Circulon Reviews

After using my 3 new Circulon pots and lids for only 2 or 3 months, all the Circulon lids have broken plastic handles, including the colander lid for this 1 quart saucier.
First noticed the problem when I got gouged by the broken plastic and saw that all three Circulon lids showed big chunks of plastic off the underside of the plastic handles. I am very careful and do not own a dishwasher.
Next, I saw that two of the faulty handles now had big chuncks off BOTH ends of the plastic handles. All the breakage occured where the plastic 'cool' handle attaches to the metal part of the handle. Just today, when I removed the hot lid from my Toss and Turn pan, the black plastic totally came loose from the metal part of the handle! Only fast dancing saved me from this big hot lid falling on my feet. But at last I saw the FLAW. Instead of these lids having a complete metal handle that is covered with the plastic for cool handling, the metal part only goes up an inch to meet the plastic. The black plastic only overlaps the metal part for A SCANT HALF INCH OR SO, causing the more sturdy metal part to undermine the plastic, and eventually causing the chipped plastic to separate from the metal with use. The lids are subjected to steam and heat on a daily basis, so no wonder the plastic broke off, the plastic has no backing. It is just carelessly and poorly attached to less than a half inch of the metal that is attached to the lid. This poorly conceived construction is why the handle broke away entirely after the plastic was chipped, A full metal handle covered with plastic would have been nice for the money spent and prevented the accident where the handle completely separated from the chipped plastic. There is no metal supporting that plastic folks.
My enthusiasm for the Circulon was originally quite high, but now that I have lidless pots after less than 90 days, I'm pretty unhappy! This chipping happened to 3 out of 3 lids! AND the Toss and Turn lid was almost as expensive as the Toss and Turn pan! Now, after less than 90 days I must send in the Toss and Turn lid and my 2 smaller lids with chipped handles that go with the sauce pans. Because the Toss and Turn handle separated and broke away, this is not merely a cosmetic matter. Even before the lid handle broke entirely, the broken handles were uncomfortable to use with those sharp broken plastic edges digging into my fingers. Sending these lids back will leave me ill equiped in the kitchen after all the money spent to be well equiped. Further, I doubt their replacements will be any better, and they will probably need replacement every 90 days! Much as I love the Circulon pans, these lids make them a bad purchase. I would not buy this product again. Hopefully this review will help you make a good decision about Circulon pans and their bad lids.

I actually own the 5 Qt version of this pot, but a friend has this one. They share the same flaws, as do most Circulon products.

With the exception of this one, all my pots and pans are Calphalon (mostly commercial hard-anodized), so my standards are fairly high as cookware goes. I wanted a spaghetti pot that included a strainer lid, and after looking around, this seemed like the best model. Some other models are made of woefully thin pressed steel, others use stupidly designed locking mechanisms for the lid. This one is much better in both regards. However, the non-stick coating is of poor quality, and begins to slough off quickly, even though I only use rubberized utensils and soft scrub pads. I would much prefer to have had a pot that was anodized inside and out than to have the nonstick surface anway, but having bits of black teflon come off in your food makes for an even larger disappointment.

Also, the anodized surface on the outside of the pot is no where near the quality of that used on calphalon cookware, and is easily scratched through by my burner plate.

The so-called "heat resistant" phenalic plastic handles are a lie, not to mention brittle and prone to cracking. They might stay cool on electric stoves, but not when used on gas stoves (which heats more air that rises from under the pot). In the time needed to boil water and cook a pot of spaghetti (about 17 minutes), the handles get too hot to touch-a problem I have never had with the aluminum handles on the rest of my cookware, even on a big pot of chili that sat on the stove for over 5 hours.

In short, this product is structurally well designed, but suffers the same flaws as the rest of the Circulon line of cookware. I wish Calphalon, Kitchen Aid, or All-Clad would come up with a competing product.

This pot and lid are great. I have burned things in it a number of times and it cleans up easily. In addition, I don't need a colander for veggies or pasta - I just use the lid. I'm buying another one!