Arteflame
Arteflame Classic 40
An Arteflame is a solid half-inch carbon steel cooktop ring around an open central fire — a griddle and a fire pit in one, with no lid and no dampers. Heat is controlled by where food sits on the ring: the inner edge sears past 1,000°F, the outer edge holds finished food warm. The base is Corten weathering steel, which is meant to rust to a stable patina and then stop, so it is designed to live outdoors uncovered.
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Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓1,250+ sq in of continuous flat steel — nothing falls through and any food size works
- ✓Zoned by geometry rather than dampers, so several dishes cook at different temperatures at once with no adjustment
- ✓Corten base is designed to weather to a stable patina, so it needs no cover and no winter storage
- ✓Doubles as a fire pit when not cooking, which is the reason most buyers choose one
- ✓Burns hardwood as readily as charcoal, and can be converted to gas
Cons
- ✗No lid means no indirect cooking, no smoking and no roasting — this cannot do low-and-slow at all
- ✗$2,495 buys a kamado, a premium pellet grill or several kettles
- ✗3-year warranty is short next to the lifetime ceramic warranties in this price band
- ✗The steel cooktop must be seasoned and re-oiled like cast iron or it will rust through the cooking surface
- ✗Arteflame lists the Classic 40 round base as backordered, so delivery timing is not guaranteed
Compare the Arteflame Classic 40
Related grills
More from Arteflame →The middle Arteflame: a 30-inch cooktop cut from a single piece of CORTEN weathering steel, with over 700 sq in of surface between the centre searing grate and the surrounding plancha. Four large steaks fit in the centre while vegetables roast in the middle band and bread toasts on the outer edge, all at once. It is the size that fits a normal patio, where the Classic 40 is a landscape feature.
The smallest Arteflame: a 20-inch round CORTEN steel cooktop with an open centre grate over the fire and a flat plancha surface ringing it. You sear over the centre at 1,000°F-plus, then move the meat outward onto the griddle ring to finish, where the temperature falls off with distance from the fire. It is the same one-piece weathering-steel construction and the same cooking geometry as the Classic 40 the catalog already carries, at roughly a third of the price and a quarter of the footprint.
A 37-inch kettle on a heavy steel cart with 1,104 sq in of stainless grate — three times the Original Kettle 22 and more than twice the 26-inch Master-Touch. Weber has built it essentially unchanged for decades as a catering and large-party grill. Four dampers instead of the usual two are needed to move air through a bowl this large.
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