WHAT IS IN THE SET
1Qt Saucepan Plus a Tempered Glass Lid
2Qt Saucepan Plus a Tempered Glass Lid
3Qt Sauté pan Plus a Tempered Glass Lid (The lid for this pan also fits the 10 inch Skillet)
6Qt Stockpot Plus a Tempered Glass Lid
8.5-Inch Skillet
10-Inch Skillet
All these items are made from anodized aluminum, with non-stick inner surfaces (discussed later) and have rubber handles.
WHAT I LIKED
This is a very attractive set, with a lot of attractive features. The orange handles go well with the black anodized surfaces and the black non-stick coatings. The handles are riveted on and appear to be quite well attached, and there is a lifetime warrantee if the handles loosen. There are metallic insert holes in the handles so the pans can be hung up and these metallic areas and metallic rivets and non-coated areas of the handles make a nice contrast with the other parts of the pots and pans. The tempered glass lids appear to be thick enough to resist easy fracturing and should hold in some steam when in use. Being made of aluminum these pots and pans are lightweight and have good thermal properties (they heat up more rapidly and have a better heat distribution than stainless steel). The handles are comfortable. So far the non-stick coating is doing its job and shows no signs of wear, but with any non-stick coating there is always a question of the durability of the coating. It will take some time to fully evaluate this and I plan to update this review when the pots and pans have been in service longer.
CAVEATS
Based just on the above listed features I would give this set five-stars, but there are some caveats that have caused me to only be able to give it four-stars.
- The instruction booklet is very brief (actually only a single folded page) and covers many different sets, with do way of identifying which description goes with which set. This is important with regards to the non-stick coating. The booklet describes PTFE (Teflon type material), but does not specifically state which sets are lined with this material. At least one reviewer was under the impression that the "non-stick" appellation used with this set was referring to the anodized coating, but I believe that this is in error. The exterior of the pots and pans are anodized black, on a smooth aluminum surface. The interior is also black, but a bit darker and rough, typical of PTFE coatings. Thus, I believe that the interior is PTFE. If this is incorrect I hope that the manufacturer will correct this impression via the comment section and I will correct this review appropriately. This is very important because if the pans are PTFE they cannot be used under a broiler, as the coating will degrade releasing very harmful vapors. This is a somewhat moot point because the rubber handles also prevent the use of these pans under a broiler. The PTFE coating will also release harmful vapors if the pans are heated without liquid in them or if the liquid is allowed to evaporate and the pans allowed to overheat. Whether or not the pots and pans are PTFE lined is also important because some people prefer not to cook with this material.
- The handles are rubber coated, limiting their use in an oven to only 350F. If they were made of silicone then a slightly higher use temperature (400F) would be possible.
- The 3Qt Sauté pan does not have a small handle in addition to the primary one. I went to the trouble to look at a number of other sets and find that 4 and 5Qt pans generally have such handles and so do stainless steel 3Qt pans, but 3Qt aluminum pans generally do not. The lack of an auxiliary handle is thus typical, but I still find the lack of such a handle to be somewhat limiting. Three quarts of water weighs six pounds, so a full pan would weigh more than this (because of the weight of the pan and even more if the lid were used). I tried this and found that a full pan was too unwieldy to use without the extra handle. Fortunately, in making sauces one would generally not fill up the pan, but the point is that it is unsafe to try to move the pan from the stove if it is filled with too much liquid.
- There is no pouring spout on any of the pots. We have pots that have spouts and we find this to be a useful feature, which I would have liked these pots to have had.
These caveats may not concern you and if so please disregard them and consider the set as rating 5-stars.