greasy, so we try to wipe it all down since we store ours inside our bunkhouse. I do drape a towel over it before I carry it in, but I did that with the grill too to save my clothes. All that said, this ranks cleaner than a grill, but the electric griddle is actually probably the winner as far as this category goes.
Portability. This thing is shockingly portable. I am not going to say it is better than a camping grill, if I am honest it is a smidge more difficult in this regard. That said we have the larger table top version and I am 100% convinced that is the only reason it’s any harder to move around than the camping grill. We also have a great stand that folds up and takes up barely any space at all- way less than comperable grill stands in my opinion.
Cost. So I think everybody thinks Blackstones are more expensive. I’m not sure about that. The most popular camping grill (in my non-expert opinion) is this basic Weber- which totally gets the job done and we had one for years and it did hold up- which is on amazon for $189. This 17″ Blackstone is $105. We have this 22″. Of course those prices are the day I’m researching this so they may have changed. Whn we bought our 22″ I want to say I spent $89 but I got a great sale. Now I splurged on accessories and got a foldable stand, hood, and grill cover, which I totally recommend.
So if you are still undecided about this choice, I am going to leave you with this. We had a perfectly functioning grill at our house, and after enjoying the Blackstone camping for a year or two, we tossed our perfectly good drill and replaced it with a 28″ Blackstone monstrosity with an airfryer.
