LoCo 36" SmartTemp 3-Burner

A real thermostat, which nothing else here has

Every other griddle in this guide gives you a valve and a knob. “Medium” is a knob position you learn by feel, and it drifts with wind, ambient temperature and how full the tank is.

The LoCo has digital temperature displays and thermostatic control in 25-degree increments. You set a temperature and it holds that temperature. For anyone who has fought to keep a plate at 350 °F for pancakes, that is a genuine category difference, not a feature-list item.

It also makes our temperature chart directly actionable rather than a starting point you have to translate into knob positions.

The cooktop leveling system is the underrated part

The most common real-world griddle complaint is not heat or size. It is grease that will not drain, because the griddle is on a patio that is not flat and the plate is therefore not pitched toward the drain hole.

LoCo lets you level or deliberately angle the cooktop to direct grease toward the drain. That is an unglamorous fix to an extremely common problem, and nobody else in this guide addresses it at all. There is also a cooktop locking system for stability.

The cost: heat and electronics

46,500 BTU across 738 square inches is 63.0 BTU per square inch — near the bottom of the 36-inch class, close to the Weber Slate 36’s 63.5 and well behind the Pit Boss Deluxe’s 82.3.

Three zones over 738 square inches also means each zone is large, so control within a zone is coarser than four zones over 769 would give you. Precise temperature control across big, coarse zones is a slightly odd combination.

And digital control means electronics living outdoors. A brass valve has essentially nothing to fail; a display and a thermostat do. That is a legitimate long-term concern on an appliance that lives on a patio.

Oil-treated steel

The cooktop is oil-treated steel — a real steel surface that benefits from seasoning, rather than a coating. Expect the normal seasoning and care routine to apply.

Who should buy it

Someone who cooks temperature-sensitive food on a griddle — pancakes, eggs, anything where 325 °F and 400 °F produce visibly different results — and who values repeatability over searing power.

If you mostly sear, the thermostat is solving a problem you do not have, and the Pit Boss Deluxe gives you 30% more heat per square inch for the same footprint class.