[Sca-cooks] Need Advice!

[Ciorstan]

Brekke writes:

> To the best of my knowledge, you should not use metal on any non-stick finish.  If anyone has Calaphon, and has used metal scrubbers successfully, please feel free to educate me.

No.  Most Calphalon sold these days has a non-stick finish therein. Mine
are old enough (one of my pots is over 40 years old...) that they don't
have the non-stick finish (Calphalon calls it "hard-anodized"), which I
prefer anyway.

Metal pot scrubbers will put small gouges into a hard-anodized pot's
metal and cut strips into any non-stick finish.

I believe the Calphalon-sold scouring powder is a very fine grit
abrasive, something like the consistency of jewelers' rouge (I've got
some). There are warnings all over Calphalon's literature on NOT using
cleanser or other abrasives on their cookware if it has a non-stick
surface. The problem one gets when using an abrasive is that it strips
off part of the surface.  I like "Dobie" pads for working on these pots,
which are a fairly strong plastic mesh-covered sponge. According to
Calphalon, the remedy is elbow grease, a plastic scouring pad and
cleanser.

http://www.calphalon.com/usecare6.asp

That said, I've got one of the big Calphalon stove-top grills, the kind
that sits on top of two burners. It's now nicely seasoned, sorta like
cast iron. I suppose that's not desirable according to Calphalon, but it
works for me.

ciorstan