I am interested in buying a carbon steel griddle for my electric stovetop, but, despite the product description saying it works on electric, I am concerned that it will not work very well across 2 burners (i.e. heat super unevenly). I currently use a lodge cast iron skillet that is meant for 1 burner and it works great, but I'd like to get a larger carbon steel one.
Does anyone have experience they can share using a carbon steel griddle across multiple burners on an electric stovetop?
It will heat super unevenly. Carbon steel, like cast iron (which is nearly the same thing), has high heat capacity but low heat conductivity. This makes the hot spot in the pan basically a slightly blurry picture of your burner element. In the case of straddling two burners, that will lead to a hell of a cold spot.
For something like this, you really need a clad or coated griddle made of a more conductive metal like copper or alumium. But even with something like that, results wouldn’t be great. I have a gigantic All-Clad pan which is about ten centimeters too large for my stovetop, and it works because of the conductivity but the edges really do not get particularly hot.
A stand-alone electric griddle would be a better bet (though their power output is limited, particularly in lower-voltage countries like the US).
