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You are here: Home / How-To Guides / Choose Cookware / Cookware Even Heating Rankings (Induction and Electric Coil, Radiant, and Halogen)

Cookware Even Heating Rankings (Induction and Electric Coil, Radiant, and Halogen)

A <a href="https://www.centurylife.org/in-depth-product-review-demeyere-atlantis-and-john-pawson-11-inch-4-2-quart-28-cm-4-liter-saute-pan/">Demeyere saute pan with 2 mm thick copper bottom (28cm)</a>
A Demeyere saute pan with 2 mm thick copper bottom (28cm)

For natural gas/butane/propane rankings, please see Even Heating Rankings (Gas). For details about testing methodology, see here. The pans tested below were tested on an induction cooker. If you’re in the market for a portable/countertop induction cooker, I wrote an extensive guide here.

SEEMINGLY EVERY COMPANY CLAIMS THAT THEIR COOKWARE IS EVEN-HEATING, BUT IS THAT TRUE?

The job of stovetop cookware is a) to smooth out the uneven heat coming from the burner underneath so that the entire cooking surface of the cookware is the same temperature; and b) to keep your food in the Maillard reaction temperature zone–not too hot and not too cold. If you have too much of an imbalance in temperatures, you wind up with hot or cold spots that can undermine your dish by leaving some food overcooked and some food undercooked. You may even scorch carcinogens into your food or produce carcinogenic smoke, if some hotspots grow hotter than the oil’s smoke point while you are waiting for non-hotspots to catch up in temperature. (Hotspotting is particularly troublesome on nonstick pans because you can overheat the hotspots when trying to bring up the temperature of the colder spots, and overheating PTFE/Teflon will permanently damage it and cause offgas.) If you’ve ever cooked fish where part of a fillet got overcooked while the rest was undercooked or made rice and had some undercooked while the rest burned, then you’ve already experienced the joy of uneven heating.

Diagram of Pan Bottom (Point B = 350 or 400 degrees F = 204.44 degrees C)
Diagram of Pan Bottom (Point B = 350 degrees F or 176.7 degrees C)

HOW TO READ THE TABLE(S) BELOW:

The higher a pan is on the list, the better the thermal performance of that pan. Therefore the list is in order of best (on top) to worst (on bottom).

10 cm temperature delta means the temperature difference between the center of a pan and a 10 cm circle around the center, at the moment in time when the center of the pan reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176.7 degrees Celsius).1 A lower 10 cm temperature delta score is better than a higher score. A perfect score of zero would mean that the entire 20 cm diameter circle was the same temperature. 20 cm = 7.9 inches.  The flat cooking surface of most 11-inch skillets is about 8.5 inches in diameter. All testing began at room temperature.

Some cookware did not spread heat well enough to make the tables below; that is, the center temperature could not reach 350F without other parts of the cookware reaching that temperature first. In such cases, please refer to Even Heating Rankings (Gas) to get a sense of where those lower-performing pieces rank.2

I have separated cookware types because bottom-disc-only cookware pieces often have large temperature discontinuities where the disc bottom ends and the thin sidewalls begin. Those discontinuities may contribute to uneven cooking and food sticking to sidewalls. In contrast, cladded designs have heat conductive metal (cast iron, carbon steel, aluminum, or copper) running up the sides to eliminate that sudden temperature discontinuity. And finally, nonstick like Teflon can wear off, and ceramic loses its nonstickiness over time, so nonstick gets its own category.

Heat-spreading ability is most important in skillets, as they endure the highest temperatures and thermal stresses of any cookware. Therefore I have focused on testing skillets first. The results are usually applicable to the rest of the product line.3

The higher a pan is on the list, the better the thermal performance of that pan. Therefore the list is in order of best (on top) to worst (on bottom).

Thermal Results (Electric): Clad

Avg Delta 10cm (F)BrandModelProductReview/Rating
92.3De BuyerPrima Matera11 Inch Skillet4.05
92.6DemeyereProline11 inch Demeyere Proline Skillet4.7
93.7All-CladD712 Inch Skillet4.7
104.6Zwilling J.A. HenckelsSensation11 inch Sensation Skillet4.5
110.3VollrathTribute12 Inch Tribute Skillet3.9
114.3All-CladCopper Core12 inch 6112 Copper Core Skillet4.1
128.5All-CladD3 Stainless12 inch 4112 Stainless Steel SkilletOverview
132CuisinartMultiClad Pro (MCP)12 inch Cuisinart MultiClad Pro (MCP) Skillet4.65
133.3T-FalMulti-Clad Tri-Ply Stainless12 Inch Skillet4.0
143.5CulinaTri-Ply Stainless12 Inch Fry Pan3.75
146.1Cooks StandardMulti-Ply Stainless12 inch NC-00239 Multi-Ply Skillet4.05

Thermal Results (Electric): Nonstick (PTFE/Teflon, Ceramic)

Avg Delta 10cm (F)BrandModelProductReview/Rating
28.1WollDiamond Plus Induction11 Inch Skillet4.45
46.5AnolonNouvelle Copper12 inch Skillet4.6
71.3KitchenAidHard Anodized12 inch Skillet4.35
86.9OzeriGreen Earth12-inch Frying Pan4.35
99.3T-FalProfessional Total Nonstick12 inch E93808 Skillet3.7
119Zwilling J.A. HenckelsSpirit12 Inch Skillet4.0

Thermal Results (Electric): Disc-Bottom

Avg Delta 10cm (F)BrandModelProductReview/Rating
23.5Paderno World CuisineGrand Gourmet11 Inch Paella Pan (same as 11-inch skillet)4.5
61.2Update Inter-nationalSuperSteelSFP-11 SuperSteel 11-Inch Fry Pan3.35
61.2VollrathOptio11-inch 3811 Stainless Steel Fry Pan3.35

FOOTNOTES:

Show 3 footnotes

  1. Why 350F? Because it’s safely below the smoke point of extra virgin olive oil (~350F depending on the specific oil). The smoke point marks when an oil first starts to decompose into potentially carcinogenic compounds that are emitted as smoke. I’ve also tested pieces at 400F and the relative results don’t change much if at all; pans that outperform other pans at 350F will continue to outperform them at 400F. ↩
  2. If the bottom of a pan is larger than the hotspot diameter (which for electric is the diameter of the coil), then you will NEVER get edge-to-edge even heating no matter how long or how low you preheat a pan on the stove, especially for poor thermal conductors like cast iron. That’s because the pan is bleeding heat energy into the air at the same time that the burner is injecting heat. (And contrary to popular belief, cast iron does not bleed heat more slowly than stainless.) There will always be a thermal gradient. You can try this yourself at home with a metal pan and thermocouples: preheat it on a very low setting for as long as you want and you will still see a temperature difference between the center and edge of the pan. Be careful not to overheat your pan, especially nonstick pans which can emit fumes. ↩
  3. To compare apples-to-apples as much as possible, I’m testing 11- to 12-inch (interior diameter) skillets. Note that almost nobody makes cookware based on inches; the cookware world is mostly metric. So while a pan may be advertised as 11 inches, it’s actually 28 cm (11.02 inches). Pans advertised as 12 inches are typically 30 cm (11.81 inches) in diameter. (1 inch = 2.54 centimeters.) ↩

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