This thing has been very useful. It gets plenty hot. Takes several minutes to heat up to the desired temperature so just keep that in mind. Start it up and then to prepare all of your food items for cooking. I usually do that while I take 5-10 minutes to prep all the food to be cooked and it’s ready to go at that point. The heat distribution could be better but you are not paying very much for this so I would not let that deter you. The center of it gets hottest so be careful hot long you leave something in the middle of the griddle. It’s actually a benefit for me, I can control things a bit better so if something need to be seared I can do that in the middle and then move it to the sides or back area to continue cooking but not burning the heck out of it. I’d recommend this for what it is.