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Two years ago I got married to my husband. We got married, bought a house, and moved in together. With that, we set up our wedding registry and got some of the most popular items on amazon. I asked and received the 18 piece T-fal set from Amazon. I also received a set of two Pyrex casserole dishes with lids, and Amazon’s 6 piece baking set. Of these items, I sadly only still have the Pyrex dishes. I knew at the time that I would be cooking at least a moderate amount, but I also assumed these items were of better quality. The reason I believed T-fal was a good set was because my parents still have their set from when they got married almost 40 years ago. The teflon has long worn from the bottoms of their pans, but they were good quality, were thick sided, and the handles weren’t even loose. I had things I liked about my set, but sadly there are also things that weren’t great about this set.
The Cons
After only my second use, the medium sauce pan began to peel it’s teflon. After a year, the dutch oven also began to peel it’s teflon from the bottom edge. These pans are also relatively thin sided, and will dent if they fall off the counter. Further, the paint on the outside also wears off the outside after some use, and some even scratched off just from my drying rack. I wash my dishes by hand, so that didn’t cause any extra stress to the teflon. Next, several pans had handles begin to loosen after a year, but we do have a star driver set and were able to tighten them back up. Also, after only a week of use, one of the spatulas melted at the flipping end. I was able to cut off the melted plastic with a knife, but these utensils aren’t heat resistant, so they need to be kept way from all heat sources.
I do admit fully that I am incredibly rough on all my kitchen tools. I cook in my kitchen daily and multiple times a day, so I’m sure this set could work if you only cook at home 4-5 nights a week, but it could never work for someone like me who is tough on their stuff, uses them multiple times a day, and needs them to be reliable. After 2 years, I am retiring my most damaged pieces and adding in a new set.
The Pros
This set is not all bad. These pots and pans will show use quickly, but there are pieces of this set I will not be getting rid of any time soon. My favorite part of this set is the frying pans. If nothing else, the set was worth just them. Go get a T-fal frying pan if you ever need a new one and you won’t be disappointed. These frying pans heat up fast and the nonstick keeps all types of food from sticking. Though the heating isn’t always even, especially on a wrong sized burner, these pans are great for eggs, burgers, and cheese sauces. I love these pans and though they don’t look brand new any more, they still work perfectly. The other two pans I’ll be keeping are the deep skillet and the square pan. I don’t use these pans often but I’ve found them to be useful for what I use them for. The deep skillet is great for deep frying. You can easily add 3-4 cups of oil and still have high enough sides to not get grease burns. I also like the square pan for smash burgers. The low sides also helps make flipping easier.
New Set
So to fill in the gaps left by the few failed pans, I decided a higher quality set was necessary. I spent a few days researching and decided to buy this set from Circulon. I just received this set last week and have only had the chance to use a few pieces, so I’ll have to keep going to give a review. But, my initial impression was very good. These pans are heavy and thick with a beautiful finish, but we’ll see how they hold up to my use!
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