Re: Threads.
I don’t think Calphalon pans use screws to attach the handles. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen pans with screwed-on handles.) I believe they are rivets, so there would be no threads.
I was just going to say the same thing. All the handles on my pots and pans are riveted on with stainless steel rivets. Some are Calphalon and some are Cuisinart. But they are all riveted on.
GaryM
The only handles I’ve seen that weren’t riveted on were spot-welded on; e.g., my old Revereware pots.
Some cheaper brands like T-fal use a screw to secure the handle to the post. It occasionally needs tightening.
For the OP, what does this person think the nonstick coating on cast iron is? :smack:
I was going to suggest ‘cheaper brands’ might have screws. But I have no clear memory of ever seeing any. I do have an image in my head of a pot or pan with a rusty Phillips-head screw holding the handle on, but I don’t know if it’s a real memory so I discard it.
Calphalon is great. She’s a nutcase.
Cheapo pots and pans like you might get at Target sometimes have screws to hold the handles on. The screws don’t protrude into the cooking area. The plastic handle of the pot will have a couple of screws towards the bottom. But this area doesn’t get contact with food, so bacteria would not be an issue.
Hey OP: if your niece doesn’t want them, give them to me. I’ll gladly risk disease in exchange for new pots & pans.
The only screws involved are the mother’s, and they are definitely loose.
BTW - All Clad fan myself. Never heard anyone suggest the rivets were a health/cleaning hazard.
I agree - gifting quality cookware to young people is wonderful. Most folk have to live with cheap stuff until it wears out and they are able to invest in good stuff themselves.
Pretty much word for word what I thought reading the OP.
Yep, I had a cheapo Walmart set with screws. They had to be tightened every month or so. I was happy to finally replace them.
To be clear: I have no doubt there are pots and pans with screws. I thought that I’d never seen one, but was certain they existed. Upon reflection, I do remember one pot or pan that had a rusty screw holding the handle on. (The screw was on the outside, on the underside of the handle.)
Yeah, that’s the typical setup. I still keep a couple of T-fal pans around for eggs. Cheap to replace when they finally get pitted.
You need to hand-wash Calphalon; dishwasher detergent damages the non-stick surface.
But never mind, the whole notion is crazy.
That’s a bit more careful than what I was taught, but my inherited cast-iron pan is… cast-iron. It’s all of a piece. There’s no joint or seam where anything could collect.
I agree that worrying about Calphalon collecting a bacterial culture is paranoid. Between the heat and the simple fact you don’t eat whatever collects in the joint, it’s pointless to be concerned.
I (almost) always wash my Calphalon non-stick pans by hand. The stainless steel ones too.
That’s darned nice of them to say you can use dishwashers, but if your soap has micro-granules of plastic in it as scrubbers, it will eventually wear down the non-stick surface, which would require you to buy more Calphalon pans. If you only ever wash them by hand in warm, soapy water, that won’t happen, and it will be a much longer time before you need to buy more pans.
I always wash non-stick by hand because I barely have enough space in the dishwasher, and they’re so quick to clean. If it’s difficult to clean, that’s when you know you need to replace it.
Chances are that whatever her mother wants her to clean the cast iron with is orders of magnitude more unsanitary than the Calphalon pans.
you can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into.