Tefal

[Teamedup]

This is a whinge. 

My tefal electric kettle has just started leaking, two weeks after the one year guarantee had run out.

 I bought a couple of their flexible and EXPENSIVE cake 'tins' a month ago. I have had a couple of baking sheets made of what appears to be the same stuff for a few years now and they work well. However, I didn't grease these new purchases the first time I used them and both cakes stuck. (I never grease my baking sheets). So today I greased them with butter and the butter has left a sort of sticky and in parts crunchy underneath to my cakes......... didn't stick though.

So tefal hasn't done me proud, just feel like I have been 'done' by buying their products. And a friend keeps suggesting that we go to the Tefal factory which isn't that far from here.... think I'll be giving their products and the factory a miss.

[Iceni]

I have two electric Phillips kettles which are rather old and not in use here as I prefer a kettle I can put on the gas or log burner. I worked my way through most makes of electric kettle before trying Phillips as they are not my favorite make but they were great in the UK.

With regard to baking tins. They are all covered with some very nasty chemicals when they come out of the factory and should always be washed in warm soapy water to remove them. Most stuff comes out of a couple of factories, so when you buy non Tefal 'cake tins' they could well come from the same place. I tend to stick to the old tin 'tins'. I also like to line them with paper when I make a cake so that they do not stick. The more important the cake the worse the ruddy things seem to stick.

Hope that the cake tins improve with use. You sound such a good cook I would hate to think of your efforts being ruined.

[Alcazar]

All plastic electric kettles will leak eventually, IMHO, but after one year? Not usual that!

Our cake tins are mostly used for Yorkshires, (we have two teenaged boys who can eat three large ones each before sunday dinner.........the Yorkshire way with gravy, but nowt else).

Of all the ones we have, the best/most non stick is one we paid about £6 for, a German make, very heavy, with a glass smooth grey finish, almost like enamel.

NOTHING sticks to it!

Alcazar

[SaligoBay]

I have a Tefal baking tray which I left in the oven by mistake when I did that 500° pyrolysing thang.  It's still a baking tray, but it has no more Tefal on it!

It doesn't seem to have changed its non-stickiness one iota, it's just as good/bad as it was before.   Have never seen the need for Tefal-coated pots and pans, but it's useful on frying pans.

Those bendy cake "tins".   I have some, they're fine, but they're not Tefal.  Can't remember the brand, not Tupperware either.  A friend got a Tupperware one last year, it went in the bin soon after, because it went rock-solid on about the second time she used it.  

It's all a mystery. 

[Teamedup]

These new cakes tins are the new flexible terracota coloured plastic. Absolutely non stick, mon oeil!

And the kettle. I bought the same model for my MIL when they first came out as the element was covered. As they lived in a very hard water area and she was getting through kettles every few months, in spite of doing everything she should. Her Tefal kettle lasted several years. I bought one for us later, which eldest son now has since I bought a new one for us last December, his is OK.

I used a whistler on the gas for years and years, but was getting through a gas bottle just for cooking on two gas rings every 6 weeks. When bottled gas started going up in price it was cheaper to use an electric kettle. Gas bottles were around £6/£7 each for years. They certainly are nothing like that now.

And Philips, gave up on them last year. Used to be a fan, their built in obsolecance (sp) is pretty much like this last kettle now and I just can't be doing with that.

[Simon]

Stainless steel kettles, and stainless steel lined solid copper pans and baking equipment are the only things to use, everything else works poorly and wears out.  One advantage of living in France is access to this stuff at reasonable prices.  Check out this site for instance, oh and they will deliver to the UK too.

http://www.artdecuivre.com/fr/index.html

Regards

Simon

 

[Teamedup]

Stainless steel electric kettles........ these are rare around here. And my sister in law has just changed her stainless electric, after two years.....not long really is it.

[Simon]

Guess not, unlucky or tat I wonder, things just aren't made like they used to be

Regards
S

[Teamedup]

So how do we know these days. Some of the big companies are happy enough to sell their pricey goods which turn out to be tat. Good description that, 'tat'. My sister in law always buys makes.

[Simon]

Yes I agree, a brand name does not necessarily mean quality these days, (recommendations are my favoured choice now) and cost seems to have little to do with reliability either.

Regards

S

[Iceni]

Our stainless kettle cost about £6 from IKEA. It runs on the woodburner, gas cooker (and a bottle lasts us just over 3 months and I use all the rings + my hobby is cooking) and has lasted well over a year so far. The woodburner has 'rings' which are extra hot and am surprised that the kettle has lasted so long. I may well buy a better one when this is US but for once buying cheap has done me well.

Another buy was a set of 3 stainless steel pots and 2 steamers, lids and ban marie for £19. We assumed that they would be cheap and nasty - well they are fantastic and everyone who sees them wants a set - Robert Dyas I think in Colchester High Street. I have stopped buying names and go for what 'looks' well made and sturdy.

Off to finish the soup- in the huge pot from the cheap set.

[Teamedup]

Three months for a gas bottle. You are lucky. I used to date them when we changed our bottles, as a friend of mine never believed that I could get through so much gas, but I did. That was the only thing I used to boil my electric stainless whistler on though. They were never expensive either and always lasted, it was the price of the gas that drove me to changing to an electric kettle, although that now is looking like a bad choice.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

The best baking tray I have is a complete mystery to me. It is plain silvery looking, possibly aluminium. I think it may have come with a gas cooker we bought about 20 years ago. It isn't non-stick, but is as successful as any non-stick tray I have ever had. At least with this, if anything does stick you can just scrub at it and it will be fine. Likewise saucepans - all mine are stainless steel except for one non-stick frying pan which I said must only be used for pancakes, omelette and egg, because I'm convinced that all the others deteriorated due to frying mince, onions etc where you have to do a lot of stirring. Our wok is stainless steel too and it's much better than what we had before.

I also have an anodised aluminium baking sheet, but on reflection I should have bought one with a rim round it, because if you do something like sausage rolls, the grease runs everywhere. That is better than a non-stick tray and again you can scrub if things do stick. These days, I use baking parchment which is much better than greaseproof as it doesn't need greasing as greaseproof does. It may seem wasteful, but I used the same paper for three days over Christmas, for vol au vonts, sausage rolls and borek, and I'll still be using the same paper for the same things for the New Year's day party.

With regard to cakes - I don't make many, but I have a pyrex loaf tin, which I must prefer and I find it better to do scrambled egg in a pyrex bowl in the microwave rather than in a pan. I do rub a knob of butter round the bowl first though.

[Alcazar]

Brand names? Forget it these days, it's a lottery!

Brand name = sold to Italian/Far Eastern company.

Branded Goods= all the same parts= mostly junk.

A good example is a washing machine manufacturer that sounds like it might be dangerous

Their stuff these days.....................

Alcazar

[Russethouse]

The best set of saucepans I know of is my mothers Prestige ones - copper bottomed (ooh missus !!) they have taken no end of punishment over 40 years and always 'come up smiling'. They came with a lifetime guarantee, which turned out to be the life of Prestige as they are no longer with us ! (but I think you can still get spare knobs, handles etc)

I was a 'Saturday girl' in a hardware shop and can remember at Christmas, gifts of Washing up bowls, with assorted brushes, dustpan and brush etc as well as such delights as stacking cake/biscuit tins, Cadnits (automatic tea dispensers) and crackerjacks (nut crackers - we still have ours !)

What were we ladies thinking of - was anyone really pleased with a new washing up set for Christmas ???