Best Nonstick Pan For 2020

After cooking 20 dozen eggs, 16 pounds of hash browns, 10 pounds of tilapia fillets, and countless crepes in 19 different pans, we think that the Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan is the best nonstick pan. It offers a slick nonstick coating, good heat distribution, and excellent maneuverability and comfort. It’s a great value, performing as well as—in some cases even better than—pans over twice the price. It’s oven-safe to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and comes with a limited lifetime warranty.

Our pick

Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan

Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan

The best nonstick pan

With its classic flared-lip pan shape, slick nonstick coating, and comfortable handle, this Tramontina model is a quality pan that will last for years.

In our tests, the Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan distributed heat more evenly than other nonstick pans, thanks to its thick cast-aluminum construction. The flared edge let us easily scrape the corners with a spatula, flip fried eggs, and slide omelets onto a plate. This lightweight pan was easy to maneuver, and we appreciated the comfortable handle with removable silicone sheath for heat protection. With proper care, Tramontina’s nonstick coating will stay slick and scratch-free for at least three years. If you have an induction cooktop, however, go with one of our other picks, because this Tramontina pan isn’t induction compatible.

Also great

All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set

All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set

A set of high-quality skillets

These pans are thick, sturdy, compatible with all cooktops, and an excellent value for a set of two

The All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set is part of a new generation of affordable nonstick skillets that work on all cooktops, including induction (thanks to a stainless steel plate attached to the bottom). These thick-gauge anodized aluminum pans heat evenly (albeit slowly) and cook delicate foods just as well as a $130 tri-ply nonstick skillet. The 10-inch B1 pan is heftier than our top pick (it’s almost 3 pounds, whereas the Tramontina weighs about 2 pounds). But the comfortable rounded handles and excellent balance make both All-Clad B1 pans easy to maneuver. This $60 set isn’t our top pick because we think most folks can get by with one nonstick skillet.

Runner-up

T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan

T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan

A good starter pan

This pan signals when it’s hot and has a completely nonstick surface for easy cleanup.

If our top pick sells out, the T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan is easy to use and a solid performer. Like the Tramontina and All-Clad pans, the T-fal cooked omelets and crepes evenly, and the wide-angled sides let us easily flip eggs without a spatula. Of all our picks, this is the only one that features nonstick-coated rivets and a color-changing dot that indicates when the pan is hot. But its straight lip dribbled when we poured out grease and pan juices. For its price and compatibility with all cooktops, we think the T-fal Professional is an impressive skillet.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan

Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan

The best nonstick pan

With its classic flared-lip pan shape, slick nonstick coating, and comfortable handle, this Tramontina model is a quality pan that will last for years.

All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set

All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set

A set of high-quality skillets

These pans are thick, sturdy, compatible with all cooktops, and an excellent value for a set of two.

T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan

T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan

A good starter pan

This pan signals when it’s hot and has a completely nonstick surface for easy cleanup.

I worked the omelet station during the Sunday grand buffet at the California Culinary Academy, as a part of a work-study program while I was a student there. My second day on the job, the chef handed me three brand-new nonstick pans and told me to take good care of them. When my shift was over I dropped off the pans at the dish station. About 20 minutes later I went back only to find the once-pristine egg pans were ruined after the dishwasher subjected them to a stainless steel scrubber. The chef just shook his head and told me it was my job to figure out how I was going to make decent omelets with trashed pans. Even though I actively avoided brunch shifts in restaurants throughout my career, I will never forget the lesson I learned that day. Whether in restaurants or in test kitchens, I make sure to treat nonstick pans with the same care and attention as I do my personal knives.

It’s useful to have at least one nonstick skillet in your kitchen for cooking eggs, fish fillets, or other delicate items. A nonstick pan is also great for beginner cooks or anyone who wants something that’s easy to use and clean. The slick coating allows you to use less oil and cook over moderately low heat without the risk of food sticking to the pan.

But nonstick cookware has some drawbacks, mainly that it is easy to damage and has a shorter life span than uncoated cookware. All nonstick coatings are delicate, and will eventually wear out. That’s why although we think nonstick coated pans are convenient, we advise against buying a large set of nonstick cookware—you don’t want to have to replace the whole set every few years. Most folks need only one or two nonstick skillets to round out their cookware collection, because the slick coating is mainly useful for cooking delicate foods and eggs.

If you cook on induction, you’re limited to stainless steel tri-ply or skillets with steel plates bonded to the bottom. When shopping for nonstick skillets, check the packaging to make sure it’s induction compatible.

After researching nonstick cookware for three years, we understand how confusing the subject can be. Branding jargon such as “diamond” or “ceramic-titanium” is unclear and makes comparison shopping a daunting task. But when we cut through all that hyped-up marketing verbiage, we found that the following are the most common types of nonstick coatings:

PTFE: This is a synthetic polymer that repels water and reduces friction. Not only is it used for cookware, but it’s also a common material in joint replacements. Teflon is the most famous PTFE coating, but other companies make proprietary cookware coatings. For classic PTFE, the two major producers are Chemours (DuPont) and Whitford. Many big-name cookware brands use a coating from one of these two companies. For instance, if this website is accurate, T-fal uses Teflon and Cuisinart uses a coating called QuanTanium by Whitford.

Ceramic: This is not actually ceramic, but instead a ceramic-like coating also called sol-gel (short for “solution-gel”). Sol-gel coatings don’t use poly-fluoroalkyl polymers like PTFE, but instead are silica-based. For that reason they’re often touted as being “greener” or better for you, but neither claim has much truth (for more on why, see this piece by Wirecutter’s science editor, Leigh Krietsch Boerner).

The biggest complaint about “ceramic” pans is that their nonstick properties don’t last as long. According to an informational site sponsored by Whitford (which makes both PTFE and sol-gel coatings), “PTFE coatings provide very good release for a longer period of time” than sol-gel coatings. We asked friends and family how long their sol-gel cookware lasted, and they all said about one year—and that they’d never buy it again. So we focused on pans with PTFE-based nonstick coatings, as they last longer than those with sol-gel coatings (which is one reason why ceramic pans aren’t particularly “green,” as you have to replace them more often).

If you’re wondering whether cooking in a nonstick pan will give you cancer, the short answer is no. For a more detailed explanation, check out this piece by Leigh Krietsch Boerner, Wirecutter’s science editor.

Several nonstick skillets stacked up on a counter

A good nonstick pan has the traits of a traditional skillet—even heating, classic flared sides, good balance between body and handle—but adds a slick coating to make cooking delicate foods like eggs and fish easier. We narrowed our search mostly to open-stock, 10-inch pans, but we also included one set. We believe 10 inches is best size to get if you want just one pan for omelets or two fried eggs. But if you do want something larger to cook more than eggs or a couple of fish fillets, most of our picks come in multiple sizes. Beyond that, we made our picks by looking for the following features:

Slick, flat surface
Though we favored skillets that released food with little or no effort on our part, we quickly realized that the super-smooth coatings could reveal a design weakness in some pans: a slightly convex cooking surface. Flatness is important because the nonstick coating on an uneven surface causes butter and oil to slide to the lowest point, making it nearly impossible to get even coverage. A convex surface can also cause two fried eggs to migrate to opposite sides of the pan and become hard to flip without a spatula.

Even heat distribution
A nonstick pan that distributes heat evenly across the cooking surface will not only keep your food from scorching but will also last longer. Nonstick coating breaks down faster at high temperatures, so hot spots can shorten the lifespan of a pan. We prefer skillets made from castor anodized aluminum because it’s an inexpensive material, an excellent heat conductor, and durable.

Stainless steel tri-ply (aluminum sandwiched by two layers of stainless steel) is also an excellent material for even heat distribution, and unlike aluminum, tri-ply works on induction cooktops. But tri-ply nonstick pans are much more expensive than their aluminum counterparts, and it’s generally not worth paying that much for a pan that will last only a few years. Now you can find aluminum pans with bonded steel plates on the bottom that perform very well and work on induction, at a fraction of the price.

Shape and comfort
Just as with traditional skillets, nonstick pans with flared sides perform the best. The wide shape enables quick and accurate flipping without the use of a spatula. And even if you’re more inclined to use a turner, the wide flare offers more room to maneuver under food than straight sides do. Flared sides also promote more evaporation, which means less water collects in the skillet, and foods develop a golden crust.

Skillets with weight balanced between the handle and body are the most stable and sit flat on the burner. The latter is especially important when you’re using induction or ceramic cooktops, where full contact with the burner is key. Well-balanced pans also make it easier to swirl crepe batter and flip delicate foods. But balance doesn’t mean much if the handle is uncomfortable to grip or awkwardly angled. A bent lip is a bonus that makes it easy to pour off liquids (like excess grease or batter) with minimal dripping.

Price and longevity
The surface on a brand-new nonstick pan is the slickest it’ll ever be before it makes the slow march toward ineffectiveness through use and wear. Even with proper care, any nonstick skillet has a shorter lifespan than other cookware, because the nonstick coating will inevitably wear off. We think $20 to $60 is plenty to spend on a piece of cookware that will give you three to five years of use.

Though many pans come with a limited lifetime warranty, these guarantees won’t cover wear and tear (like surface scratches and gradual breakdown of the nonstick coating) or misuse and abuse. Read the instruction manual for any nonstick pan you buy, because some things—like using nonstick cooking spray or putting your pan in the dishwasher—will void the warranty.

Two omelets on a plate. The top one has few cracks, while the bottom one is gouged and ripped in the middle.
Top: the Tramontina’s omelet. Bottom: the Scanpan Classic’s omelet. It was difficult to get a smooth omelet from the Scanpan due to its large cooking surface. Photo: Michael Hession

When we first tested nonstick pans in 2016, we conducted a full battery of tests that included making French omelets, fried eggs over easy, seared tilapia fillets, hash browns, and crepes. In the process, we realized the tests had a lot of redundancy. For example, searing delicate tilapia didn’t show us anything different than frying eggs over easy. And crepes showed the same browning pattern as hash browns.

For this update, we pared the testing to cooking French omelets, fried eggs over easy, and crepes. French omelets are traditionally fluffy and colorless, so we tested how gently the skillets cooked eggs without browning, and how quickly they released. Flipping fried eggs over easy is a delicate task, and we looked for pans with flared sides that made it simple to do without the help of a spatula. Making tall stacks of crepes helped us judge how comfortable and maneuverable each pan felt in the hand while we swirled the batter across the surface.

We also tested each pan’s heat distribution by toasting a thin layer of all-purpose flour sifted over the surface of the pan. Watching the flour brown let us identify hot spots at a glance. For induction-ready pans, we used a portable induction burner to make omelets and toast flour in addition to the stovetop tests.

A tester holding the Tramontina up to the camera.Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan

Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan

The best nonstick pan

With its classic flared-lip pan shape, slick nonstick coating, and comfortable handle, this Tramontina model is a quality pan that will last for years.

The Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan is our favorite because it’s superbly nonstick, excellent at evenly distributing heat, easily maneuverable for fast-cooking foods, and affordable. The handle is comfortable and comes with a removable silicone sheath. The Tramontina’s surface is the perfect size for cooking a three-egg omelet, and its flared sides are well-angled for easy flipping. We also like that this pan is also available in 8-, 12-, and 14-inch sizes to accommodate different cooking needs.

The Tramontina’s nonstick coating is smooth and slick, and easily released food through repeated tests. Pale-yellow omelets slid out effortlessly from this pan, as did tilapia fillets. We know that nonstick pans are best when brand-new, and age is the true test of value. But we’ve used a Tramontina 8-inch nonstick pan regularly for four years, and the coating is just now starting to dull.

An omelet in progress in the Tramontina pan.
The Tramontina 10-Inch Professional Restaurant Fry Pan’s 7½-inch cooking surface was ideal for getting an even layer of curds before rolling the eggs into an omelet. Photo: Michael Hession

We were impressed with how the Tramontina yielded evenly golden crepes and fluffy yellow French omelets. The thick cast-aluminum construction helps to disperse consistent heat across the cooking surface, resulting in fewer hot spots and better heat control. In comparison, the Anolon Advanced pan showed the most extreme browning and got very hot when we placed it over the same heat setting.

A steaming nest of hash browns, flipped browned side up in the Tramontina.
Flipping hash browns were easy in the Tramontina because of the flared lip. Photo: Michael Hession

The wide-angle curves made flipping fried eggs and fish easy, keeping yolks and fillets intact. We also noticed how easily maneuverable the Tramontina was as we repeatedly swirled crepe batter. The comfortable handle and good balance kept the hand and arm fatigue at bay, and the bent lip let us cleanly pour out excess crepe batter without any rogue drips. Trying to pour the batter out of pans with straight lips, like the Scanpan and Swiss Diamond skillets, was a different story: Batter dripped down the sides of each pan and onto the stove and countertops.

Even though we didn’t test these pans in the oven, Tramontina promises its skillet is good up to 400 degrees. So go ahead and make frittatas and Spanish tortillas without worrying about damage. We also like the removable silicone sheath on the handle because it gives you the choice to use it or not. (I personally chose not to use it simply because I like holding pans with a folded dish towel.)

The Tramontina is a bargain for what you get. Because most nonstick cookware has a three-to-five-year lifespan, $30 to $40 is a reasonable price to pay. The pan also comes with a limited lifetime warranty that protects against manufacturer defects (such as loose rivets, or coating that bubbles and flakes off) but not general wear and tear, misuse, or abuse.

This pan does have a couple of minor flaws. It’s not compatible with induction cooktops, but our other picks are. Also, the rivets that secure the handle to the pan don’t have a nonstick coating. Even though coated rivets are a nice feature because they help make cleanup easier, we don’t think having to scrub a little egg off some bare aluminum is a dealbreaker.

Several Wirecutter writers and editors use the Tramontina in their personal cooking, and for the most part, they report that the pan has held up well. Editor Andrew Cuningham and his wife have used two since October 2017 and say that though the couple “[uses the pans] pretty much all the time, they still look and feel great. The nonstick coating is still intact and [hasn’t] bubbled up in the middle like some crappier pans we’ve had.” Likewise, special projects editor Ganda Suthivarakom has used hers weekly since February 2018 and reports that it’s still “like new.” Ultimately, the more care you use, the longer your pan will last: editor Tim Barribeau’s Tramontina started to lose its nonstick quality after about eight months of use, but he admits to being “pretty notorious for cooking at pretty high heat with it.” Likewise, senior editor Grant Clauser’s pan got scratched up after just two months, but mostly from bumping into other items in his sink rack.

A tester holding the two All-Clad pans. They have similar heights and flared edges, in two different widths.
Photo: Michael Hession

Also great

All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set

All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick 8-Inch and 10-Inch Fry Pans Set

A set of high-quality skillets

These pans are thick, sturdy, compatible with all cooktops, and excellent value for a set of two.

The 8- and 10-inch skillets included in the All-Clad B1 Hard Anodized Nonstick Fry Pans Set are thick, slick, sturdy, suitable for all cooktops, and a great deal. In our tests, they performed on a par with our top pick, the Tramontina Professional. Like our top pick, the B1 pans have aluminum bodies, riveted cast stainless steel handles, flared sides, and bent lips. But unlike the Tramontina, they also work on induction ranges.

The B1 pans aren’t our top pick because they come in a set, and two nonstick pans might be overkill for a lot of folks. For that reason, we’ve avoided sets in the past for this guide and focused primarily on open-stock pans. But the appeal of two induction-ready skillets for less than half the price of our former upgrade pick, the tri-ply All-Clad Non-Stick Fry Pan, was too good for us to pass up.

The 10-inch All-Clad B1 pan flipped eggs and crepes, and cooked a fluffy yellow omelet as well as our top pick. We also found that both B1 pans had completely flat surfaces, so butter, oil, and eggs stayed where we put them instead of sliding to the edge.

The most telling difference between the All-Clad B1 pans and the Tramontina is that the All-Clad pans take longer to heat up because of their thicker gauge. Although the 10-inch All-Clad model toasted flour just as evenly as our top pick, it took a full minute longer to produce a browned, golden hue. And on an induction burner, the same pan took three minutes longer to toast flour than any other induction-compatible pan we tested. But that’s not a mark against the All-Clad; it didn’t brown the flour any more than the other pans when we removed it from the burner, which showed us that it didn’t retain excess heat.

The 10-inch All-Clad pan has a slightly larger cooking surface than our top pick (7¾ inches versus 7½ inches). And because the All-Clad pan is made from thicker aluminum, it weighs almost 1 pound more than the 2-pound Tramontina Professional.

These pans are super sturdy, and will probably remain solid long after the nonstick coating craps out. The riveted stainless steel handles are comfortable to hold and sit at an angle that makes tossing and flipping easy. Even the steel disc bonded to the bottom of each pan (to make them induction compatible) seems thicker and sturdier than the ones on other induction pans we tested.

If you have an induction cooktop, $60 for two sturdy nonstick skillets is a great deal. Unlike All-Clad’s tri-ply bonded cookware, the B1 line is not produced in the company’s Pennsylvania factory but in China. All-Clad backs these pans with a lifetime warranty that covers manufacturing defects but not misuse, abuse, or normal wear and tear.

Wirecutter staff writers Signe Brewster and Alex Arpaia have both used the All-Clad and both report that it’s holding up well. Signe has used her pan since 2018 and (though she ignores our advice to not run nonstick pans in the dishwasher) said, “They still look and work perfectly.” Alex added, “I love them. They were affordable and have filled an 8- and 10-inch-sized hole in my cookware collection. They feel sturdy and are super easy to clean. Cooking eggs just got so much more enjoyable.”

The T-fal pan has a grid pattern on its cooking surface with a red circle design in the middle.
Photo: Michael Hession

Runner-up

T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan

T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan

A good starter pan

This pan signals when it’s hot and has a completely nonstick surface for easy cleanup.

The T-fal Professional 10-Inch Fry Pan is a sturdy and versatile pan that works on all types of ranges, even induction. We had no issues flipping eggs or making fluffy yellow omelets in this pan, thanks to its wide flared sides and manageable surface area. And this is our only pick that features coated rivets for easier cleanup. Like other T-fal cookware, the Professional Fry Pan has a color-changing red dot on its surface that turns solid when it reaches 350 degrees—a helpful indicator for people who are uneasy about overheating nonstick skillets. But the T-fal isn’t our top pick because its straight lip makes pouring out juices and grease a little messy, and the domed surface makes oil and eggs slide toward the edge.

Like our other picks, the T-fal Professional distributes heat evenly; it’s also notably slick, and comfortable to handle and maneuver. At 1 pound, 8 ounces, it’s the lightest of our picks, which is good if you don’t like heavier cookware. But the light weight doesn’t diminish this T-fal’s cooking performance or durability.

One mark against the T-fal Professional is that it lacks the bent lip of our other two picks. In our tests, the T-fal dripped some crepe batter on the countertop and down the side of the pan. It’s also our only pick with a silicone handle instead of a cast stainless steel one. So although repeated oven use might cause some wear to the handle in the long term, the pan is oven-safe to 400 degrees.

Compared with our other picks, which have flat cooking surfaces, the T-fal Professional is slightly domed in the middle. Butter, oil, and eggs tend to slide toward the outer edge of the pan. In contrast with pans we tested and dismissed, however, this T-fal’s dome is the least pronounced.

If you don’t cook with induction, we think our top pick is the best option. But for folks with induction cooktops who don’t want to pay $60 for the All-Clad B1 set, the T-fal is a solid choice. The steel plates on both the T-fal and All-Clad pans measure about the same diameter, but All-Clad’s bonded disk seems thicker and more substantial. Comparing the two pans on induction, we found that the All-Clad exhibited slightly better heat distribution and control than the T-fal Professional. But if you want only one nonstick pan, or don’t want to spend a lot of money on a skillet that will eventually need replacing, the T-fal Professional is a solid choice.

Another thing to note is that, as of this writing, the image of this skillet on the Amazon product page shows uncoated rivets, but we contacted the company about this, and a representative reassured us that this was a mistake on Amazon’s part. The pan you receive will have coated rivets.

Many Wirecutter staffers have used the T-Fal for several years without issue. Staff writer Ben Keough reports that after using his since about 2016, “It’s still going strong. A few micro-scratches but still very non-sticky despite near-everyday use.” Likewise, staff writer Anna Perling has used hers since 2018 and says, “It looks just like it did when I got it. The coating is still shiny, without any nicks or discoloration, and I use it often for frying eggs or to quickly saute vegetables.” Only senior editor Raphael Brion reports that his pan is “on its way out,” which isn’t unreasonable given that he’s been using it since 2013.

The coating on nonstick pans is delicate, to say the least. To prolong the life of your pan, follow these rules:

  • Rub a small amount of vegetable oil onto the cooking surface while it’s still cold. Nonstick pans need some fat to be effective. Also, some nonstick pans need to be seasoned occasionally with a small amount of oil. Be sure to check the instructions that come with your pan for proper use and maintenance.
  • Never, ever use nonstick cooking spray on your pan. Over time, it will build up and make your pan prone to sticking. I know—ironic, right?
  • Don’t put your nonstick cookware in the dishwasher. The argument for this varies. Some blame heat and harsh detergents for the premature breakdown of nonstick coating, although we couldn’t find concrete evidence to support these claims. It’s more likely that the pan rubbing against ceramic dishes and metal utensils in the dishwasher causes damage to the nonstick surface. Just wash your nonstick cookware by hand. It’s easy.
  • Keep all metal utensils away from your nonstick pan. Companies like to claim their nonstick surfaces are durable against metal, but that’s not the case for longevity. Use plastic, silicone, or wooden tools.
  • Clean your nonstick cookware with soft sponges, like the Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Scrub Sponge or Scotch-Brite Dobie pad. Never use heavy-duty scrub sponges or steel scrubbers.
  • Don’t overheat your pan. High temperatures break down nonstick coating. Cook your food over low to medium heat.
  • Running a hot pan under cool water is never a good idea. The extreme temperature change will wear down the coating quicker. Let your pan cool before washing.
  • If you stack your pans to store them, protect the coating of your nonstick pan by placing a dish rag or paper towel between the pans.

Because nonstick pans aren’t heirloom pieces, and the coating will eventually wear off, you will have to deal with disposal. The good news is, the pan doesn’t have to go in a landfill. Many cities will take spent pans with the recycling (though some cities won’t take coated pans, and you probably need to remove any plastic parts). If such a recycling system doesn’t exist in your area, you can take the pan to a scrap yard.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *