11/15/08

Well after obsessing with my search for the perfect cookware for my busy life and dedicating myself to finding the best quality for my dollar, I thought I would share the knowledge I've aquired over the last 2+ years on the subject.

I have owned the Circulon commercial 2 , 11 piece cookware set for over a year at least. I am VERY pleased with my e-bay purchase of the set. I did a TREMENDOUS  amount of research before I bought this set which consisted of actually purchasing several different brands of cookware with a variety of different non-stick coatings. If the line was only sold as a set, I only tested one piece of the set. The tests consisted of a scrambled egg, a over easy egg, and a burn't slice of cheese. It's been a while since I did the tests which took around a month for me to exhaust all compareable lines and feel satisified that I'd tried all options. If I find my log, I will post it brand for brand. For now, let me just make a few points that come to mind.

About the MANUFACTURER

MEYER CORP.  is the manufacturer of both Circulon AND Anolon, thus if you are near a Bed Bath & Beyond you can see the quality first hand of the Circulon Commercial 2 because it is made the same as the Anolon Advanced as far as being the TOTAL brand nonstick coating over the hard anodized aluminum base metal. Both the Anolon Advanced and the Circulon Commercial 2 have nonstick EXTERIOR as well as interior which became a must-have for me after the tests mentioned earlier. They also both have glass lids and stay cooler silicone handles which also became a must-have for me. I would have just kept the Anolon Advanced had it not been for the fact that it didn't come with the 12" "sauce pan" ( which is just a family size, strait sided, covered skillet) that the Circulon Commercial 2 set already included. And I really wanted black/ stainless steel look. Anolon only came in a medium grey.  Also, I really wanted the large 12" pan that would have cost extra if I went with Anolon.  I suspected that it would be my most used and I was right. We only have a family of 4 and this does a double batch of anything perfectly. 

MY ONLY COMPLAINTS:

 I Found out early on that the bare, anodized surface discolors easily and the recommended cleaning using a powdered, non-abrasive cleanser seemed to still leave a haze. This isn't a big bother to me since the only exposed, bare anodized surface of the Circulon commercial 2 set I have  is the very bottom of the pans. I can see how I might have HATED some of the other sets that have only a non-stick interior and the ENTIRE exterior was bare anodized aluminum. I also have found it a required thing to have a good dish brush for cleaning. It is just faster to me and I needn't worry about wether I got all the cooking oil or food residue out of the groove on the bottom. I liked that Anolon doesn't have these grooves. They are smooth, you could literally just "wipe them out" with a paper towel. But with the circulon you really should use a brush. I think this may be where some people run into buildup on the bottom in the grooves that seems like a brown discoloration and causes it to loose its non-stick ability.

All I can say for sure is that I was dead-set on ditching my stainless steel, scrub-till-your-about-to-pass-out, pans. I wanted to COOK and ENJOY IT.

    I was a little worried about cooking at high temps in these. I live in the south and we still deep fry thing down here. I have had no problems at all. I have cooked straight from the stove- top into the oven at 350 and no problem. And I DID accidentally overheat an empty pan once. I thought I ruined it for sure, I didn't notice anything unusual when I did it. Just that I knew it was very very hot. I DID NOT do anything to cool it off quickly. I just moved it to a cool burner and let it cool naturally. I have 2 cockatiels and for all your bird people like me who worry about the warnings reguarding nonstick fumes, I have had no problems and my birds cage has been in every room of the house including the kitchen at one time or another and had no effects.

   Another thing that may be worth mentioning.  My hubby is a bacon man. We often cook a whole pound of bacon for sandwiches and one of my big reliefs now is that when we use our circulon pans and cook a pound of bacon (I know heart attack waiting to happen, lord help us!)  in it until it is crisp, the pan looks blackened and like it is ruined!!!!! But they come perfectly clean with a dish brush and a little polmolive!!!!! Before these pans, my sink was always full of hours worth of scouring.  But not anymore!! By the way, my better half was VERY against me going non-stick and SWORE that all nonstick pans flake into your food sooner or later. I agree that EVENTUALLY and especially with much misuse and abuse this is bound to happen to any pan. However, having used these pans very regularly and certiantly not "babying" them. I have no problem saying that they will last a very, long time. Far longer than all the other brands I tested. I'll update how they perform and look as time passes, so check back. 

 I do recommend that if you have more than one cook in the house and your are NOT  completely converting to non-stick. Then you should set some rules about using these. They are not so easy to scratch, pretty much impossible with regular nylon utensils but if your are in the habit of stealing a bite out of your pan with a fork or a spoon then start training yourself  NOW to quit just to be safe. Metal WILL scratch or at the very least put heavy rub marks in the nonstick surface which could weakin the bond and begin pealing. I had this habit as well as the habit of "Tapping" my utencil on the edge of the pan to knock off scuck on food after stirring. This will mark or pierce the coating on the rim of the Circulon. In some pans I have tested, it even dents them especially if the neck of the utencil is metal. I had to go on a whole other search for good, strong-when-hot, 100% nylon utencils to eliminate all my previous ones that could damage my non-stick. I find that I like my wooden utencils the best and have no fear of them damaging the surface. JUST BE AWARE OF YOUR CURRENT COOKING HABITS and you'll probably love these just as much as I do.  

Anyway, you may need to make minor adjustments in your habits, but these are a GREAT set of pans, I only wish they were dishwasher safe like the Infinite line Circulon has.

P.S. If anyone out there has accidently washed a pan of their set of Circulon Commercial 2 in the dishwasher, I'd be very interested in knowing what, if anything it did to them. I'm not brave enough to try. I've seen pics of other sets of Circulon after accidental washing in the dishwasher and it seems to make a whiteish discoloration on any expose bare anodied alumimum surface. This makes me wonder if it would really be that big a deal to wash these in the Dishwasher because the only exposed anodixed aluminum surface is the very bottom outside of the pans.

Hope this helps. 

I don't have my log, but I can say that I know I tested the following brands and either eliminated them due to my doubt in their longivity, their lack of glass lid- silicone grips- or easy to maintain exterior.

Kitchenaid- didn't like the difficulty in cleaning burnt on food from the shiny enamel exterior. also  heard rumors of risk of pan heat-bonding to glass top cook surface.

Cuisinart stainless steel / nonstick interior - has good nonstick surface, but very heavy pans, no cool touch handles. again, stainless steel to polish, scrub ect.

Calphalon - still have one of these pans. It's a 5qt chilli pot. These are good nonstick abilities but seem to have a fragile bond between nonstick coating and pan. Also pan itself is aluminum but not anodized and is a soft metal so dinks on rim are easily made. if you dropped it, forget it. It will be bent or ruined.

  T-fal - decent cheap pans if you don't mind replacing them every 2-3 years or less if you don't baby them. They tend to build up grunge oil and food residue on exterior. Fragile nonstick bond between nonstick and pan. Soft aluminum. Probably good for getting use to nonstick care and cooking with out much investment but no where near the quality and feel of Circulon commercial pans.

Trimotina- even cheaper than T-fal ocassional grilled cheese or omlet but not for real cooking.

Oneida- not bad, weren't made long I don't think. Again, If I remember right. Had a different nonstick coating that didn't seem as if it would wear well under average to heavy use. But beautiful pans.

Rachael Ray- Wasn't out when I did my research, Can't say what the quality on them is. I wouldn't like them due to the enamel exterior and unavailability of a Black- stainless steel set.

I'm sure ther were others but I can't remember.

Update: 2/24/2009

I have recently purchased the upgrade from this set which is the Circulon Premier Professional. It is dishwasher safe as well as has all the qualities as the Circulon Commercial 2. I will begin a review on the Primer Professional line soon. I still have not yet decided between the two which is my favorite. I have to see if there is any difference in the cooking ability. Been using them about 3 weeks now, I'll let you know!! Thanks for reading, please let me know if this has been helpfull. Thank You

Update: 6/18/2009

Well,  I did, after much difficulty get a brand new set of Circulon Premier Premium from Costco for what I was willing to pay to upgrade to diswasher safe. I do not have a Costco here so I had to pay for shipping as well. The set was $200.00 then used a $40.00 off Costco coupon so made it $160.00 plus tax if memory serves. And I paid $30.00 for it to be shipped to me.  I was terribly dissappointed when straight out of the box I ran my hand around the first pan that I unwrapped and it felt very slightly rough almost dust like, but found a blemish in the coating on the rim. It snagged as my hand went over it and a tiny flake peeled off.  I found 2-3 more small blemishes in the coating where it appears that the spray nozzle of the applicator for the nonstick coating may have sputtered or something. Or it may well be that the TOTAL nonstick coating cant bond as well to the stainless steel of the Premier Premium as it does to the Hard anodized aluminum of the Commercial 2.  I was anoyed but thought Meyer Corp would make it up to me. So I with held off on actually using them till I contacted Meyer Corp fearing the other imperfections would flake off. They said, " I'm sorry, we cannot replace any pans in that set. We only make that set for Costco in batches. "  They offered me an Elite pan in the same size but Said they recommend I return the entire set for exchange at Costco and to contact them back if Costco gave me any problems about it. Well, I am not going to drive to another state for an Exchange, so I bit my lip and used them. Suprisingly, even though the handles are shorter, they are still hefty pans. The other spots did flake off to shiny bare silver steel under. When I do clean them by hand it does NOT seem as if the peeling will get worse. For sure not very quickly as some cheap pans do. Still, a MAJOR dissappointment for brand new pans. My Commercial 2 set still looks great and show no place where the grey bare metal is exposed from nicks or pealing. I'd say I got a bad batch but since I can't take them back and try another one for free, I am affraid that I can't be sure. On a good note. They are dishwasher safe, they still have amazing nonstick ability as the commercial 2. they look great, have nice handle. have BLACK silicone ring sealing the stainless steel lid rim to the glass instead of clear which looks better to me cause if water gets trapped in there in the commercial 2 set and can look cloudy. Con: I thought my Premier Premium sauce pans looked smaller than Commercial 2 Set so I took my  sauce pans (1,2&3 qt) and filled them with water and when I poured them into my commecial 2 set each to it's own size equivilant, it didn't fill them all the way. I don't know what the deal is there, I though a quart is a quart. Since I first wrote this review, my 10 inch commercial 2 pan has accidentally went through the dishwasher once. It didn't do anything that I could tell. Live and learn. Still all good pans. Unless you live near Costco and can buy this set from them, It is risky. I have bought a brand new set of Commercial 2 off e-bay (my first) and it is still awesome and blemish free to this day. I have bought gently used - display type partial set off e-bay and even with some minor misshandlement it still has less blemishes as my Premier Premium's most regularly used pan.  I Prefer the Commercial 2 and recommend just sucking  it up and hand washing them. The Premier pans that our family uses in any given meal are all such big pans, they make a whole load of dishes in the washer all by themselves so really didn't accomplish my goal of NOT hand washing after meal.  Also, Be aware. Although I still believe it is a rare thing that you should have a problem like I have that would require you to want a replacement you should know, YOU  have to pay to ship them back to Meyer if you want them to even EVALUATE THEM FOR REPLACEMENT, which means I suppose that they may declare you used them immproperly and reject your request. That does worries me. And if they do offer replacement it would be Probably the Elite line which is the closest they make on a regular basis. I would like to here from anyone who has returned a pan to Meyer and recieved a replacement. Thanks for reading. ;)   any questions welcome, glad to help.