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Comment by dukoid | Hacker News Reader

I switched to ceramic pans because of these concerns. More sticky than teflon but much better than traditional iron or stell pans.

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Ceramic pans unfortunately get sticky with age. My Zwilling J. A. Henckels pans [1] were amazing the first year or so, and then they started to get worse. Now I can no longer cook eggs in them -- complete mess. They're fine for plenty of things, like sauces and vegetables, but not eggs, crêpes, omelets or anything that needs a non-stick surface.

This is unfortunate, because the ceramic process doesn't use PFAs like PFOA, and they don't use PTFEs. Some people claim you can preserve ceramics' non-stickiness by not using oil, but I have my doubts. The short lifespan of ceramics is a pretty common complaint. From what I can tell, there's no way to get the non-stick back -- scrubbing the coating only makes it worse.

[1] https://www.crateandbarrel.com/zwilling-j.a.-henckels-vistac...

Ceramic is actually a marketing gimmick referring not to the material used but rather the process of making it. It is still teflon-coated and just as toxic as "non-stick."

Wish I had a source but I'm on mobile.

Sort of. There's ceramic in the coating, but it's a minor component. More specifically, the coating is referred to as sol-gel ceramic.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol%E2%80%93gel_process?wpro...

I think you're confusing ceramic coatings with reinforced PTFE coatings, which may sometimes contain ceramic particles. Actual ceramic coatings for cookware contain no PTFE at all.

For example, premium PTFE coatings such as GMM's Duramax and Whitford's Eclipse are internally reinforced with hard materials of some sort. However these are not marketed as PTFE-free, because obviously they aren't. On the other hand, a ceramic coating that's advertised as PTFE-free, such as Thermolon (which is used in GreenPan) is completely free of fluorinated chemicals.

Ceramic is no teflon... I accidentally proved this by leaving an empty ceramic pan on the fire. It took take an amazing high temperature with the aluminium underside discolored a bit but otherwise perfectly fine, still use it today.

Could you please give the source when you're not on mobile?

No, ceramic sol-gel coatings contain no PTFE. Fluorinated chemicals are not involved in any way. There are many ceramic coatings used in cookware: Greblon CK, made by Weilburger, Thermolon/Zwilling Sol; Fusion, made by Whitford; Ceralon and Xeradur made by ILAG; Duraceram made by GMM. You can see specs for all of these at the manufacturers' websites.

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