<p>I have the professional set from Pampered Chef. It also has a lifetime warranty. I hosted a party so I was able to get the set for half price, around $250 when I bought it. It is wonderful and have had absolutely no problems with them. I had bought several less expensive types and the handles were constantly loose, they were difficult to clean and just did not like them. I have had them for about 7-8 years and they are just as good as the day I bought them. You have to use non-metal utensils in them so you don’t scratch the surface but they have been extremely durable.</p>
<p>I’ll fall in line behind Interestedad and Musicamusica; non-stick stuff eventually (sooner than later) begins to chip or flake, but cast iron is the greatest thing ever invented. Also, I’m not convinced that the greater the cost the better. Sure, I love All-Clad but I’d like to be able to afford groceries afterward if I purchased an All-Clad. My one luxury is a Martha Stewart cast iron pot. My LeCruset pot and ONE All-Clad pan were gifts, hee hee. Select your cookware first on how it feels in your hand and whether it’s got a sturdy bottom. One disagreement with Interestedad: stay away from Kitchen Aid branded cookware. The pot I bought is a complete bust. The pot is too light, it just slides around the burner if I am not careful [I don’t know how I didn’t notice the light weight at the store!!!]. The rim cracked within weeks of purchase. Will never buy Kitchen Aid cookware again.</p>
<p>My favorite pan is the cast iron one that came to me after my grandmother died. It must be more that 50 years old.</p>
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<p>I bought one of these in February and was very skeptical (I’m on board with Idad–the non-sticks all go sooner or later). So far, the Scan pan is really holding up–it still looks like new. I bought another larger skillet at the beginning of the summer. My H loves to cook–he uses cast iron (Wagner–he’s got several that belonged to his mother), LeCrueset, and All Clad (stainless steel) cookware.</p>
<p>I have a couple of “Circulon Commercial” non-stick pans that have grooves on the bottom (look like LPs :)). They so far have exceeded my expectations (I too belong in the “non-stick is disposable” camp). I use one pan daily to cook breakfast eggs or omelets, and it still looks like new after 2 years of heavy use. Of course, I only use plastic Oxo utensils with it.</p>
<p>I don’t like non stick pans in general, they scratch and flake and self destruct. More importantly, they can be toxic to pets, especially pet birds if they heat up. I agree with cast iron, they are very hard to kill, and with a little judicious use they are easy to use and don’t have the downside of non stick. I also have copper pans and such I swear by, and heavy duty pots I am trying to remember the name of that are really sturdy. We have a professional level stove and we invested in the heavier duty cookware and it has lasted a lot of years.
My take is I would rather (assuming I can afford it) buy better quality cookware and keep it for years. </p>
<p>As far as the lifetime warranty goes, depends on who is offering it. With all do respects to Costco, let’s say the pot dies 5 years from now, will the company even be around (not costco, guys who make it). A lot of the crap they used to advertise on the infamous "sold on tv’ commercials had lifetime warranty, like the triple blade wiper blades and knives, but guess what…try to get that lifetime warranty enforced. On the other hand, when Craftsman (Sears) offers lifetime warranty on their top end hand tools (the cheaper chinese made junk doesn’t have it) or Snap On Tools or the like, or my 3/4 horse flo tech sump pump dies, they will be around to support the warranty.</p>
<p>My stainless steel Farberware set from my bridal shower 35 years ago are all fine… but I need to replace an oversized Dansk Dutch oven that has flaked off on the bottom. I don’t believe Dansk still makes… the Le Creuset similar size weighs a ton and is too expensive. I bought an inexpensive Martha Stewart with a glass top but the glass top cannot go into the oven… any suggestions???</p>
<p>I have this pan ( but mine is yellow)
[Chantal</a> Cookware | 6 Qt. Dutch Oven w/ Lid](<a href=“http://www.chantal.com/dutchoven-6qt.html]Chantal”>http://www.chantal.com/dutchoven-6qt.html)</p>
<p>I have that pan too! Its great for soups.
I know that people do not like the weight of Le Creuset and old fashioned cast iron, but it’s the heavy metal bottoms that give the pans the ability to retain heat for a great sear.</p>
<p>Speaking of glass cookware, I learned a hard lesson this past weekend. While cooking in my kitchen, I placed a Pyrex brand 9*13 glass casserole dish on a rear heating element on my rangetop simply to store it for a moment while cooking something else in a sauce pan on a front burner. I accidently turned the knob on to high for the rear burner instead of the front burner with the sauce pan and was that ever a bad mistake. The Pyrex dish atop the red hot rear heating element exploded, with the sound of a loud gunshot, into a million pieces–spraying hot glass throughout my kitchen. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it had me shaking afterward bigtime. I contacted Pyrex today and they are sending me a new dish, but I will never put a glass dish anywhere near the top of my stove ever again. Actually, I don’t think I will ever cook with glassware ever again, even with Pyrex sending me a new replacement dish–it’s too dangerous to use. Pyrex glassware is stamped “No rangetop or broiler”–but I’m not using Pyrex for any cooking anymore at all and risking someone getting severely injured.</p>
<p>I’ve got rid all of my non-stick, somewhere my husband read teflon could cause cancer especially when frying in high heat. I also got rid of the old fashioned cast iron(too much work).
I now have 2 LeCreusse pot from Costco. When I have time I will do some research about All Clad(Stainless Steel).</p>
<p>I had a set of Visons glass cookware [pots] which were once manufactured by Corning I believe. I bought it for microwave use but the stuff was great on the stovetop. Unfortunately, over the years I kept dropping them, leaving them in pieces. Working in a small kitchen makes you clumsy.</p>
<p>I guess I’m kind of a cookware junkie 
and don’t believe in sets. When I read the great reviews on ScanPans, I bought several at the Goodwill (people seem to misunderstand them and give them away). We use them all the time. I bought a couple of stainless Cuisinart-clone pans in Paris in 1984, and still love them except that you can’t put them in the oven because of wooden handles. I have 2 fabulous Dutch ovens: one by Staub and one by LeCreuset. My best nonstick pan is a small saucepan by Berndes, acquired at TJ Max, and I also love my TJ’s Kuhn Ricon stockpot. To everything there is a season…and a pan!</p>
<p>I think the Martha/Macy’s cast iron enamel pans are good, and much cheaper than LeCreuset. I bought one for my son when he moved into his first apartment.</p>
<p>I’d recommend Le Creuset over any other cast iron (sorry Martha). I work in a well-known kitchen retail store and have had my Le Creuset since the 1980s and it’s still going strong. I had a customer recently buy one from me after the Martha Stewart one she got from Macys a year earlier began to chip. One of my co-workers had a Le Creuset dutch oven for about 25 years before it had chipping. She figured that if she sent it back to the manufacturer she might get a discount coupon toward the purchase of a new one but they sent her a voucher for the full replacement cost. That’s one company who absolutely stand behind their products (provided you don’t abuse the pot and violate the warranty).</p>
<p>I do agree that no one needs more non-stick cookware than a couple of skillets and that even the best (AllClad, Calphilon Unison) will wear out in time. That said, if you spend to money to get the quality stuff for your regular cookware, you only have to buy it once. I paid maybe $180 for my dutch oven in 1988; for the people who think that’s really expensive it works out to $8.18 per year and dropping. It’s the cheap, lightweight stuff that’s really overpriced.</p>
<p>Ditto Joblue. Several years ago, DH bought me a large Staub Dutch oven for an anniversary. It was expensive, but I use it all the time. I will probably never need another stockpot :D. I love the fact that you can use it to sear something on top of the stove, then put it in the oven to braise. My other treasured piece is a cast iron skillet that I inherited from my grandfather.</p>
<p>Speaking of cast iron skillets, I remember mediating a dispute between two aunts over my Southern grandmother’s “fried chicken” pan. Both wanted it. In the end, I hid it in the trunk of my car, told one aunt (the DD of my grandmother) to meet me in the parking lot & slipped her mother’s skillet to her. I told the other aunt (a DIL of my grandmother) that I couldn’t find it. It was very “cloak & dagger-ish.”</p>
<p>When we had our kitchen remodeled 15 years ago, we treated ourselves to AllClad stainless. I expect to be buried with them. They will never wear out, so the cost per use is not that high. That being said, I kept a few of my circa 1976 Farberware pots. I didn’t need an AllClad to boil pasta water. I remember buying them at the then-huge price of $99 for a whole set. There were many cheaper options, but I went for the good. I am still boiling 35 years later. OT, I have had coffee every day of my marriage from my Farberware electric perculator. I have decided that I will give up the stuff if that pot ever goes!</p>
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<p>Wow–that was a good find.</p>
<p>Anybody try these: <a href=“https://www.orgreenic.com/?gclid=CO_O7u-nua0CFUTc4Aodvz0FlQ#formlink[/url]”>https://www.orgreenic.com/?gclid=CO_O7u-nua0CFUTc4Aodvz0FlQ#formlink</a></p>
<p>Saw it on the Cooking Network. Might fall under the “too good to be true” category.</p>
<p>I think that we’ve only ever had one non-stick and it went out a long time ago. We have the old Cuisinart Commercial stuff, Stainless-Copper-Stainless sandwich construction - 3 skillets, 4 saucepans and a stockpot. Weighs a ton and you can stick it in the oven (no plastic or wood parts). My wife also has a few cast-iron griddles, a few cast-iron woks and a crappy double-boiler for steaming.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t buy the set in the OP - don’t like non-stick and I think that smaller saucepans would be more useful than some of the other pieces.</p>
<p>So … now for a slightly different point of view:</p>
<p>We purchased two 14 piece sets of Cuisinart Classic Non-Stick cookware at Sam’s Club as a Christmas present - one for each daughter. Each set cost $150. We liked the pieces, liked the price. Neither girl considers herself a serious cook. One actually owns no cookware but instead uses her roommate’s. Both my girls needed a good starter set. I really don’t intend for the set to last the lifetime Cuisinart guarantees, but I think it will last long enough to serve the purpose intended.</p>