Calaphon? -- Berndes Cookware/kaiser Bakeware

Q: I was at Bloomingdales the other day and was looking to buy a the Calaphon Commercial non-stick, until I met a sales rep from Berndes cookware. Bloomies had a special on a Berndes 8" skillet for $9.99 (regular price $50) so I bought it and have been using it for several weeks now. Supposedly it has a lifetime warranty (compared with Calaphon's ten year). I was curious if anyone has had any good/bad experiences with the Berndes line. The brochure says that they are Europe's oldest cookware manufacturere and they are made in West Germany. I like the skillet but I don't know what it will be like in the long run, and I'd like to know before I go out and buy the whole set. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

A: I don't have any Berndes pots and don't know anyone who has one as much as I know (my family does not believe in spending much on pots and my quest for good ones is just belittled) but they have a good name here. Wait, I will quickly look into my catalogues ... Back ;-) They have different lines and only 5 years warranty here. I never would buy a set but just the sizes I need (sets tend to have mostly small pots) and therefore I would mix several manufacturers. Berndes is one I will try as soon as I have some money left. What line is the skillet from? Kaiser on the other hand I know very well. I mistakenly bought first a cheap set of baking forms. After 2 years they were rusted (high humidity in kitchen). Then I changed to Kaiser. Very good even after 10 years, only the outside is looking ugly now. The non-stick coating on the inside even withstands hard rubbing with plastic scrubbers. The outside is a bit difficult to clean if one has only one form, does several cakes one after the other and has dough spilled over to the outside in the first batch ;-) Up to now I live with a slightly black and gooey outside instead of scrubbing for several hours.

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George said:

Georege said: