The Best cookware for glass top stoves

Since 1970s, glass top stoves – whether induction cooktops or those that have an electric metal coil under the glass – have become all the rage that defined a kitchen boasting a modern, hip look. And for a good reason: glass top stoves are beautiful indeed, with a characteristic slick smooth surface. And, as all things beautiful, they come with a hefty price tag. As any owner of a glass top stove would attest, they require special cleaning care, and they can scratch the glass easily. Thus, one needs to be very careful about deciding on best cookware for glass top stoves to ensure their longevity and continuous good looks.

If you know anything about glass top stoves is that they are fragile. They break and crack when too much pressure is applied. Thus, from the get-to, you will need to ensure that your pots and pans are not too heavy and abrasive. Those that are – like your cast iron skillets – are probably not the best fit for your glass top stove.

Eliminating cast iron from the use in our testing completely, we have taken an extensive look at other sets to determine what cookware for glass top stoves should take the rightful place in your kitchen. We have included stainless steel cookware, carbon steel and other types of cookware into our review and have come up with this list of recommendations. Take a look at the shortlist we will recommend before we review each set in more detail:

Here is the list:

Now let’s take a look at each of the sets from the list in more detail, and we will tell you what we liked and what we didn’t about it so that you can decide what your glass top stove will like best.

HexClad 14 Piece Cookware Bundle: a Unique, Professional Solution Using Hybrid Technology

If you want a cookware set that is nonstick, professional, solidly built while giving your glass top stove some gentle love: something that combines all the best qualities of stainless steel but with excellent nonstick characteristics, then look no further than this HexClad 14 Piece Hybrid Cookware Bundle.

Hexclad uses a unique patented hybrid technology to construct their pots and pans. The build is tri-ply, meaning that Hexclad cookware have layers (three to be exact, hence the term tri-ply) of different materials to attain best qualities of each. In this case, the cookware pieces include a layer of hard anodized aluminum sandwiched between two layers of stainless steel. Aluminum gives the pans their crazy heat conductivity while stainless steel its hardiness and versatility.

Of course, other competitors have multiple layers, that can go as high as five different layers in some cases.

What makes Hexclad unique, however, is the design of multiple hexagons on the interior surface of their products achieved using laser etching. In fact, the name Hexclad implies that – the combination of hexagons and the layers sandwiched between layers.

Hexagon design is not just pretty, though it is. The real purpose of it is that laser etching creates lots and lots of very thin grooves around the cooking surface, which gives the cookware their nonstick quality. When stainless steel molecules expand during heat application, their atoms have harder time grabbing onto molecules of food because the individual steel surfaces between the grooves are just too thin to do that.

And, of course, the bottom part of Hexclad pots and pans are professional-grade stainless steel and thus are amazingly gentle on your glass top stove.

The overall quality of the cookware is so good that such famous celebrity chef as Gordon Ramsey uses them in his personal home kitchen.

And so should you.

The bundle includes a 6 piece set of pots (8 quarter pot and 2 and 3 quarter saucepans with lids), 7 piece frying pan set with lids and a wok, and a 12 inch hybrid frying pan. They are all dishwasher safe, easy to clean, and can stand up to 500 degrees in the oven.

GreenPan Valencia 11-Piece Ceramic Nonstick Set: Slick, Incredibly Nonstick and Durable

Have you ever tried to imagine what a perfect piece of cookware would be like? One that combines all the excellent qualities but without any of the downsides? One that is as solid and versatile as a stainless steel one but does not color from high temperature or has food stick to it like crazy?

One that sears a perfect steak like cast iron, but is also dishwasher safe and does not damage your new glass top stove?

One that has superb nonstick properties but is also does not scratch easily or release any of those annoying chemicals into your food?

One that is so full of innovations that it might have been crafted in the Silicone valley of kitchen equipment.

Then you have imagined a GreenPan Valencia set. The base material is aluminum, which explains its insane heat conductivity, but it is really so much more than that.

The claim to nonstick fame of GreenPan is its patented Thermolon™ technology which uses ceramic at its foundation, so its raw material is sand, not plastics. It includes a couple of other metals such as iron, but none of the dangerous stuff such as lead or cadmium. The ceramic surface is infused with thousands of tiny diamonds, which makes it especially resistant to abuse.

The design is very ergonomic, with stainless steel handles never getting hot during the cooking process.

It’s a very hardy nonstick coating too, as it is almost impossible to scratch with metal utensils and is absolutely safe to use in the oven or in the dishwasher. There is no need for a machine washing though as hand wash it requires is almost effortless.

Naturally, we wouldn’t be writing about it here if it weren’t completely safe to use on glass top stoves. The bottom of the cookware is thick and reinforced with ferromagnetic particles, but it is gentle on your glass top stove, be it induction or electric. And it transfers heat beautifully too: even if very little heat is applied, you can get a perfect sear on your scallops. Really, they made everything too easy, and the glass top stove does not complain either.

The set includes a pans set of three; 2 quart and 3 quart saucepans with lids; 3 quart skillet with lid; and a 5 quart stockpot with lid.

Blue Diamond Tri-Ply Ceramic Hard Anodized Nonstick Cookware Set: Light and Inexpensive

Blue Diamond may be a new kid of the block (it has only come to exist in 2018), but oh is it a popular one!

And for all good reasons. Similarly to GreenPan cookware we discussed earlier, Blue Diamond’s 10 piece set is solid, nonstick in a healthy way, easy to clean, dishwasher and oven safe and extremely easy to work with and versatile. It is also very gentle on your glass top stove.

The secret behind its success is its tri-ply solid built with the hard anodized aluminum core between two layers of stainless steel, and a healthy ceramic nonstick cooking surface. The nonstick surface is peppered with tiny diamonds (hence the name), which is also very similar to GreenPan. And no wonder: both brands are owned by the same parent, The Cookware Company. It’s a global manufacturer of innovative cookware products, a lot of which are designed to be safe for glass top stoves, induction or otherwise.

For all its similarities, Blue Diamond is noticeably cheaper than GreenPan or similar brands by other manufacturers. One of the reasons is that, unlike others, it is made entirely in China taking the advantage of the still cheaper labor in that country.

Another reason is that the base is not ferromagnetic (unlike that of GreenPan) so it does not transfer heat as effortlessly as we would like.

The effortless and versatile nonstick coating that is easy to clean with a paper towel but is also safe for a dishwasher is one of Blue Diamond’s claims to fame, and here it gets a little trickier. It appears that some people – although by far not all – haven’t had a lot of luck using the cookware for a long time, and that at times the nonstick surface does get damaged. For a price point, however, a little damage after many months of abuse (it does seem to withstand some use of metal utensils) is definitely worth it.

And it is much more worth it if you consider how easy this set is on your glass top stove. 

The set includes a pans set of 7″ and 9″ frying pans, 2 quart saucepan with lid, 2.5 quart sauté pan with lid, 5 quart stock pot with lid, and 2 black nylon multipurpose cooking utensils

Eslite Life Induction Stovetop Pots and Pans, Hard Anodized Nonstick, 12 piece set: excellent heat retention

In the world of glass top stove cooks, the 11 piece Eslite Life cookware set has a lot going for it. First off, it is unbelievably nonstick. A great test of this property is always making an omelet or scrambled eggs, which you can first try making on a simple stainless steel pan – for comparison. Eggs and stainless steel get so entangled with one another that you get a feeling that they are a pair forever made in heaven, and for all the wrong reasons.

Not so with these pots and pans. Eggs come right off them with a simple shake and slide right into your plate, undamaged and unblemished. Beautiful. The advertised granite nonstick coating is really worth the trouble here.

It is also pretty solid, and has a good built on their cast aluminum body, with a triple layer bottom that includes a ferromagnetic element.

However, there are some defects that some would find annoying while others will shrug, deal with them and move on. What we are talking about is, firstly, manufacturer’s design choice when it comes to handles. They are wooden, and attached to the body of the pots by simple screws rather than rivets, as in other sets. And after a few months of use, they tend to get loose and even come off. It is nothing that you can’t fix with a simple screwdriver a couple of times a year, but if you love them pans, this is what you gotta do.

Secondly, the triple layer bottom does sometimes scratch glass top stoves, so please try to be careful when using heavy-bottom pots and pans like these ones.

And, lastly, this cookware set is not dishwasher or oven safe, as is the case with most normal nonstick cookware sets. So, if you don’t want to ever wash by hand, pick another brand.

This set includes 1.5 quart and 2.5 quart saucepan with lid, 8 inch and 11 inch frying pans, 5 quart stock pot with lid, 11 inch sauté pan with lid, a wooden spatula and a silicone ladle.

All-Clad Stainless Steel Cookware for Induction Stovetop, 7 Piece Cookware set: Gold Standard of Stainless Steel

We already said that pretty much any stainless steel cookware set will go over very well with glass top stoves. This is because the material’s surface is smooth, unlike for example cast iron that is rough on glass surface.

This is why bringing an All-Clad set (and we feature this beautiful 7 piece All-Clad set as a great example) will do justice to that entire family of cookware, This is also try-ply, with the classic two part stainless steel one part aluminum layer combo that helps transfer heat evenly and quickly.

The one obvious drawback of this set compared to some of the others we talk about here is its stickiness. Of course, cooking eggs on stainless steel takes special skills. I must admit myself that I’m not best at it either, no matter how many times I tried to trick my stainless steel pan into egg compliance.

The All-Clad cookware also gets burnt spots after a few uses, especially if hot temperatures are involved. This is also very typical of that alloy, and it’s nothing that you can’t scrub off if you invest some elbow grease in keeping the pans you love happy. And get a wool scrub that would save you a little bit of that elbow grease.

And overall, as far as stainless steel cookware goes, this is a very solid one, and has been loved by professional and amateur cooks alike. One word of warning though: if you want to keep these for the rest of your culinary life, please avoid washing them in the dishwasher. Some of the pieces could have the aluminum layer exposed, and this metal really does not like the harsh dishwashing liquid and may corrode.

The bottom line is this: if you love the feel and versatility of stainless steel, then you will love All-Clad. And so will your glass top stove. However, if you hate the inevitable not so easy cleaning that comes with that stainless steel territory, then All-Clad is not for you.

The set contains a 10-inch fry pan for frying at high heat, a 3 quart saucepan with lid for sauces, a 3-quart sauté pan with lid, and a do-it-all 8 quart stockpot with lid.

Duxtop Professional Stainless Steel Induction Stovetop 17 Piece Cookware Set: Built-in Titanium Surface and Impact-Bound Bottom

Duxtop’s 17 piece cookware set is another one that is easy on the glass top stove, and uses infused ceramic coating for its nonstick layer. However, instead of infusing that layer with diamonds, they use titanium to reinforce the sand-based ceramic. And it works beautifully to achieve that sough-after nonstick surface that some other materials that are good for your glass top stove do not have.

What about heat transfer? Duxtop uses a technology called impact bonding to achieve superior performance of their products. Impact bonding is pressing together sheets of different metals using a friction press to apply pressure of 800 to 1500 tons. This binds the different materials together, no glue necessary.

The solid feel of the stainless steel pieces of the set is really excellent, and people seem to agree with the sauce pots are some of the best among popular choices. And they are extremely easy on glass stove tops. What seems to work less, however, is the nonstick pans. The coating does not seem to hold after some time and starts getting discolored or damaged.

The 17 piece set includes stainless steel pots and pans, including an 8.6 quart stock pot with a steamer insert, which makes it the biggest set on our list