Customer Reviews

Typhoon Professional Carbon Steel Lacquered 14 Inch Wok

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this wok because of several reasons:

1. The price was right. How can you go wrong for under 20 bucks?

2. I was getting tired of my round bottom wok sliding all over the place, whether I used it on my gas stove-top or on the turkey fryer base.

3. I liked the fact that I had finally found a wok with composite handles. They stand up much better to heat than the wooden ones.

4. The handles were very securely riveted to the pan. I can't stand it when I have to tighten a handle to ANY pan while I'm in the middle of using it.

5. It looked so well constructed. I've had my share of hand-hammered woks before, but this one has concentric rings all up and down the sides. What I like most about this is that I know I can take food that has already been cooked and leave it in the pan by shoving it up on the sides and it won't slide back down into the cooking area.

This thing seasoned perfectly. I washed all the lacquer off the inside and out, coated the inside with peanut oil, and proceeded to watch my lovely pan turn black, inside and out. What is it that people find so hard about seasoning pans like this? I have Lodge cast iron skillets that fried eggs slide out of because they were properly prepared and used.

I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated, and they shun woks in favor of skillets. I say it's their loss because stir-fry is best done over high heat with a wok and the proper utensils. They probably don't like turkey fryers, either.

I'm not giving up on my round bottom woks (the only reason I've had a number of them is too many household moves in my 20 years in the Navy; I had a lot of Philippine friends).

This is a very good wok, but only if you start it out with kid gloves. After that, beat the crap out of it and it'll never let you down.

Ok - I have to say that other than the lacquer this wok is a great asset to any kitchen. But the instructions to get off the lacquer were simply inadequate. Take a look at the other Typhoon product and you'll see what I mean - [...] - it's easier for some than for others. We tried to followed the instructions but the lacquer just didn't want to budge.

Thanks to whoever posted about boiling 10 black tea bags in there as we did that out of desperation and then attacked it with one of those green plastic abrasive 3M scrubbing pads (nowhere near as mean as steel wool of course). Finally the plastic coating started to break up and lift off, though it's a lot of initial hassle.

Just posting this here in case it helps other people who couldn't cut it back to the steel...

Wife purchased this for me a while ago - I saw that Amazon was selling it so I thought I'd give my $0.02.

Decent for all small wok-type uses including (but not limited to) stir frying, steaming, and deep frying. Takes to seasoning well if done properly. Lacquer is a little tough to take off, but it's food grade stuff so no harm done if it is not all removed before use. The pan is solidly built, and has a good weight to it. My one complaint is that the "assist" handle sticks straight up and the plastic is of a large diameter, so it always gets hit with food when attempting to perform the "toss-flip" maneuver while stir frying. The food hits the handle, then slides back down the side of the pan without flipping over. It makes the "flip-flopping" of food nearly impossible - the reason why I'm only giving it 3 stars. Make the assist handle come up at a 45-60 degree angle instead of 90 degrees, and it's at least a 4 star product. A few more stir frys, and I will have the motivation to bend that blasted handle out of the way... Of course, if you use the spoon/spatula method of stir frying, the handle is irrelevant.

PS - To the person who has round-bottom stir fry pans and woks, they sell wok rings that will accomodate any stove and pan combination. Makes the round bottom pans stable on a conventional cooktop and are inexpensive, but makes electric stoves take a little longer to heat the pan.

I wanted to order something in Canada over the net. All I could find from a place I wanted to order from was a lacquered wok. I said what the hell I'll go for it, since the store had all the other items I wanted to order as well. I'm glad I did my research before ordering because I was ready for a battle to remove the lacquer.

Out of hundreds of posts, 99% of them were from people who absolutely hated this lacquered wok and threw it in the garbage after having a hard time to remove the lacquer. I found 1 person who had a solution. I first tried the recommended instructions of using hot soapy water to loosen the lacquer. I knew it wasn't going to budge. It's like clear coat on a car and hot water isn't going to do anything but shine it.

What I did was visit home depot and look for some furniture stripper. I took one that specifically said that it removed lacquer. I also found one in an aerosol can that would be convenient for a 1 time use. I sprayed the wok and let it sit for 20 minutes or so outside. Then I took a plastic scouring pad and rubbed it. It started to loosen the lacquer a bit. As I worked at it the furniture stripper started to take more effect and started to work underneath the lacquer once it found a few holes to enter. I rinsed it off, gave it another spray and waited another 20 minutes. This time around most of the lacquer was removed. I did this a total of 3 times. Then I took it in the house and washed it out real good with soap and water, and removed the little bit of remaining lacquer. Total time was 2 hours using furniture stripper.

If it took me 2 hours with furniture stripper imagine trying with hot water. Typhoon is crazy for including such ridiculous instructions. Would I buy another lacquered wok in the future? Absolutely not. Do I like this wok? Absolutely.

Once I got the lacquer off this was a beautiful wok. I love the non wooden handles that are heat proof. I also like the fact the the handles are not riveted on but rather welded from the exterior. This means that the interior is completely smooth and void of any rivets so it's simple to cook in and clean. This professional model was the best wok I could find. Too bad it was lacquered.

I also use it on an induction stove so I was not able to tilt the wok around a flame and give it a complete seasoning. I had to leave ti sit on the induction burner and only the center bottom blackened. I smoked the wok real good and oiled it about 4 times total for the initial seasoning. Only the bottom center blackened. The sides remained a nice shiny silver. This is probably due to the fact that I'm using induction.

It's a beautiful wok worthy of 5 stars but it's loosing 1 because Typhoon decided to lacquer it instead of oil it. In the future I'd look for a similar wok that is oiled, if it exists.

Well made heavy gauge wok thats a good size. Handles are well fastened to the bowl and very sturdy. I don't think you could get a better wok for the money. I gave this wok as a gift and they were very pleased and said it cooks and heats very good. I will order one for myself as well, I started to keep this one! Find proper instructions for removing the lacquer coating and season it well and it'll last a lifetime and cook like dream. Highly recommended.

I bought this for my son as a gift and he's thrilled with it. You need to prepare it before the first use, but he said it was no big deal at all and he's made several of his favorite chinese dishes in it. It's a good size and very heavy duty. I think he'll have this one for the rest of his life! It is a tough one to store because of the long handle, though. You need deep cabinets or maybe better off hanging it up.

Kind of big and bulky to store but perfect and necessary for stir fry. Yummy... watched a tutorial on seasoning it on u-tube and have been using it ever since. Storage is not a problem because its always in use.