Are There Any Downsides to Ceramic Pans?

I have not heard of any hazards in using ceramic. It is a very old method of cooking on open pit fires. I love my cast iron and ceramic cookware. That is ALMOST all I use for cooking.

I only use my ceramic fry pan for foods that can be cooked at a medium to low temperatures. I ruined the first one by searing a steak on high. I bought a new one. I'm careful with temperature. It's holding up well. I clean it with quick soapy wipe. I do not put it in the dish washer.

i'm glad yours is working out so well for you! i like the idea of ceramic, but have a beautiful ceramic-coated stainless steel frying pan that i got at costco that's gathering dust in my cabinet. it's insanely heavy. well, my cast iron pan is too, but it works so well that it's worth it. the steel/ceramic one requires both hands to handle AND is hard to clean up.
maybe i just got a bad brand.
is yours ceramic through and through? maybe it's the combo that makes mine so useless.
khairete
S.

I don't know-- for me, my pans are like people. I don't have just one kind. I have two Chantal ceramic omelet pans for my morning eggs and one ScanPan ceramic-coated wok. Those all require that I use no metal utensils (longer surface life) and the egg pans are not meant for high heat. I also have some cast iron pans--love my dutch oven. I've got a calphalon saute pan which was a gift and I am hoping for another. Plus pots galore.

I know some people like all their cookingware to match. I love seeing a variety of colors and textures in my kitchen.

I'm surprised that ceramic was inexpensive - but maybe you got a great deal at a sale. Make sure it was made in the US or France. Stuff made in China and other places is often not real ceramic and has chemicals added to it or it's mislabeled.

Usually good ceramic is expensive, like stainless steel and cast iron. I've gone back to classic materials and away from Teflon and the other non-stick "paints" due to health concerns (not just what we eat from it, but what the people in the manufacturing plants are exposed to). Spending more money and taking more time to clean/season isn't always fun, and some of these things are super heavy, as Suz mentioned, but the hazards are reduced.

I don't know about health issues but I'm sure someone can come up with something.

Personally, I stick to my All-Clad stainless ( not cheap... Starts around $120 for the smallest pan, but deals can be made on sets!) that still look brand new after about 10 years, easy to use and clean. Another favorite of mine is my cast iron.

Those are the only types of cookware I use.

I have heard nothing but good about them. We don't have any but we don't tend to burn through pans. When we do replace our non-sticks we will be looking at ceramic.

I have an assortment of different types of cookware for different purposes - stainless steel, cast iron, Magnalite, and ceramic.
I love them all. You could not pay me to use Teflon or Calphalon.

If they are made in the US then there shouldn't be a problem with them. They could have different chemicals leach out (like lead), but the US doesn't allow it (China made stuff probably has it).

IMO, some of the best cooking pots and pans are cast iron. They may need a little more maintenance, but wont have nasty chemicals leaching out (like the aluminium, Teflon or non-stick ones).

I've got a hodge podge of cookware, a lot of it handed down, most of it cheap - and we use it till it falls apart.
So we don't often buy pots/pans.
Last pan I got was a few years ago - a stainless steel pizza pan (and plastic pizza cutter so it doesn't get scratched up) - it does the job, works great, is dishwasher safe and is as shiny as when it was new - and we use it all the time not only for pizza but as a cookie sheet too.
I have a few aluminum pizza pans but they can't go in the dishwasher (it really pits the aluminum and dulls it).

I got one about a year ago at Target to use just for eggs. Loved it at first, but now I need to use oil or butter. Not sure about health issues?