Woll Diamond Plus/Diamond Lite Fry Pan, 8-Inch

I had my eye on this set for almost a year because I was put off by the previously pictured tan color and the price. I was very happily surprised when I received a charcoal black set. They are very attractive, will be less likely to show stains, and go with any color scheme. Aside from appearance, these are very heavy duty pots and pans akin to cast iron, but maybe a tad lighter. I got over the high price because I really wanted a non-stick, PFOA-free set this time around and I'm really hoping I won't have to replace it for a long time. Cheaper sets are not cheaper if you have to keep replacing them to avoid ingesting Teflon when they get scratched up. I don't own any metal cooking utensils and always hand wash such big items, so I won't be able to speak on how these would hold up under such use. I also put pot holders between nested pots. I've only had them for not quite 2 months, so I'll have to remember to do an update in a year or two if these are still sold here to speak to their durability. I make everything from scratch so they will get heavy use.Features I especially love about this set are the glass see through lids and the double handles on the medium sauce pot and dutch oven. As far as I'm concerned, I wish that the large fry pan and smallest sauce pot had those, too. They would take up less space on the stove top and in the cabinet that way. It would also make pouring off liquids with the lid on easier. Like I said, these pots have some heft to them and using two hands would be easier on the wrists! I also love the depth of the sides on the 3 fry pans since I use a 2 burner griddle for any cooking where sides would be in the way. These are perfect for when you need to de-glaze a pan after frying to make a sauce. The largest fry pan is about 2 1/2" deep and the smaller ones are about 1 1/2" deep.The largest fry pan and the Dutch oven are both 11 and 3/8" across (not including the handles) so that they can share a lid.The dutch oven may seem too wide across for stove top use at first, but it seems to distribute heat from my largest burner very well in spite of that and I probably use it more than I do the large frying pan because I like how the high sides cut down on the spattering I have to wipe up after cooking.The medium sauce pot and medium fry pan also share a lid. I really love the depth of the medium sauce pot and the double handles on it. It's like a mini dutch oven and holds more than you'd think it would. It's perfect for when the dutch oven is just too big for what you are making.Another reviewer commented on the fit of the lids in the pans. There is a little wiggle room to them, but except for the pot with the pour spouts, they still create a nice seal with their weight. I don't think you'd want a tight fit or they would stick when you'd want to lift them. The metal bands around the glass are not as hefty as a Cuisinart 1 quart stainless pan I have, so that may be something that could be improved for this price. I do feel like I have to handle the lids with care as I don't know if replacement parts would be available if I broke one. The handles on the lids are easy to grab without touching any hot glass. They are fastened to the glass with hardware that also creates venting. There is no way to adjust or close off the venting. I'm not sure if that would be an issue for some, but it hasn't been for me.All-in-all, I really like this cookware set and it has been worth the higher cost so far.

This is a fantastic pan! The pan is thick (10mm) but it's light because it's solid aluminum (BTW, don't let self-appointed health "experts" convince you that aluminum gives you alzheimer's disease. The growing body of evidence proves it does not). There's no PFOA (which IS quite harmful) because they found a way to infuse the non-stick coating right to the metal directly. That means it'll withstand the scratches and heat and abuse better than most non-sticks. So far, that's entirely true. I scraped the tines of my fork hard on a spot towards the rim of the pan and it didn't scratch off the nonstick. I also took my heavy spoons and spatulas and tapped them firmly against the rim like I would when I'm cooking to see if it'd ding up and leave marks. It did NOT. By all accounts, the diamond-plus pans are incredibly durable. The vendor claims that even if it discolors a bit or gets scratched (which I haven't been able to accomplish by being rough on it), there's no harm because the non-stick coating is fused to the metal. Gotta say I'm loving it so far. Time will tell if they hold up like this in a year or two. I'll report back.It also cooks incredibly evenly and heats up/cools off quickly because of the aluminum. For example, on my old crappy pots and pans, if I turn the burner on high with an inch of water in the bottom, there'll be like a ring of bubbles right where the elements are or right where the warped pan bottoms touch the heating elements. But in THIS pan, the heat is transferred evenly and thus the entire surface bubbles evenly showing me that the whole bottom is the same temperature. Things fry the exact same way in this pan...there's no "hot spot". I fried up a bunch of sausage (without greasing the pan at all first) and after each turn, they all had the same browning level which told me the sausages on the edge had the same heat under them as the sausages in the middle of the pan. Finally! I was tired of having to rotate them to different spots in the pan so there weren't burnt ones and raw ones.The pan is incredibly flat and precise. There's no rocking when it's on a flat surface because the bottom was turned with precision. Now, if there is a fault with this pan (and I don't know that this is the fault of the pan) its that the super shiny underside picks up stains quickly and they're hard to scour off because of the texture. On the other hand, that texture makes it nice and grippy so it doesn't slide around on my flat glass range. On my old pans, the slightest touch to the handle can send it spinning all the way around in a circle or send it off the glassy burner altogether. THIS pan absolutely does not. Something about it grips really well to the glass surface I've got.I don't want to get sucked in by the hype of the "making of" videos, but so far this is performing fantastically and just as advertised. But as I've heard others mention, almost ALL nonstick works great at first. It's not until you use it for a year or two before you find out what it's really made of. I'll keep everyone posted with my findings as time goes on.

In less than 8 months of use the nonstick coating started coming off. Now it is flaking off in large amounts and the pan is unusable. We never used anything other than plastic/nylon utensils on it. I went to Amazon to ask about a return and was directed to contact the manufacturer through their website. Contacted Woll and told them of my problem and they said that I had to go through Amazon since I purchased through them. Went back to Amazon only to be told, again, I had to go through the manufacturer. Contacted Woll again, reminded them that the warranty clearly states the nonstick coating is guaranteed for 3 years. They said they could replace it but I WOULD HAVE TO PAY TO SHIP IT TO GERMANY, AND PAY RETURN SHIPPING ON THE REPLACEMENT. That would cost more than the pan!I told them that was unacceptable, rendering the warranty useless to a US-based customer. They simply said sorry and that there was nothing else they could do. Very poor service. If they're going to do business in the US then they need to have a credible way for those customers to avail themselves of the warranty, or else they need to change their advertising for their US customers to make it explicitly clear that you are purchasing it AS IS, with no realistic guarantee of repair/replacement if you have problems.Doubly disappointing because I purchased this pan because I have another Woll pan (different line from the Diamond Lite Pro) that I purchased in Germany 20+ years ago that is still going strong. Thus I was excited to get another one, but the quality on this one is very poor, and the customer service even worse.