Fit as a Fiddle Folding Griddle: The Rival GRF405 Indoor Grill

When you first look at the Rival GRF405 Indoor Grill, you're probably tempted to ask "why would you want a folding griddle?". And, for a lot of shoppers looking for an electric griddle, I doubt that the folding griddle is the best choice. But, if you want a griddle that takes less storage space and is easy to carry to different places, the GRF405 is worth considering.

We received this griddle as a gift. Our son knew that we needed a griddle for our summer cottage, and that our storage room was very limited at the cottage. So, when he saw this griddle on sale, he purchased it for us. With the arrival of Christmas, we've had the opportunity to open our gift and give it it's first workout.

This griddle's main claim to fame is that it folds in half for storage and carrying. The griddle surface is two aluminum cooking grids that are coated with a non-stick coating. There is a definite left and right plate, and you simply slide them into place and latch each plate with a plastic clip. This design creates a seam down the middle of the cooking surface, which may have an impact on certain cooking tasks. There is a grease cup that slides in an opening located in the center of the griddle. When folded, the grease cup is stored in another slot below the carrying handle. The open griddle surface has a 19 3/4" X 10" cooking surface. Along the front of the cooking surface along the center seam there is a channel for draining off grease. The two openings above the grease cup are a little small, so you do have to make sure that they don't get plugged.

The griddle plates are a little on the light side, but seem adequate for cooking. Under each grid, there is a square heating element, and each half of the griddle has its own heat control. The knobs are marked in 25 degree increments, and have a groove in the front face of the knob that is suppose to serve as a setting indicator. Unfortunately, they didn't color the groove with a contrasting color, so seeing where the knob is set is a little difficult. Why anyone would allow this design flaw to happen is beyond me! I'll probably end up putting a little white paint in each groove to fix the problem. The power cord is a bit on the short side, but typical of what is found on today's appliances.

OK....how does it cook? Our first test for this review was bacon and pancakes. I prepared one pound of bacon on the griddle and found that 375 degrees seemed to be about the best temperature setting. Grease flowed into the drip channel without any problem, but I did have to scrape a few larger crumbs away from the drip openings. The drip cup held all the grease for one pound of bacon, but it was full. In the future, I'll check and empty the cup more frequently. The heat distribution seemed to be pretty good, but I'm pretty sure there are some areas that are a bit hotter than others. For cooking bacon, the middle seam didn't cause any problems. For cooking pancakes, I didn't like the idea of having the seam in the middle of a pancake, so I treated the cooking surface as two. On each half, I was able to cook 3-4 medium sized pancakes. For this task, the heat distribution seemed to be pretty good....all of the pancakes cooked to a nice golden brown color.

Clean up was pretty easy. After allowing the grids to cool, I simply popped them out an washed them in the sink along with the grease cup. A quick wipe up of the outer surfaces
of the griddle, and I was done.

Admittedly, this was a limited test, but at this point, I'm happy with this griddle. I still need to test it doing some eggs, but for cooking scrambled eggs for a number of people, I'd rather use a large frying pan. This griddle seems to be fine for cooking pancakes, bacon, sausage, French toast, grilled cheese, etc. How the griddle would handle other tasks may depend on whether the middle seam would create any problems. At the same time, unless you need the folding feature, there are other griddles that would work equally well without a dividing seam.

I'll give the Rival GRF405 a high rating with the understanding that it's design will limit it's appeal i.e. if you need a folding griddle for easy storage, this griddle deserves consideration.

Jan. 1, 2008 Update:

Today, the griddle handled a sausage and French toast breakfast. Both the sausage and French toast were cooked very well, and again, I don't see any problems cooking due to uneven heat distribution. We have our kids and a guest with us, so it made cooking for six people very easy....the griddle can handle 8 slices of French toast at a time. And, I cooked enough sausage patties for everyone in one batch.
So, I'm very happy with this griddle!

Jan. 5, 2008 Update:

As I suspected, this is not the griddle to use for scrambled eggs. Although I was trying to cook eggs on each half of the griddle, when I poured the egg mixture on the left half, it ran towards the middle seam. Then, it made a clogged mess along the seam. At that point, I got out my trusty frying pan to finish the task. To be fair, I'm not happy doing scrambled eggs on our conventional oblong Sunbeam griddle...but the two piece griddle plates on the Rival make it even more difficult to cook larger batches of scrambled eggs. But....it sure made cooking up a pound of bacon easy! And, I think the Rival would be ok for cooking a couple of fried eggs on each grate...but get out a frying pan for scrambled eggs!