Camp Chef vs Weber Slate

Buy the Camp Chef Flat Top Grill 600 if you want one appliance that griddles and grills; buy the Weber Slate 36 if you only ever want a griddle and would rather not maintain it. Both run 48,000 BTU. Camp Chef puts it under 604 square inches of griddle for 79.5 BTU per square inch, and includes 501 square inches of grill grate. Weber spreads the same output over 756 square inches for 63.5 — 22% less heat per square inch, on a cooktop that resists rust.

The same BTU is the whole story

It is rare for two griddles from different brands to publish an identical total output, and it makes this the cleanest demonstration on the site of why total BTU is close to useless on its own.

48,000 BTU across 604 square inches is generous. The same 48,000 across 756 square inches is merely adequate. Camp Chef’s four burners are specified at 12,000 BTU each, and concentrating that over a smaller plate is why its heat density lands at 79.5 — near the top of the range we measure, and 25% above the Weber.

You feel that difference in one moment and one moment only: the drop when a full load of cold food hits the steel. The arithmetic behind heat density explains why that recovery window, not peak temperature, is the figure worth comparing.

Camp Chef’s real feature is the grate

The FTG600 is called a Flat Top Grill for a reason. It ships able to run as a griddle or, with the grate in place, as a 501-square-inch gas grill. That is not a gimmick bolted onto a griddle — it is the product’s reason for existing, and it is the only thing on this page the Weber cannot do at any price.

Whether that matters comes down to an honest question about your patio. If a griddle would be replacing a grill you still use, the Camp Chef keeps both jobs on one footprint. If you already own a grill you are keeping, the grate is 501 square inches of capability you paid for and will store in a garage. Our combo roundup works through that decision.

Care: pre-seasoned is not the same as rust-resistant

Both cooktops arrive pre-seasoned, and that similarity hides the difference that will shape four years of ownership.

Camp Chef’s plate is pre-seasoned cold-rolled steel. Pre-seasoned means the first layer is already on it; it does not mean the steel underneath has changed. Leave it uncovered through a wet autumn and it rusts exactly like any other cold-rolled plate.

Weber’s Slate cooktop is pre-seasoned and alloyed to resist rust. It still wants a wipe of oil and a cover, but it tolerates the cook you forgot and the week you did not get round to it. For an occasional cook, that tolerance is worth more than 16 BTU per square inch.

Be honest about which cook you are. What actually happens to a griddle left outside is the uncomfortable version of this argument.

Footprint

Camp Chef publishes 62.5 × 37 × 22 inches; Weber publishes 72 × 39 × 28. The Weber is nearly ten inches wider and six inches deeper in its footprint — a real consideration on a small patio or a narrow deck, and worth measuring before either becomes a delivery you cannot place.

Four burners each, two different arrangements

Both griddles are four-burner designs, and the way the output is divided is not the same.

Camp Chef publishes its burners individually: four at 12,000 BTU each. That matters because it tells you every zone is equal, so a zone at one end of the plate can do anything a zone in the middle can. Weber publishes 48,000 BTU in total across four burners without breaking it down, which is the more common practice and leaves you unable to tell whether the outer burners are smaller.

In either case you get four independently controlled zones, which is enough to sear, cook at moderate heat, hold, and keep a toasting lane going simultaneously — the configuration a breakfast for eight actually needs. Where the returns on burner count stop is worth reading if you are also considering a three-zone griddle, because the step from three to four changes how many people you can cook for rather than how you cook.

One practical note on the Camp Chef: switching between griddle and grill is a physical operation with a hot, heavy plate, and the grate has to live somewhere when it is not in use. That is not a criticism of the design — it is the honest cost of a convertible appliance, and it is the reason we rate it for people who genuinely alternate rather than people who might.

If neither is quite right

The third pick is the Blackstone 36 Original: 769 square inches at 60,000 BTU for 78.0 BTU per square inch — essentially Camp Chef’s heat density on a plate bigger than the Weber’s. It is griddle-only and bare carbon steel, so you take on the full seasoning and covering routine, and in exchange you get the largest surface and the deepest accessory ecosystem of the three.

Which to buy

For the other side of the Camp Chef argument, read Blackstone vs Camp Chef, and for the full specification run-through, our Flat Top Grill 600 review.