Electric Griddle, a must-have for everyone!

One item I think every person should have is an electric griddle. I don't care if they're married, single, home-living, or dorm room (ok, maybe not dorm room, and iron worked well for that). YOU need an electric griddle. They are so versatile. We use ours for pancakes and french toast, grilled cheese, and . . . uh . . . yeah, see how important they are? We have at least two of those each week. It's been used 2-3/week for the past 3 years. We bought ours, a Rival Digital Griddle when we realized that cooking one pancake or one grilled cheese sandwich at a time was not working. The stove cooked too hot, too fast. Not sure how much we paid for it, or where we bought it, but it has served it's sentence.

I like the digital temp read-out. It shows the temp (I'm not spelling it out, because I always spell it wrong, and it's such a long awkward word for me to type) as it's heating up. It beeps when it's finished heating. I like to cook at 350*. That's just such a nice round number. Mark, however, turns it all the way up to 450* or something insane like that. We're always sneaking in and changing the thermostat (oh, that was so much easier to type!) and without the other person noticing until it makes that beep. That would be the only time I don't like the beep-he finds out when I've turned the temp down!

As everything in this world must be, the griddle is washable. The teflon coated plate comes off and it can either go in the dishwasher (hmm, I think anyways, I've washed it in the dishwasher, but not here, ours is too small) or in the sink full of <s>dirty dishes</s> soapy water.

It started with a beautiful teflon surface, but it soon started to stick to things. BOO! So we counter acted with the no-stick spray. It seemed like it was never ending circle from there. Some things do fine, grillded cheese, because the butter helps. But our french toast and oft times pancakes get stuck to the surface. And just recently, it's starting to flake off on the side.
As you can see, the surface looks awful now. It started staining not too long after we used it. I think that contributed to the sticky surface. I've tried everything. I've soaked it in hot water, hot soapy water, soap. I've scrubbed with "non-scratching" sponges, with regular sponges, with those plastic circular things. I really wanted to try oven cleaner on it, but mine has walked off. So, when we're done with it, I just make sure to wash it as best I can and wish for a new one next Christmas.

There is a drain and a grease catcher, but I've found the hole too small - little crumbs of bacon get caught in it and plug it up. The handles have a area of something spongy (the white) that clings to food (mainly pancake mix) and doesn't clean off easily. I haven't had any problems with the legs or power cord though. I've also never checked the thermostat with a true thermometer (just as bad to spell as tempppdutuehdheure) so I can't say how acurate or even it is. You can see by the pattern of the stains where it heats the most-which is the middle ground. That's alright when you're just cooking one or two sandwiches, but not good for making a meal of french toast or pancakes.

Flaws included, it was a very good purchase, and I would probably buy the same model, except they don't have it where I've checked; it looks like it's been updated. Perhaps some things have been fixed? Summary: get thee to a store and <s>barter</s> pay for an electric griddle. Yes, I put my griddle on the floor, but only to take pictures, because my tiny kitchen's counters are filled with baking dishes and cookies.