What you need to realise about these coatings is that basically, they are
ptfe. One of the most slippery things we know about, however this makes
bonding it to other materials hard to do. Once you do erode the surface
though food and other substances get into these micr areas of roughness and
often its the bonding to the pan that gives up first. It is after all only a
thin coat or it would insulate too much. Also of course the expansion and
contraction of the two materials can make the bonding fail in the end
anyway.
Brian

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The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

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"Stephen" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I wondered if anyone could recommend some good saucepans, baking
trays, etc?

I've tried a few baking trays, even branded ones such as Tefal and
Pyrex (non-stick metal, not glass) and none of them live up to their
name of being non-stick. They always end-up with brown burnt-on
deposits. Having asked around, I get the impression that all baking
trays are equally rubbish and it's not worth buying non-stick?

I used to use Mr Muscle cans of caustic soda to clean them and that
worked but I find the cheap tins of caustic soda do not, so perhaps
they use a less concentrated spray?

Here's an embarrassing story about my non-stick saucepans. I went
camping the other year so bought a cheap set of saucepans to take with
me. The other day I decided to use them at home to cook some pasta but
some got burnt onto the bottom of the pan. I tried scouring it but a
non-stick scourer was too gentle. The dishwasher did not remove it
either, so then I tried the spray can of caustic soda; that made no
difference.

I thought I should thrown the pans away and buy a new, better, set for
use at home but I thought I would have one last attempt at cleaning. I
had some caustic soda so I added a little to water and let it soak. It
did remove the burnt on food but it also removed the non-stick
coating!

Which brings me back to the question: which saucepans do you
recommend? I use gas at the moment but one day might like to use
induction. I'm thinking non-stick just isn't worth it?

Thanks.