caphalon or other cookware set?

[Pooh2]

I am looking at getting caphalon as a gift. I have my 30-year-old farberware that I love, but my son's farberware is horrible after one year so want to stay away from that.
Looking at caphalon, there are different levels of quality?
Looking to spend about $400 for a set.
Anyone have an opinion on caphalon, or have a set that they love that has been tested over time?

 

[auralia]

I got some last year and really like mine a lot. That said... I am by no means a cook... I am a frequent baker, but cooking real meal food is not my forte so my opinion probably isn't the best... I went from a 10 year old Kmart set to calphon.... So anything would be awesome to me probably!

 

[msmama]

Costco has Kirkland brand that are very similar to other brands (haven't looked in awhile so not exactly sure what). So that might be something to check with to save some money. They were about half the price and mine have held up well over the years.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I have the Calphalon trip-ply 13 piece set $399 at bed bath and beyond and you can use 20% off. When I got it it also came with the everyday pan when you bought the set. My DH and I love to cook and this set is amazing! The only thing I do not cook in the pans is eggs. I have a small non-stick skillet for eggs. I always cook with a little oil and never have any issues with sticking. I HIGHLY recommend this set.

 

[Pooh2]

I have the Calphalon trip-ply 13 piece set $399 at bed bath and beyond and you can use 20% off. When I got it it also came with the everyday pan when you bought the set. My DH and I love to cook and this set is amazing! The only thing I do not cook in the pans is eggs. I have a small non-stick skillet for eggs. I always cook with a little oil and never have any issues with sticking. I HIGHLY recommend this set.

This is the set I am leaning towards..

 

[DryCreek]

This is the set I am leaning towards..

This is the closest you can get to All-Clad for half the price. We have a Calphalon set at home, and will buy more open stock All-Clad in the future.

No, if we hadn't gotten the new glass top range, we would still be using our well seasoned cast iron. All but one of our cast iron pieces had a ridge around the bottom that wouldn't allow them to sit exactly flat on the cooktop. There is a learning curve when going to stainless, that's for sure.

 

[mrsklamc]

We have the 3 layer stainless Calphalon and are very happy, but we've only had it 11 months. We, too, wore out Faberware sooner than we expected. We did learn to cook eggs in the stainless from a youtube video.

 

[LJSquishy]

I have owned Calphalon hard-anodized pans in the past and recently replaced them with All-Clad d5 stainless (which I love to death). I had the lower-to-midrange set from Target that I thought was called Simply Calphalon, but it may have been the Kitchen Essentials line. Anyway, it was terrible in every way possible. Even the handles on the smaller pans (like the 8" frying pan) were too heavy for the pan so it tipped if it was empty. Ugh, I'm so happy to have my All-Clad pans now!

Are you wanting a nonstick set or a stainless set? I'm not really a fan of nonstick cookware anymore due to the related health concerns, but for an affordable stainless set that is similar to All-Clad, the Cuisinart Multi-Clad Pro is rated VERY highly. If I needed a more budget friendly set, I would have chosen this set. Also, the Tramontina Tri-Ply set is also rated highly.

For nonstick, I would probably choose the Calphalon Unison set if you really want Calphalon. I have a family member that owns an Anolon set, and another family member that owns a Circulon set and they both like their cookware...however, neither of them cooks as much as I do so I wouldn't say their sets get a lot of heavy duty use like my cookware.

If I were giving a gift, I would definitely choose one of the stainless sets, BUT not everyone is familiar with cooking on stainless. I had to learn but it was very easy and now I love it. I also like that I can use metal utensils if I want. I was tired of babying my nonstick set (that still got scratches and a chipped finish even with handwashing and only using plastic utensils). I now only have two nonstick pieces: A flat square griddle pan, and a frying pan for eggs which needs to be replaced with a Swiss Diamond pan.

I also saw that Calphalon just came out with a nonstick ceramic set...I'm not familiar with it at all, but you may want to check it out.

 

[marlynnp]

I got the Calphalon anondized non-stick professional series over 15 years ago. Lifetime warranty and in the past year we just started sending in a few pieces for replacement -- very easy to do.

They no longer make my original style so I've received replacements from the Unison line and they are excellent, I think they may actually be better, lol. Of course the real test will be how long they last.


http://store.calphalon.com/calphalon-unison-nonstick-10-pc-cookware-set/220883

Unfortunately, the 10-pc set is significantly over your budget.

 

[Theaberdeenkid]

This is the closest you can get to All-Clad for half the price. .

Fyi. Emeril's pro clad line is made by all clad and are excellent and are much more inexpensive. I started out with a pro clad set and now pick up open stock all clad when I can. You can see them at bed bath & beyond, also the cheapest there with the usual 20% coupon.

 

[Muushka]

Tramontina tri-ply, great pans, not a great price

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tramontina-8-Piece-Cookware-Set/5716478

Oops, not a great price meaning not a big price. sorry!

 

[powellrj]

I have had my caphalon for almost 30 years and except for my skillets they look brand new!

 

[mrsclark]

OP, I assume since you are replacing Farberware that you will be purchasing a new stainless steel set as a replacement? I will just comment on stainless steel based on that assumption, but if you are thinking nonstick I can comment on that too!

DH and I own both a Calphalon Tri-Ply stainless steel set AND an All-clad set plus extra pieces for both.

Pros for the All-Clad: made in the USA , great cooking performance and even heating and I like the shape of the pots better - for example, the 8 qt stockpot that comes with the set is wider than most stock pots and seems to be easier to use. Cons: doesn't seem to clean up as easily as my Calphalon (no idea why since they are both stainless steel).

Calphalon: pros: more value for the money (I love All-Clad but it is 2x-ish the cost of Calphalon), great performance and even heating, easy cleanup in the dishwasher - cons: doesn't have some of the speciality cooking pieces and shapes that All-Clad does.

We have owned our Cqlphalon set for approximately 3-4 years and our All-Clad set for about 1 year.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I sprang for the All Clad stainless steel set about 10 years ago. Bought is from bed, bath & beyond with a 20% off coupon. I am a big home cook and I love my All Clad. It still looks great and cooks like new!

 

[Jeff_G]

Fyi. Emeril's pro clad line is made by all clad and are excellent and are much more inexpensive. I started out with a pro clad set and now pick up open stock all clad when I can. You can see them at bed bath & beyond, also the cheapest there with the usual 20% coupon.

We did this as well, great way to get a set of all clad at a lower expense.
we are on our second set of Calphalon Contemporary non stick pans. The first lasted about 6 years before non stick coating came off. Mind you these were only hand washed and never abused.

The newer set does have the heavy handle problem a previous poster mentioned.

 

[Lisa_M]

We have the Emerilware Stainless Steel set from Bed Bath and Beyond. We've had it for 7 years now and they are still as good as new. The thing I like best about this set is there are 2 sizes of lids and they fit all the pans. It's handy. Also, they clean up really well without having to worry about ruining the coating. Great pots and pans!

I also have a 2 pan set of the hard anondized caphalon 10 and 12 inch pans for eggs and such. This is my second set of these as the coating was peeling off within a year. I think they may have been defective because BBB exchanged them for me and the new ones have been going strong for well over a year.

 

[Jaya]

I retired my 35-year-old Farberware (cannot bring myself to give them up) to the summer place and got a set of Cuisinart MCP 22-24 for home. I didn't like the pans at first but have come to love them. My only complaint is the weight.....almost too heavy for my poor old wrists some days. I love the heat distribution and they're easy to clean, even thought they're not non-stick. We got them on sale for about $200; I'm not sure what the original price was. Hopefully, I'll still be using them in 35 years.

 

[Muushka]

I retired my 35-year-old Farberware (cannot bring myself to give them up) to the summer place and got a set of Cuisinart MCP 22-24 for home. I didn't like the pans at first but have come to love them. My only complaint is the weight.....almost too heavy for my poor old wrists some days. I love the heat distribution and they're easy to clean, even thought they're not non-stick. We got them on sale for about $200; I'm not sure what the original price was. Hopefully, I'll still be using them in 35 years.

I understand about retiring Farberware. My set was purchased in 1974!

But I bought an induction stove and those pans didn't work on the new stove.

My Tramontina are great pans, but also very heavy.

 

[Theaberdeenkid]

Just an fyi, to clean your cookware use barkeepers friend. Our pans still look brand new after 5 years.

 

[aubriee]

I bought new cookware when I had to replace my stove last spring. I went with the Caphalon and love it. I bought the 8 piece set at Costco, along with a couple of extra skillets, then have slowly been adding other matching saucepans, griddle, multipurpose pan, etc by picking up individual pieces I want at Khols, TJMaxx, and Ross.