The Lowest-Ranked Stainless Steel Cookware Set Comes From This Well-Known Brand, Per Consumer Reports

If you're looking for the best stainless steel cookware for your kitchen, Consumer Reports is issuing a pretty clear warning that you may want to avoid companies better known for nonstick pans. Chefs love cooking with stainless steel because of its even heating, non-reactive surface, and strong durability, making it the workhorse of most kitchens, so you want to invest in a brand that delivers. Thankfully Consumer Reports has done us all the favor of taking a lot of the legwork out of research, testing stainless steel brands on all kinds of performance measurements to find the best and worst overall options. And unfortunately for the longtime mainstay French brand, T-fal came in dead last.

This may not be too surprising, as T-fal is a budget brand for stainless steel, and the company is most famous for creating the first nonstick cookware in the 50s, not its steel. And to be fair to the brand, Consumer Reports stainless steel testing didn't find that it made bad pans — in fact, they were perfectly fine. It was just that the category is one of the most competitive in cookware. In the evenness of the pans heating, for example, an important trait for frying pans, T-fal's cookware scored excellently, but so did literally every one of the 35 options CR tested. It's just the nature of the material. T-fal also scored highly in the speed of heating, how easily food released from the pan, and in how cool the handle stayed. But once again, so did almost every other brand.

There were only a few areas where T-fal's stainless steel cookware fell short, but it was enough to push it to the bottom of the pack. Its toughest category was "simmering sauce," which measured how well the pan could maintain a simmer at an even temperature without burning. That was an area where a few other lower-scoring brands, like Martha Stewart Vintage and Rachel Ray, also struggled, but where the best brands were still good to excellent. T-fal pans also gave Consumer Reports trouble when it came to cleaning, with food staying stubbornly stuck to the pan. The sturdiness of the handle was another issue, which is a real ding against a material that is supposed to be durable enough to last. Finally, while it wasn't given a direct score, T-fal's stainless steel is only oven safe to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. That's quite low compared to the 600 degrees that is standard for higher-performing brands.

The one real upside for T-fal was the price. At only $100, the T-fal set tested was one of the most affordable options, with the highest rated stainless steel brands on Consumer Reports like OXO and Crate & Barrel costing around $400 or more for similar sets. Those savings might make a totally decent set of pans worth it, but unfortunately for T-fal, there were other options from Cuisinart and Amazon Basics that scored better and were around the same price, or even cheaper. These products also nabbed Consumer Reports "Smart Buy" label for being the best budget picks. Sorry T-fal, you might want to focus on your much better nonstick pans.