Description
What the Bethany Housewares 730 Heritage Griddle Is
The Bethany Housewares Heritage Griddle, part number 730, is a round electric griddle with a 16 inch diameter cooking surface rated at 1450 watts. It is aluminum bodied with a satin finish, silver in color, and it carries wooden handles. Bethany Housewares markets it in a lefse context, and the listing title actually reads “Creative Kitchen Lefse Set.” Lefse is a Norwegian potato flatbread rolled very thin and cooked briefly at high heat on a large flat surface, and the round shape, the size, and the uncoated surface all follow directly from that use case.
This is a specialist appliance rather than a general purpose breakfast griddle. The round 16 inch format is right for a rolled flatbread and awkward for a row of bacon strips. Anyone shopping for a conventional rectangular griddle surface will find the Starfrit electric grill and the other units in the electric grill category a closer match to what they have in mind.
The Cooking Surface
Satin Finish, No Nonstick Coating
Bethany Housewares answers the “Has Nonstick Coating” specification field with a straightforward “No.” That is a deliberate design choice for this application rather than an omission. Lefse is cooked dry, without fat, on a lightly seasoned bare surface, and the traditional method involves a long flat turning stick rather than a spatula. An uncoated aluminum plate takes and holds heat differently from a coated one and will not degrade the way a nonstick layer does under repeated high heat and scraping.
The tradeoff is real and worth stating. Without a nonstick coating, eggs, pancake batter with sugar, and anything with cheese will stick unless the surface is greased. Buyers expecting a modern nonstick experience will be disappointed, and buyers who want an uncoated surface for a traditional recipe will consider that the point.
Power and Heat
The 1450 watt rating is high for a countertop unit of this diameter and it is the specification that matters most for flatbread, because thin dough is cooked fast at high heat and a griddle that cannot recover temperature between rounds produces uneven results. The listing does not publish a temperature range, a thermostat specification, or a control type, so how finely the heat can be set is unstated. Assume a simple thermostat dial unless the manufacturer’s documentation says otherwise.
Size, Weight and the Dimension Problem
The listing gives “Item Dimensions LxWxH” as 18 by 17.7 by 4.1 inches and “Item Package Dimensions L x W x H” as exactly the same 18 by 17.7 by 4.1 inches. Those two fields being identical is the signature of shipping carton data being copied into the product dimension field. The griddle itself is stated as 16 inches in diameter, so the 18 inch figure is the box, not the appliance. Plan counter space around a roughly 16 to 17 inch circle plus handle clearance rather than around the 18 inch number.
Weight is given two ways that agree: 6.94 pounds as item weight and 3.15 kilograms as package weight, which is the same mass. That is a rare case on this catalog of two units telling the same story, and it means the griddle is heavy enough to sit stably but light enough to store on a shelf.
Highlights
- 16 inch round cooking surface, the traditional format for lefse and other thin flatbreads.
- 1450 watt element, high enough to recover heat between rounds of thin dough.
- Aluminum construction with a satin finish and no nonstick coating to wear off.
- Wooden handles rather than metal ones on the body.
- Listed weight of 6.94 pounds, stable in use and manageable to store.
- A long running product from a specialist manufacturer, first listed in May 2009.
Things To Consider
- Not dishwasher safe. The listing states this directly. An uncoated aluminum plate should be wiped rather than soaked, and immersion is a bad idea on any appliance with an electrical element.
- No nonstick coating. Fine for the intended use, a limitation for eggs, pancakes and cheese unless you grease the surface.
- The product dimension field is the carton. Both dimension fields carry identical 18 by 17.7 by 4.1 inch values, which is not plausible for an appliance with a 16 inch round plate.
- The Model Name field is corrupt. It contains a string of periods rather than a model name. The usable identifier is part number 730.
- The warranty field says only “Warranty.” No term, no coverage detail. Treat warranty length as unpublished and confirm with Bethany Housewares.
- Only one feature bullet exists and it simply repeats the product title. There is no published temperature range, control description, or cord length, so several ordinary questions about this appliance cannot be answered from the listing.
- Round is not a universal shape. A 16 inch circle wastes surface area for rectangular foods compared to a flat rectangular griddle of similar footprint.
Who Should Buy It and Who Should Skip It
Buy the Heritage Griddle if you make lefse, tortillas, crepes, injera or any other thin flatbread and want the shape and the bare surface that the tradition calls for. Bethany Housewares is a specialist in this niche, the 1450 watt element is well matched to the job, and the absence of a nonstick coating means there is nothing to fail over years of seasonal use. At 57 customer ratings averaging 4.0 stars at the time this data was captured, it is a small volume specialist item rather than a mass market appliance, which is consistent with its purpose.
Skip it if you want a general purpose family griddle for breakfast. A rectangular nonstick surface will serve better for eggs and pancakes, and a contact grill such as the Tefal OptiGrill or the George Foreman GR0040B covers a different set of foods entirely. If your goal is versatile countertop cooking rather than flatbread, a compact oven such as the Our Place Wonder Oven is a more flexible use of the same counter space.