Thanks. I remember you said the weight of the G5 pan. Good. Hopefully, someone can chime in about a typical All Clad pan.
I mean, none of the small A-C frypans is particularly heavy. I can’t imagine there are buyers who have such trouble with the other lines’ weight that they’d choose G5 simply on account of it being lighter.
I had a lot of trouble finding reliable trustworthy weights for most lines from most manufacturers when I did my frying pan research the last few weeks. Williams Sonoma’s numbers on the 12" d3 seem closest to what Centurylife measured. 2lb 13oz for Williams Sonoma is really close to 2.79lb for Centurylife. So assuming the whole line is pretty close the 8" d3 on Williams Sonoma weighs 1lb 8oz, which is basically the same as the g5. Kaleo mentioned the handles were most of the weight. I really enjoy All-Clad’s upgraded handles, but this might be their one line that would have benefited from the old palm cutters.
I see. So for a small cookware, then the D5 and G5 do not change the weight that much as the handles weight more. So maybe the weight difference will be more noticeable for larger cookware.
This is interesting. I have catnip in my ditch for 1,000 felines; but my daughter will go to a store, and she says they offer different types of high, like a weed dispensary or something. I need to diversify the catnip in my ditch. My grandkits are hooked, though.
The G5 Graphite Core series recently disappeared from All-Clad’s site (poof, erased).
I contacted All-Clad about it. They said that G5 is now a Williams-Sonoma exclusive.
Curiously Williams-Sonoma is only carrying 3 of the 4 pans in the series. The 8.5" G5 fry pan is no longer available.
I don’t know if this means that All-Clad is basically clearing out remaining G5 inventory through Williams-Sonoma (and at full price). I worry that this is the case given that the 8.5" fry pan is not available and that the pans appear to only be sold online.
Then again, Williams-Sonoma has exclusives on lines from other pan manufacturers, so maybe this is a new and bigger day for the G5 collection. I’m torn between picking up a pan (to test it out and maybe to get the whole collection of three pans if it’s exceptional) and saving my money to pick up some more induction-compatible copper pans.
Has anyone used the All-Clad G5 with a Control Freak or another induction burner by any chance? How does it compare against your other pans?
I’ll try the 8.5" G5 on the Vollrath and let you know. My bet is that it will be quite uneven.
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Very cool. I love this group 
Do you happen to know the coil size of your Vollrath unit (or the model #, if the coil size is listed somewhere)?
I’ve not taken it apart to look. The painted circle is 7.5" in diameter. When you blitz a pan of cold water, the bubble nucleation that forms indicates a 5-6" circular coil.
While I had the Mirage Pro out, I did a very basic evenness check with the 8.5" G5 (6" floor). I set the appliance at 5/100 and checked central and peripheral temperatures with my Thermapen Contact. The Delta T was 2-3F.
This is quite good evenness, although the pan is so small that it was excited effectively only around the periphery. At the rim (which does not contain the graphite mesh), the Delta was around 30F. It remains to be seen how even an 11" or larger G5 pan would be over a 5" coil. But mind you, the theoretical boon of the graphite is that its conductivity is much greater laterally than orthoganally, so it might also be pretty good.
Nota bene: The 8.5 G5 is SO light that empty it is on the verge of tipping away from flat contact.
Very interesting on the 8.5" G5.
I like your methodology with testing bubble formation above the coil. I wish manufacturers would just publish their coil sizes, as it’s fairly critical data to know when sizing pans to burners.
This is making me want to pick up the large fry pan and do some measurements.
P.S. That’s basically the same temperature spread I got on my Falk 20cm frying pan.
I’m not sure how much of that to attribute to the induction coil basically heating what’s directly above it–and how much of that to attribute to copper. Similarly with the graphite plate in the G5 pans. Sounds like an area that would be fun to explore/test/measure.
How granular can you set your camera’s colors?
In post-processing, I could get pretty darn granular. I just have to set the high/low temperatures that I want to pay attention to (and mask out the rest). I can also export radiometric JPEGs.
From a camera spec perspective, I max out at a theoretical thermal sensitivity of 70mK (0.07C granularity). I’m looking at a new IR camera which has thermal sensitivity of 50mK (0.05C granularity)–and I think I could probably do video capture while a pan is warming up (with radiometric video frames) on that one.
Please note that dialing in emissivity for pans is super “fun.” The reflections are all over the place (which is why the sides of the pan look so hot, as does the reflection in the camera). Masking is in order.
This looks great.
It would be interesting if you could get color contrast at about each half degree C.
So I was happening to notice that the AC G5 is in the All Clad online factory outlet sale, and so was intrigued. Unfortunately, it seems like potentially the best one to try, the saucier, is not in the sale. Of course, I’ve bought so many different pans over the years, I’m going to try to resist.
In any case, in looking for review I found this one, which sounds relatively credible and objective — although actual flour testing or temperature measurements, the reviews are reasonably detailed and no factual errors are being made. (Is this someone’s site who posts here?)
They note some crashing due to the reactivity.
Since the graphite layer is only in the bottom, I think the best piece to try would be a large skillet.
I still have and sometimes use Meekah’s little G5 skillet. I haven’t–yet–sawed it in half to measure the thicknesses of the layers. But I can tell you the whole 5-ply layup is thin; assuming A-C’s customary exterior cladding thickness (0.41mm), the three core layers (Al-C-Al) are very thin. This is necessarily the case, because if the perforated carbon disc was thicker, the flanking aluminum layers would probably not bond together well through the holes. I can also tell you, at least in this size, the skillet is not discernibly more even on my hobs than are any of my other pans of similar size. Nor does the G5 skillet cool noticeably faster than any other small, thin pan I own.
What I have noticed is that the G5 preheats slightly faster. By “slightly”, I mean a few seconds, or as long as it takes to dry your hands. Again, this is partially due to its thinness–there is no conductivity advantage to the graphite in the vertical direction. But I assess that the extremely high lateral conductivity of that very thin graphite layer (claimed to be >1,000W/mK) gets some of the lauds.
As for the review, although it generally presents objective facts, you must read long and hard to find any reportage on doing any actual testing. And what reportage there is doesn’t give specifics and examples. Frankly, I found the review mostly a push piece to click-to-buy at various outlets.
If you buy a G5, please post your impressions.
I picked up two All-Clad G5 pans (specifically the larger fry pan and the sauté pan). I’ve used them a few times, and my experience is not too dissimilar from yours, @kaleokahu. They are certainly different; I just don’t have a good handle on how their difference translates into benefits in the kitchen quite yet. Working on it.
The two distinguishing features I have noticed so far are the newer-style All-Clad handles which have more friendly ergonomics for the home cook and the lightweight nature of the pans.
I can take some thermal photos (or thermal videos of the pan heating up) of the two G5 pans if anyone would be interested in that (to see, specifically, how evenly the pans heat).
Yes, please.
Okay, here are some quick-and-dirty thermal photos of the 3qt. All-Clad G5 Sauté pan and the corresponding pan from the Demeyere Atlantis (disc bottom w/ copper) and Falk Copper Coeur (induction-compatible copper) lines.
From the marketing materials, my expectation is that the All-Clad Graphite Core pans are designed to provide the benefits of both fully-clad (heat gradient from bottom through the sides of pan) and disc-bottom (even heat on bottom) pans. The thermal photos I’m seeing are making me wonder why my objective experience isn’t matching that expectation.
Disclaimer: these are quick-and-dirty photos. I did take care to compare apples to apples reasonably with the infrared camera I had here, but these are not post-processed or calibrated. They should however be a reasonably accurate representation in relation from one pan to another.
All-Clad Graphite Core (G5) Sauté pan (3qt, ~26cm) - 350 USD at Williams-Sonoma
Demeyere Atlantis Sauté pan (~3qt, ~24cm) - 375 USD retail, 300 USD discount price at Zwilling.com
Falk Copper Coeur Sauté pan (~3qt, ~24cm) - 340 USD retail at copperpans.com
These thermal photos match up to the subjective experience I’ve had with the G5 pans so far. All photos were taken on a medium-sized induction coil (1800 watts), a Polyscience Control Freak.
It would be interesting to attach some thermocouples and take some thermal videos with my higher-resolution thermal camera, both empty and with a layer of heat-conducting oil–and then measure the heating and cooling times, the heat evenness, etc. I will try to take up that project another day.
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