Do you want to smoke a filet with an offset smoker, then sear it with gas on the same platform? That’s the vision behind combo grills, and they’re becoming a popular release with grill companies. Two examples so far in 2023 are the Nexgrill Oakford 1150 Pro offset smoker gas grill combo, and the Pit Boss 1230 charcoal pellet grill combo. It appears that griddle maker Blackstone also has some ideas for combo grills according to a new patent.
Hybrid vs. Combo Grill
We’re not sure that a proper definition or distinction has been made about what is a hybrid grill vs. a combo grill. How we’re defining it is a hybrid grill has multiple methods of cooking all within the same cook chamber. Two examples are the Pitts & Spitts Hybrid or the Camp Chef Apex.
We’re calling a combo grill a cooking platform that has two separate grills on it. Examples of this are the aforementioned Nexgrill Oakford 1150 Pro or the Pit Boss 1230.
Blackstone Griddle Pizza Oven Combo
In Blackstone’s patent, they show three different styles of combo grills. The one that seems the most plausible, given their current products, is the pizza oven griddle combo.
Blackstone obviously has griddles of all shapes and sizes, plus they released a new pizza oven last month. It wouldn’t take much engineering to take those products and put them together on a combined cart.
Blackstone Griddle Pellet Grill Combo
The other two styles of combo griddles in the patent are variations of griddle pellet grill combos. The first one is a side-by-side design, similar to the griddle pizza oven combo above.
The other variation on the griddle pellet grill combo is there’s a full size griddle on top, with a pellet grill underneath in the cabinet.
This design is similar to how Blackstone has griddles with built-in air fryers underneath. What’s nice about this design is it optimizes the space, so you’re not left with a small griddle and a small grill surface.
Blackstone hasn’t ever offered a pellet grill for sale, so we’d say that any griddle pellet grill combo would be less likely in the near-term. They do however have a patent for a standalone pellet grill in addition to the combo grills. That would imply that releasing a pellet grill is an idea that they’ve toyed with.