Buy Transparent Frying Pan – Where to Find It

You have to make sure to buy a heavy duty, preferrably professional grade pan. Thick base. Most important. I have owned my pans for about five years, and nary a warp. Completely flat. I also have a glass top stove. Note to the wise, do not use a dishwasher to clean good cookware. Always clean pans, pots, knives, etc. by hand.

Any good restaurant supply house will have good quality non stick pans. Also, I' m not sure where you live, but many large department stores (JC Penny in the States, the Bay here in Canada) have good quality wares. Be aware, they do not come cheap, but they will not have to soon be replaced.

From what I've seen, encapsulated-aluminum disk bottom pans and straight aluminum pans are simply prone to warping. The aluminum is just too soft and can't take the mechanical stress, and the disk-bottom pans have problems with dissimilar metals. Different metals expand at different rates, and thus will separate over time if heated and cooled repeatedly.

Now, it's possible to get a disk-bottom pan that won't warp or separate, but the outer jacket of stainless must be quite thick, at least 2 mm. The disk in the bottom also has to be completely covered by the steel -- if you can see a different looking metal peeping out, the pan is a no-starter for you. It'll probably be a heavier, thicker pan, with fairly thick walls as well.

The simplest solution is to use a pan that's cast-iron, all-stainless, or multi-ply AKA clad aluminum/copper. Cast-iron is too thick and rigid to warp, and is a homogeneous material, so it isn't prone to problems from dissimilar metals. All-stainless is stronger and more elastic, and again homogeneous. It has lousy heat conduction though.

Multi-ply pans avoid warping because they're better made and incorporate thicker outer layers of stainless, which hold the pan rigid against warping. I think the process by which the aluminum or copper is contained in the stainless is also more robust.