How to season a Pit Boss griddle
Pit Boss sells two surfaces, and one of them should never be seasoned. Identify yours before you start.
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Quick picks
Ranked on published specifications using our scoring rubric. Tap a row for the full write-up.
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Squeeze Bottle SetOil control, which is most of the technique | Oil control, which is most of the technique | 8.3 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 |  Griddle ScraperThe 60 seconds after every cook | The 60 seconds after every cook | 8.5 | Check price on Amazon |
| 3 |  Griddle Cover (match your width)The single cheapest way to stop rust | The single cheapest way to stop rust | 8.9 | Check price on Amazon |
#ad We publish no prices: there is no verified price feed on this site, so the retailer’s page is the only price. How this is funded
Identify your surface first
This matters more with Pit Boss than with any other brand in our guide, because the two griddles need opposite treatment.
Pit Boss Deluxe — a 4.7 mm steel plate, pre-seasoned with organic oil. This is a real steel cooking surface. Season and maintain it.
Pit Boss Ultimate — a non-stick armored ceramic cooktop. Do not season this. There is nothing for a polymer layer to bond to; you would simply bake oil onto a non-stick surface, where it goes gummy and then flakes, making the surface worse rather than better.
The Deluxe: pre-seasoned steel
Because it arrives pre-seasoned with organic oil, you do not need the full three-to-five-round process on day one. Follow Pit Boss’s first-use guidance — typically a wash, a heat cycle and a light oiling.
From there it behaves like any steel top: every cook with fat in it adds a micro-layer, and the surface darkens and improves over months.
Ongoing:
- Scrape while the plate is still hot.
- Water to steam-lift residue, scrape again, wipe.
- Thin oil film while warm.
- Cover once cool.
One Deluxe-specific note: the fold-and-go legs mean the griddle can end up on uneven ground, and a plate that is not level does not drain properly. Check it before cooking — grease pooling in a corner burns on and interferes with the seasoning layer. Why that is the most common griddle complaint.
The Ultimate: care, not seasoning
A coated surface needs cleaning, not conditioning. What that means:
- No steel scrapers. They will damage the coating, and a chipped or scored coating cannot be repaired the way steel can be re-seasoned.
- No abrasives — no pumice blocks, no cleaning bricks, no steel wool.
- No seasoning oil layers. A light cooking oil for cooking is fine; baked-on oil layers are not.
- Soft tools and warm water. The coating releases food easily, which is the whole point — cleaning should be easy.
The lift-off top makes cleaning genuinely easier, though at 89 lb it is a two-person job rather than a casual after-dinner task.
The trade behind this
The Deluxe’s steel can be stripped and rebuilt indefinitely, even after serious rust. The Ultimate’s coating cannot be restored once it wears.
That is the whole argument between them, and it is why the maintenance advice differs so sharply. Blackstone against both Pit Boss options and the full material comparison.
The picks in detail
Specifications are linked to their source on every card. Scores are ours, derived from those specifications.
#1 · Oil control, which is most of the technique
Squeeze Bottle Set
Two bottles — one oil, one water — are the most underrated griddle tools there are, because dosing oil by eye is how food sticks or swims.
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Key specifications
- How many
- Two minimum: oil and water
- Tip
- Narrow, so you can lay a thin line rather than a puddle
- Water bottle use
- Steam-lifting residue and steaming under a dome
- Material
- Heat-tolerant — bottles sit near a hot plate
- Caps
- Must seal; open bottles collect everything
- Label them
- Oil and water look identical in an opaque bottle
Specifications from Blackstone accessories.
Scores
- Control9.0
- Material7.0
- Sealing7.5
- Value9.5
What works
- A thin controlled line of oil is the difference between a seared crust and a fried one
- The water bottle makes daily cleanup a 60-second job
- Trivially cheap for how much technique they unlock
What to know
- Wide-tip bottles over-dose oil and defeat the purpose
- Cheap plastic deforms if left on a hot side shelf
- Oil goes rancid in a bottle left outside for months
#2 · The 60 seconds after every cook
Griddle Scraper
A stiff, flat scraper used while the plate is still hot is the entire daily cleaning routine — everything else is an occasional job.
#ad We publish no prices: there is no verified price feed on this site, so the retailer’s page is the only price. How this is funded
Key specifications
- Blade
- Stiff and dead straight — a curved blade misses the middle
- Width
- Wide enough to clear a lane in one pass
- Handle
- Long enough to stay out of the heat
- When to use
- While the plate is still hot, right after cooking
- Pairs with
- Water, squirted on to steam-lift the residue
- What fails first
- The blade's leading edge, which rounds off
Specifications from Blackstone cleaning accessories.
Scores
- Stiffness9.0
- Edge8.5
- Handle7.5
- Value9.0
What works
- A hot plate releases residue that a cold plate will not — timing matters more than the tool
- One stiff scraper replaces an entire cleaning kit for daily use
- Nothing to wear out but the edge
What to know
- A rounded or flexible blade skates over the fond instead of lifting it
- Short-handled scrapers put your knuckles over a 400 °F plate
- Does not address rust or a flaking seasoning layer
#3 · The single cheapest way to stop rust
Griddle Cover (match your width)
The accessory that decides whether a bare-steel griddle survives its first wet season — buy it sized to your griddle's width, not approximately.
#ad We publish no prices: there is no verified price feed on this site, so the retailer’s page is the only price. How this is funded
Key specifications
- Match on
- Griddle width: 17, 22, 28 or 36 in
- Also match
- Hood vs no hood — a hood changes the height
- Critical feature
- Vents, so trapped moisture can escape
- Critical feature
- Straps or a cinch, or wind lifts it off
- What fails first
- Seams and the elastic hem
- Common mistake
- A cover that fits loosely holds water against the top
Scores
- Fit9.0
- Durability7.0
- Rust protection9.5
- Value9.0
What works
- A vented, correctly sized cover prevents more griddle deaths than any other single purchase
- Cheap relative to the surface it protects
- Works with the hard cover rather than instead of it — the hard cover keeps rain off the plate, the soft cover keeps it off the cart
What to know
- An unvented cover is worse than no cover: it traps condensation against bare steel
- Sizes are not interchangeable between brands even at the same stated width
- Covers are consumables — UV destroys them in a few seasons
Common questions
Do you season a Pit Boss Ultimate griddle?
Does the Pit Boss Deluxe need seasoning?
Can you use a steel scraper on a Pit Boss Ultimate?
Sources
Every specification on this page came from one of these. If you find one of them has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
Read next
Pit Boss Deluxe 4-Burner
753 square inches, 62,000 BTU, a 4.7 mm pre-seasoned steel plate. The highest heat density in the guide.
Pit Boss Ultimate Lift-Off 4-Burner
647 square inches, four zones, non-stick armored ceramic. No seasoning, no rust, and a surface that wears rather than restores.
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Blackstone vs Pit Boss
Blackstone's steel and ecosystem against Pit Boss's two options: the highest heat density here, or no maintenance at all.
Seasoning a griddle for the first time
The complete first-seasoning process step by step, the three ways it goes wrong, and what a correct result actually looks like.