UPDATE After a little less than 1 year of use the review remains largely unchanged. The only thing I would say is that the square gridles warped slightly early on. I use a gas range, and the warp is not bad enough to impact my use, but if these were used on a glass cooktop I expect that the griddles would be nearly unusable. The finish has not scratched or flaked or diminished in any way that I can perceive, I do NOT use metal utensils, and I always hand-wash. Some of the other reviews show pictures of the bottom of the pan with the finish rubbed off, I have not experienced this. I have two large T-fal frying pans I purchased from Costco, that I like very much. I had a set of Kirkland non-stick and a set of Circulon non-stick that I have had for about 12 years and 15 years respectively. I bought two of these sets to replace the two sets above. I thought that these pan sets were the same as the frying pans I bought at Costco based on the appearance in the picture. I have not rated these pans for scratch resistance because I have only had them for a few weeks. If they are as good as the T-Fal from Costco I expect they will do well, but I can't rate them yet. About 80% of the time I use cast iron or stainless steel. The good thing about those materials are heat retention and being able to handle high heat, both are not strong suits of most non-stick. Of course you can't use cast iron for acidic foods and stainless is tricky and you must use oil correctly to stop sticking, but both are very good for creating proper textures on food that need 'crusts' like steak, hash browns, grilled sandwiches, etc. Not related to this review, but if you like to cook, and haven't already, learn to use cast iron and stainless and get good products of each (copper inside of stainless for heat distribution). I use non-stick for things where non stick is important (like eggs) or when other characteristics, like heat retention, don't matter like Kraft mac and cheese (don't judge me), frozen corn/peas, warming bottled sauces and similar. The observations below are based on about 3 weeks of use. Some things that may appear 'negative' are generally assumptions on my part, and not misrepresentations in the listing. Things to know 1- If you bought similar T-fal frying pans at Costco as I did, those pans are considerably heavier than the pans in this set, so heat retention in those pans are far better than in the pans in this set. 2- I really like that the rivets are now teflon coated, this makes cleaning much easier. I mention the T-fal pans above that I purchased from Costco, I believe that they have the same coating, and I have had those pans for well over a year, and they clean VERY easily, better than either the Kirkland or the Circulon. 3- These pans seem to distribute heat very well, but as soon as food hits the pan the, the lack of weight results in the pan cooling where the food is. This is why I rated heat distribution a 4 instead of a 5, and really is more of something to learn and understand than a negative. 4- These pans seem to heat and boil water much faster than the two sets I mention above. This may be because of the heat distribution and the fact that not much energy is required to heat the pans themselves - just speculation on my part. 5- Although I used Circulon for a long time, I find the ridges a negative in terms of non-stick performance anytime after the first few uses. Also, the ridges actually create inconsistent cooking in some uses, for instance, when cooking pancakes, you can actually see the ridge pattern in the pancakes instead of a consistent cook. Obviously the pans in this listing do not suffer from this as they have smooth surfaces. 6- This set does not have a tall pan that I would call a 'stock pot'. Both of the sets that I mention above had a 8 to 10 quart tall pan that I will look to replace. 7- The kirkland set had metal handles, so they could be placed in the oven without worrying. Although I think that the rubber handles on this set are rated up to some temperature, I still am not comfortable placing these in the oven. I knew I would loose this when I purchased these, and since I rarely use non-stick in the over, I wasn't too worried about it, but somethign to consider. 8- If you hang your pans from a pot-rack, like I do, the handles are large, and the pans don't fit inside of each other really well. With the kirkland I could easily share one hook for two pans because the size and shape of the handles allowed for them to 'nest' on one hook, and the size of the pans, and length of the handles, allowed them to fit into each other well when hanging. Don't expect to be able to do this with these pans. 9- This set does not have a large frying pan. I knew this and it didn't bother me because of the previously mentioned pans from Costco, but be aware that the size of the pans in this set are all relatively small. 10- I would prefer that these pans be slightly heavier, but that is probably a subjective desire based on my experience and once I learn to account for the lack of weight in my cooking practices it will probably be OK. Overall I am mostly happy with the pans, and for what they are, they are very effective. I would probably not be happy with them as my only set of cookware because of the inability to put them in the oven and they characteristics I described based on the pan weight. If those things don't matter to you, I would rate these a 5.
