I think Randall perhaps is exaggerating the warping part a bit, but I also think he has a valid point.
If you really want to put a hell of a sear on a steak in a frying pan, you do really need a thick bottom or there’s a good chance the pan might warp - and this goes for thin materials in general, whether it’s copper, carbon steel, cast iron or clad/ply.
I own a dozen pans from the somewhat thin 5-ply cookware line called Mauviel M’Cook - I believe it’s a bit thicker than All Clad D3 (but 5-ply is not by definition thicker than 3-ply, it depends on the thickness of each layer, for instance my Eva Trio and Zwilling Pro 3-ply pots and pans are as thick or even slightly thicker than my Mauviel M’Cook 5-ply pots)
I’ve warped two of my Mauviel M’Cook frying pans from heating them up empty to Leidenfrost temperature.
I’ve also warped a couple of the 2.5 mm thick Matfer carbon steel frying pans from heating them up empty to Leidenfrost temperature. All the warping was made on my fathers induction cooktop - I’ve yet to warp a pan on my gas cooktop.
I own three of the Demeyere Proline frying pans, the 20/24/28 cm sizes, and I have a hard time believing these pans will ever warp from over-heating them.
They are just too solidly built and too thick.
With that said I still sear steaks and meat in my Mauviel M’Cook 5-ply and my Zwilling Pro 3-ply frying pans and I can get a very fine sear on the meat using these thinner pans with no problems, just not quite the same searing result I get when I use my Demeyere Proline pans.
