This is James White
with Freakin Reviews bringing you As Seen on TV
product reviews, gadget reviews, and more. Today, I'm taking a look
at the Always Pan which has been advertising
on social media. Now, it could supposedly replace
eight pieces of cookware, but is it worth
the $145 price tag? That's what I'm going
to find out in today's video. (introduction music) All right. Quick disclaimer.
This is not a sponsored post. I went on the website
and bought it with my home money at full price
like everybody else did. I've never contacted the company. So, the review you'll get here
will be completely honest and my own opinion, not influenced by anybody else. This is one that's been advertised quite a bit on social media. I've had quite a few requests
for it as well. The company says it keeps
selling out, and because it's popular.
So, I definitely thought it would be worth trying. Let's first take a look
at all the features of the Always Pan. Always Pan has a non-toxic,
non-stick ceramic coating. Curved wooden utensil
that can also be used as a spatula or a spoon. Stainless steel steamer basket. Aluminum body
that delivers even heat. Modular lid that can let off steam
or be locked in place. It features two pour spouts. It's a 10-inch pan.
2.6-quart capacity. 2.75 inches deep. The pan weighs 3lbs.
The lids weighs 1lbs. And it is compatible
with induction stove tops. They say to use one
to two tablespoons of oil with a high smoke point
or butter when using it. They also say to use
non-metal utensils, and it is dishwasher safe,
but they recommend hand washing. Perhaps the most important
and the most disappointing is that the Always Pan
is not oven safe. I do give the company credit
in their advertising and on their materials. They don't make crazy claims
like some of the As Seen on TV pans do. They tell you to care
for the non-stick surface by not using extremely high heat,
not using metal utensils, not putting in water right
after using it. Some of those As Seen on TV pans
will show someone with a mixer doing
nuts and bolts in there which is completely unrealistic.
The Always Pan does not make those kind
of claims. I do find it kind of interesting
that they say not to use metal utensils,
but they include a stainless steel steaming basket
which goes inside the surface. I have to wonder if that will
cause damage long-term. It hasn't yet for me,
but I do wonder about that. Something else that's curious
to me about the Always Pan is that when I first saw the video
for it on YouTube, it had over 3,000,000 views
but it was only about 100 subscribers
and comments were off which made me wonder
why that is. My guess is that people
complain about the price, because $145 is quite
a bit for a pan like this. But, I'm assuming most
of these complaints are people who haven't used it.
I've just finished 10 days of using this pan
and we're going to get all of my tests right now. And try to keep in mind,
the point of this video is the merits of the pan
not the merits of my horribly average
culinary skills. Those should not be
on trial here, although I know the comments
will stay stuff about it. But... So, I unboxed the Always Pan
about 10 days ago and let's take a look
at how that went. Very nice presentation. I'll give them that. Obviously, some important
stuff in here. Our basket. The handle is lighter
than I thought it would be. The pan feels very thick,
very well made, very sturdy. Not much to the basket here. It says you might need this. They include this sponge
for cleaning the pan with. They say that it's good
for that particular surface. Just put it in water
to activate it. All right. This is the curve
wooden spatula that can also double as a spoon that is supposed to fit
on here just like, like that. I guess it can fit either direction. Oh. I guess, I guess,
I guess that's it. There's nothing else,
nothing else in here. All right. So, there it is.
Very nice looking pan. Let me see the lid here. The lid may be not quite as thick and impressive
as the pan itself that doesn't,
doesn't necessarily matter. They even have a little notch here
so that the wood spoon can stay on there it looks like. Pretty cool. All right.
Well, there we go. They don't seem to have
any kind of a recipe guide, so I'll just go off the infomercial
that I saw and see what they made there
and try to duplicate what they advertised,
and maybe a few other things myself. So, I just want to wash this thing off
and get started. So with the first test
I wanted to do something that they were showing
advertising which were pancakes. and I'd make quite
a few pancakes. I thought that would be
a great test with the non-stick surface.
I actually did two of them, one with the oil freshly put
in there, and one without adding extra oil
after the first pancake. And here's how that went. I've got my pan warming up
on five. I got a tablespoon of oil as they direct. I've got some Kodiak Cakes. Let's start with,
let's start with that. I want a nice big pancake. Let me see here. Oh, it just completely
slides around. The non-stick surface
is pretty impressive, even for our first use.
I've had non-stick pans that I still have to dislodge.
That just slid around there. It doesn't do the, the cool chef technique
of sliding around, but still. It doesn't really matter, does it? Let's flip this bad boy here. Oh, very nice. This non-stick surface is no joke. This is the real deal for sure. I'm going to try a second one
without adding any more oil to see if the non-stick surface
can handle that. Well, that is a big pancake. I keep forgetting to put
my utensil here. I guess it's something
I'm going to have to get used to. Now, this holder does seem
like it's part gimmick and part genius. I know it's technically a spatula,
but its curved design kind of functions
like a spatula or a spoon, so you have to...
Excuse me if I keep calling it a spoon. I need to get used to putting
the utensil here, because I keep putting it
on the counter. I guess I'll get used to it. I like it there. I also like
the fact that the lid can accommodate for it, so you never even have
to take the spatula out. Very cool. Let me flip this,
this big boy here. Oh, yeah. It slid right out,
even without adding more oil for the second pancake. I mean it really worked
just as well, so I mean I'm very impressed
by this non-stick surface in the early phase of the game. We got a ways to go. I mean, look at this. I just flipped it. It's not even sticking. Very nice. The pancake test is a success. The Always Pan shows
a pasta dish being made and I don't usually make pasta
in a pan. I make it in a pot, but because this supposedly
replaces eight pieces of cookware, I wanted
to try it out. I made the sauce
and the pasta both in the same pan. And may questions
were how well will it clean up when that sauce sits
in it for a while? How well does the side spouts
work when draining the pasta? So I put it to the test
with a simple dish and here's how that went. I've got some water boiling here.
I should point out before I start,
this handle on top, not hot at all. This handle over here,
not really that hot. This handle, that's hot. I can't even really touch that. I also want to point out,
you can actually use where the spoon goes as a vent, that can be opened or closed. When the spoon's not
in there that is. I've got my pasta here.
Now, some people actually use the steaming basket
as a colander and they place it in there
and cook it, and then lift it out,
but I'm not going to do that because I don't really think that's what it's really suited for. Normally, I would use
a deeper pot for the pasta. I would use a small pot
for the sauce, but I'm going to do them
both in this pan and see if it does replace
two different types of cookware. All right. Looks like
my noodles are done. I'm going to try to use
one of these side pour spouts over there and see
if that can help me get some of the water out. I'm just pouring the water out
so I can... don't splash so much
boiling water on me. So far, so good. All right. That's most
of the water. All right. I'm going to leave
this here while I finish up the sauce in the pan,
and then I'm going to combine them at the end. Cream of chicken. StarKist tuna. One of the reasons
I chose this dish is not because it's elaborate, because it's not. But because when this sauce cools, it's typically pretty hard
to get out of the pans I've used in the past.
That's one of the reasons I use this in my pan test, so... This should be interesting
to see how this sauce comes out of the pan once it's cooled. You can also put the face down
if it's dripping which is kind of a nice feature. Time to add the pasta. All right. This came out
pretty good. After we eat, let's see
how this cleans up once it's cooled off.
That's the big test. But as far as cooking goes,
it went surprisingly well. I wouldn't normally use
just one pan, but I did make it work
and it actually wasn't that hard. So I give the Always Pan good marks for the cooking.
Let's see how the cleaning goes. All right. There we go.
This has been sitting for a while. It's usually hard to clean out.
Let's see how it goes. First I want to try
the soft side of the sponge and see how it comes out. Pretty easy. Even where it's caked
on down here. It's coming off. I think cleanup went,
went quite well. So, now we move on
to the next test. Another dish I wanted
to test out was a bean dip that I've been making
for years. It's very difficult to clean when it's been sitting
for a while, so I wanted to see how well
this non-stick surface did with that. And here's how
my bean dip test went. All right, Here we go. Little sour cream. A lot of sour cream. Got some Franks. Little bit of cheese. Once again, this is something
I usually make in a small pot. But when I've made this
in the past, and I've been making this for maybe about 30 years, this is typically tough
to clean out once I'm done. So, I'll be curious
how this cleans up as well. But with these,
these really high sides, it kind of does
almost work like a pot. I don't feel like I'm going
to be spilling out of the side. It's... I kind of like
the high sides of this. All right. I think this is
about done. All right. Let's see
what we got here. I usually use this for bean dip,
not just burritos, but I want to try a burrito. Came out nice. Now, let's see how the pan
cleans out once this is gone. Now, for the big test. Will these caked on beans
come off easily? Let's find out. For this one, I'm going
to use the kitchen brush which is my favorite. A little problem area right here
I got to work on. Maybe I'll use their sponge
for that. Oh, wow. That came right off. All right. Well, cleaning up
was pretty quick. I wouldn't say that took me
a minute or so. In the pot I usually use,
that's much more problematic, so I think the non-stick surface
did quite well. And there we go. Good as new. So, next up I want to try,
very common ingredient which is some ground beef
and I want to try out the pour spouts
to see how draining grease went. So I made a very simple
taco meat dish, and here's what happened there. I got some ground beef
I'm going to brown for some taco meat, see how it comes out,
and see how it cleans out. I think my ground beef
is done now. I have these spouts
I can pour out the grease. And let's do that now. Handle is not hot at all,
by the way. Not hot. Either is this one. This one over here,
definitely hot. Water. Taco seasoning. The instructions said
to use medium high heat, but the pan is best off medium
or under, so I'm just going to leave it at medium. Shouldn't make a difference. You can see when I'm stirring it. Non-stick surface,
still quite solid. Look at that. Very nice. All right. So I got my meat
put away here. There's the pan. Let's let that cool off
like the directions call for and see how that cleans up. For this one, I'm going
to use their sponge. All right. For, just for
demonstration purposes, I've been using just water
and a clean utensil, then I add soap after the fact. But I want to see
how much it can come out without using soap. And so far,
it's working pretty well. So, no pan review
is complete without doing some eggs in there.
I'm notorious for making eggs in every pan I actually review. So, I want to make
some scrambled eggs, see how the scrambled eggs
work in the pan itself, see how the cleanup
procedure went. And it really wasn't that bad.
Here's what happened there. Time for some scrambled eggs here. It doesn't look like
the non-stick surface is having much problem with this.
It's coming right off. Pretty good. I'll be curious
how this cleans up though. Non-stick surface
is pretty, pretty good. All right. I mean everybody
has their idea of what a good scrambled egg is. I don't like mine too brown
like some people do. So, let me go dump this out
and clean it out once it's cooled off. All right. Let's take a look now. This isn't even really caked on.
It's coming right off. So, I think the non-stick's
definitely going to be pretty good. Dash of soap. All right. That was very quick. Cleaned up very nicely. I think the non-stick surface
is on a roll here. So I definitely want
to try out the steaming basket, and the steaming basket
is a little bit tricky for me, because the legs are so small. So, you have to add enough water
that it doesn't evaporate and ruin the bottom. But, you also have to put enough
so it doesn't overflow into the basket itself. I found that about one cup
of water seemed to work well for that, so I steamed some broccoli
in the Always Pan and here's what happened. So, I had to play around
how much water actually will cover the bottom
without going into the steamer and I figure that's about one cup. So let's put in there. Boil that, and see how it works. All right. Starting to boil.
Let's add the broccoli. Again, I kind of measured
it out so the water just to the bottom
of that without touching it. Looks like I got a good amount. So, I'm going to cover this up, check back in a little bit,
and see how it goes. All right. Should be
about done now. Let me take a look here. It looks very nice. Oh, yeah. I think that's actually
quite nicely steamed. Let's not just trust
the fork test. You got to give it a taste. It looks nicely steamed. Let's give it a shot. Perfect. All right. So that
was actually perfect. I had one cup of water in there. I did it for about six minutes
on medium heat. I think the steaming basket
worked quite well. The only thing I was going
to say is getting the steam basket out of here
might be a bit of a problem. You don't want to touch that. Maybe you have to use some,
some tongs or something. Maybe like that? Maybe this is the way
you're going to have to lift it out, I don't know. That small point aside,
it definitely worked well for the broccoli. For my final test
I'm presenting here are a couple of steaks I had. I read some comments online
that people were saying that they had a hard time
getting steaks brown enough. I didn't have that problem.
I tried two different size steaks and they came out
just right to me. So, here's how my steak test went. I've got the Always Pan
warming up. I got some oil in there.
It's on medium high. I've got my steak ready to go. It's been patted dry. Salt and peppered. Let's see what happens. Oh. Nice sizzle, nice sizzle. Some people said they had
a problem getting... searing it, because I guess
they didn't want to put it on high. I should put out 6 1/2. So, I'm not cranked
all the way up, so it shouldn't be too harmful
to the pan, hopefully. Before I flip it,
let me see how well it slides around here. Oh, no problem. No problem. Let's flip. That's pretty good. I was afraid it wouldn't brown,
but it's definitely browning. That looks pretty good.
I'm going to have this rest and see how it looks. All right. The steak
is done resting. Let's check it out. I think that came out quite nice. Let me give it the old taste test. My first piece of steak
from the Always Pan. Let's see. Came out quite nice. Let's try washing the pan
of the steak residue and try a few more steaks
before I wrap this thing up. All right. I've let this cool off. Let's, let's see how much
it scrapes off without any soap or water. My Clongs have a flat surface
which is good for scraping. Not too bad. Not too bad, really. All right. Let's add
a little soap. Let's see what happens. All right. Clean up quite nicely. Tiem for the next steak. All right. Steak take two. Ooh, I love that sizzle. Nice sizzle. All right. Let's see
how well it slides around here. Oh, pretty good. Pretty good. Let's flip it. All right. I think we're done. Oh, yeah. I think we're done. Let's let this rest
and try it out. And this seems to be not sticking to the bottom. All right. This should be done
resting now. Let's check it out. Steak number two
on the Always Pan. I think that came out pretty nice. For my first test on this pan,
I think it actually worked pretty well. I think I have enough information
to wrap this thing up. So, it's time to wrap up
this video with my conclusion. Now, I've been using this pan
for almost a couple weeks now. What I'm showing you
in the video is just a small sampling of the things I've actually
cooked in it. Let's take a look at some
of the pros and cons of the Always Pan. First up, it's a very
attractive pan. It's a nice looking pan. I actually ordered the most common
color they show in the advertising
which they call spice. There are other colors available. Another pro I think
is the built-in spoon and spoon rest. It was... It seemed
to be a bit gimmicky at first, but once I got used to it,
actually it's quite useful and I like the fact
that they were able to design the pan
so you can leave the spoon attached. It never really gets in the way. The built-in side spouts
are actually quite useful for draining pasta,
for draining grease. It was a nice addition
and I think it works quite well. A definite pro
is the non-stick surface which I think is one
of the better non-stick surfaces I've used. Nothing seems to stick to it.
It cleans up well. I think they did
a good job with that. The depth of the pan
at almost three inches is probably the biggest pro
I think on the Always Pan, because it does open up
some possibilities to use it in place of a pot. I do think the depth of the pan
is one of the reasons the Always Pan is so versatile. The main handle and the handle
on the lid don't get hot. And also, the basket is nice,
because it allows you to steam or strain. Unfortunately, we got to look
at some of the cons of the Always Pan,
and there are some cons. The first one I read about
in some comments before I even use it
and I'm finding it to be the case for me, and that is the paint
on the bottom. Doesn't seem
like it's going to last. As you can see there,
it's already, it's already starting to erode the bottom. I didn't really slide it
around much either. It just seem like
the paint on the bottom is not very durable. Another con is the small handle. This is just the same material
as the pan itself. It gets very hot. This handle doesn't.
This handle doesn't. They're different materials. This one gets very hot. Another con is the legs
in the steaming basket are quite small.
It makes it a bit tricky to get the right amount
of water in there. Another thing is that the fact
that the steaming basket is metal. You're not supposed
to use metal on the surface anyways. I worry if that's going
to be a long-term problem. And the two biggest cons
I would say... Number one is the fact
that it's not oven safe. And number two
is the fact that it's a $145. I think the price itself is going
to dissuade some people from buying it. A couple other things
to consider that aren't really pros or cons is that
as versatile as it is, you can still only make
one thing at a time, so even though you can make
sauce and noodles in there, you can't do them
at the same time. Most people have two pots
or pans going at once. Another thing is that
as with most newer non-stick surfaces,
there's a certain amount of care that goes into it
that not everybody wants to do. Some people are just going
to stick with an old-school cast iron skillet. So in the end, if you have
a pretty good collection of pots and pans,
I'm not sure if the Always Pan is going to add much to it. It's a good starter pan.
It's good for someone who needs a minimal amount of space. To me, this feels like
about a $60 pan with a $145 price tag. I do think if you get it,
you're going to like it. But some people aren't going
to want to get past the high cost. Have you used the Always Pan?
Tell me what you think in the comments below. I appreciate you guys watching
and I'll see you next time.
