Is it safe to use pans with peeling nonstick coating?

PumpkinDrama@reddthat.com to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 135 points –

I have a set of 3 Bra Premiere non-stick frying pans that I've used for a while. The coating on them says "Teflon Innovations without PFOA". Recently I've noticed that on the most used pan, the 26cm one, the Teflon coating has started to peel off.

I know that Teflon coatings can release harmful fumes and chemicals if overheated, but what about if the coating is physically peeling? Is it still safe to cook with them? Or should I stop using especially the 26cm one? I don't want to keep exposing my family to anything dangerous unknowingly. Any advice if these types of pans are still safe to cook with if the nonstick surface is peeling would be appreciated!

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Cast iron is non-stick and so much easier to clean

Cast iron is nice, I recommended stainless because I assume someone who treats pans like this would ruin cast iron too.

Cast iron is nearly impossible to "ruin", the idea that you can is nothing more than a huge circlejerk. Even a completely rust covered cast iron pan can likely be made basically good as new with a little effort.

Obviously restoring your pan every time you wanna use it isn't practical, so you still wanna take care of it, but actually permanently ruining it? Good luck.

I wasn't really referring to permanently mangling the iron. Taking care of seasoning is an extra thing, is all, and the seasoning can absolutely be ruined.

It depends. I ruined my Teflon, but my cast iron is great. Mostly I just hate plastic spatulas.

Unless of course you want to use a dishwasher. Even manually it really isn't 'so much easier to clean' and you have to spend time seasoning it.

Once you season cast iron you can clean it however you want. Even with soap. The oils you bake on there at such high heat causes polymerization.

You don't have to continue to season cast iron after cleaning it, unless you're cleaning it with a fucking angle grinder.

Putting a seasoned cast iron pan in the dishwasher isn’t a great idea, in my experience

Dishwashers can have some pretty high pressures involved, I wouldn't be surprised if it can literally chip the seasoning off.

I might be wrong, but I think if your "seasoning" is thick enough to chip off it means you did it wrong and failed to scrub away the excess food residue.

Afaik you can't put the non stick in the dishwasher either?

I don't see why not? They won't rust in there like cast iron would

Not about rust, but the chemicals in the detergent can harm the coating iirc.

I have a cast iron pan that I've used for almost 10 years. I seasoned it when I got it. To clean it, I scrub it with steel wool, dry it off then rub a coat of oil on it. It still looks and works perfectly. Cast iron is extremely easy to clean and upkeep.

Yeh,

Scrubbing it with steel wool, drying it and then rubbing in oil doesn’t sound as easy as ‘put in dishwasher’. I couldn’t be doing with that, cooking for a family every day

I cook for a family of four every day and taking 3 minutes to clean my cast iron pan is the least time consuming part of it. You're being dramatic.

I’m not being dramatic- I just don’t see much benefit from the faff. And I’ve never actually found a well-seasoned cast iron pan that is as non-stick as a non-stick.

… hence the need for the wire wool, I guess.

Oh, my point wasn't that a cast iron pan is as non-stick as Teflon. I was simply talking about cast iron upkeep. I have a non stick pan and it's much better for certain things for sure. But I wash it by hand instead of putting it in the dishwasher.

I don't have any zods but i got some chipped rubies