Non-stick pans?

If you take good and proper care of your pans, and use them carefully, they should last a while. A lot of people here suggest not spending much $$ on them as they feel the pans will wear out relatively quickly. I felt the same way for a long time, but have since modified my view, having used a non-stick pan for a long period of time, and almost abusing it, to no ill effect. It is a skillet to which Cook's Illustrated gave a good rating. A friend uses her Calphalon non-stick (don't recall the model - maybe Calphalon One - but it's one of the top of the line skillets) frequently, and it's not shown any observable signs of wear in almost three - maybe four - years.

So, get a god one, use it with care and treat it right, and you should be OK. However, don't rely only on non-stick. Learn to use other types of cookware and your cooking will improve.

shel

In my experience non-stick pans are like any other kind of equipment, you get good and bad quality. I've used both cheap domestic non-stick pans and good professional non-stick ones and you can't really compare them.

I've heard quite a few people lately worrying about non-stick surface getting into food, I think it's like shel said; don't just go for the cheapest pans, and look after them.

Geoff

They are fine

Non-stick pans are fine to use. They will probably wear out eventually, but it all depends on how you take care of them like mentioned above. If the coating scratches or chips, it isn't anything to worry about. The pieces are too big to be digested and harm you.