Not here to argue my choice of non-stick coatings, I prefer genuine Teflon (PTFE). I discard my Teflon pans as soon as they start to degrade. I’m in the market for two saucepans, maybe one and two quarts. The original older style Teflon is “rubbery” while some of the newer varieties are much harder and can tolerate a lot more abuse including metal utensils. On the Dupont website there are several varieties listed. My question is are the coatings progressively "harder’ with Platinum Plus and Profile being the hardest? Which cookware manufacturers use Teflon brand coatings? I’m looking for good value because I only get a few years out of my non-stick pans. Thanks!
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If you’re looking for “Dupont branded Teflon” coated pans this article may help:
Most of my cookware is Tramontina (both tri-ply SS and non-stick), and I am a pretty big fan as it is reasonably priced and very high quality. But not all of their non-stick cookware uses Dupont branded Teflon. Some is ceramic I think they call Starflon.
Over the years I have found their customer service to be quite good… so maybe give them a call and ask which models use Dupont branded Teflon.
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I’m a little cynical you’d get 100% straight answers from duPont or the makers about which pans are now being offered at retail with the original Teflon linings.
What I would try to do, if I were on your mission, is find an older line that predates all these confusing variants, and try to find new old stock (NOS). For example, Tim had posted on Chowhound years ago about having a Mauviel copper frypan in nonstick. Such and similar NOS may be hard to find.
Barring that, I’d hie me hither to your nearest Asian megamart or restaurant supply store and buy the cheapest, most mui plastc-y-feeling pans I could find.
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I’m not sure that old teflon is a good idea. Much of it was made with PFOA which is not used anymore due to research linking it to health issues.
Actually it was that the tin had become pretty much nonstick.
My understanding is that PFOA, while a toxic “forever” chemical, isn’t part of the lining material itself. There was a Chowhound who worked in the PTFE industry who I believe wrote that PFOA was used as a curing or bonding agent, and that it cooked off during the application process.
The terrible danger of PFOA (and really all PFAS) is groundwater contamination. In the case of NOS Teflon pans, that damage has already been done.
It musta been someone else, then. I distinctly remember an interaction about a Teflon-coated Mauviel copper pan.
Studies show that residual PFOA is not completely removed during the fabrication of non-stick coatings for cookware. This means that, when heated under normal cooking temperatures, non-stick cookware made with PFOA releases PFOA.
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Do you have citations?
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Thanks. I’m not going to buy the full paper, but the abstract reveals issues. The bottom line is they stop short of concluding that residual PFOA is in nonstick pans–the operative word being ‘suggests’.
They also concluded that new pans do cook off PFOA, and the levels are not unlike those of a microwave popcorn bag. 5 nanograms pales in comparison to the weights that were used in the pans’ manufacture. I’ll also note that they apparently tested–and drew their measurements and results from–empty pan temperatures up to 450F. Since PTFE begins to degrade at temps above 400F, I’m not sure how useful or cautionary a tale this is.
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I remember it on CH. but other than one nickel lined pan and one stainless lined, I only have tin lined and unlined.
