First a heads-up/disclaimer : My company is a retailer that focuses 100% only on sales of Swiss Diamond cookware at http://www.swissdiamondstore.com , so I do have a vested interest in this response. That being said, one should consider that yes, you can spend $25 every couple years to get an el-cheapo pan but then swiss diamond ..... a) has a lifetime warranty ...and yes, that is a real lifetime warranty .... so 1 X 10" frypan , currently at $69.95 (http://www.swissdiamondstore.com/frypans-1/) is as far as I can tell less $$ than 3 or 4 $25 pans over a few years. b) not any old fry pan is dishwasher safe .... im lazy... i cant tell you how much pleasure I get taking a fry pan and placing it in a dishwasher. See how long your Circulon, Calpahlon, All Clad, TFAL etc product will last ? As far as these 2 points above, its a no-brainer and applies to only 2 products on the market ...swiss diamond and Scanpan. I hang my pot n pans on a rack in my kitchen. My cookware is almost 10 years old and still looks good enough to hang in public view...... I prepared to put money on the fact that the other brands would not. The real question you should be asking relates to how the PTFE is applied to the fry pan, and what makes it stay in the fry pan vs landing in your food. I know folks don't like us to rant about products here..so if you are interested in more input , let me know by responding to this message. Bottom line, and this is just my opinion..... there is more to selecting a fry pan than price alone, and also these are not just regular old PTFE fry pans.
