How much should you spend on a saucepan?

A saucepan can set you back as little as $20, or over $200. So while it is a relatively simple addition to most kitchens, it may leave you wondering whether there is much variation between products.

Our CHOICE Kitchen experts have done some extensive testing and number crunching to help answer this question. If you’re a CHOICE subscriber, then you may wish to skip to the saucepan review.

We compare a range of saucepans using the following criteria (more detailed info here), including:

  • perform the best
  • cook evenly
  • are quick to heat up
  • are easy to use and clean.

We then correlated performance to RRP price points:

As you can see, while more expensive products tend to perform consistently well, there’s also quite a few products out there at lower price points that perform comparably to more expensive options, as we found with this Kmart frypan.

While we know it’s not something you replace often, we’d love to hear what you think is a reasonable outlay on a saucepan along with your experiences including any tips, such as types of materials, size or other considerations you’re willing to share with the CHOICE Community.

More info is also available in this article:

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Depends on the make.
Depends on how much you can afford to spend
Depends on how much you are willing to spend.,

i have paid a fortune for esteele and all clad. They will last me decades. Should have invested in them decades earlier.

Old saucepans have been thrown out as they chipped, peeled etc. Cheap is cheap.

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I agree. For years I was too cheap to spend a lot, and then my daughter showed me her more expensive ones. I was periodically throwing saucepans out and buying new (cheap) ones. Since buying a good set I’ve never looked back and they are just as good as when I bought them. Longevity is the key, and this set will last longer than me !!

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I have bought quite expensive stainless steel pans which have not lasted well (under fairly low use, and I’m not a careless user) as well as expensive French cast iron pans (great performance, but far too heavy when full). Prior to these I had cheap enamel pans from a British hardware store which performed and lasted brilliantly.
My current favourites are a couple of cheap supermarket own-brand, each costing well under $25, which have lasted around 8 years so far. I always choose them over my stainless steel as they’re so much easier to clean.
I don’t think you need to spend big bucks to get decent pans.

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