Cookware Got Worse on Purpose: Who Owns Pyrex and All-Clad Now
My All-Clad pan sliced my finger because bonded rims corroded in the dishwasher, a defect settled for a pittance by its French owner. Major brands like Pyrex, Calphalon, and Cuisinart now sit under private equity firms that prioritize dividends over quality. This shift has led to downgraded materials, factory closures, and a market where the brand name matters more than the product inside.
When a brand changes hands this many times, the name becomes the product and the pan becomes a cost to be managed beneath it.
- somat
Pyrex was one of the great customer betrayals. Corning built the brand to promote a specific blend of glass with it's specific properties. Successfully enough that that blend, borosilcate glass became synonymous with the brand, Pyrex. Breaking this link to ride on the coattails of trust the brand had while selling a different blend with different properties was a dirty move.
An interesting subject is how to differentiate borosilicate glass from tempered glass, It turns out to be surprisingly tricky, at least in a home kitchen setting. You could break it, easy but now you are can't use the dish. Color(blueish vs more clear) turns out to be a unfaithful test. There are ways to check the index of refraction(IOR) with oil, but it turns out the IOR of borosilicate and soda-lime overlap. I suspect the polarized light test to identify tempered glass stress would work, but that requires getting the polorizing filters and knowing what to look for. I sort of wish there was a requirement to stamp the formula right into the glass.
- pibaker
This website is obviously AI generated down to the "Number Noun, Number Noun" section headers, "authored" by someone with a questionable background. I don't know why HN keeps upvoting articles from it.
- ratsbane
After my AllClad pans have started to get the sharp edges from dishwasher corrosion of the aluminum layer, I've been switching to Hestan Nanobond. It's not exactly nonstick, but the surface is so hard and polished that things don't stick very much and you can use metal implements without scratching the pan.
But I think AllClad has switched to sealed-rims on their pans, thus making them truly dishwasher-safe?
- ColdStream
I will point out one counter example, Duralex still turn out top notch stuff are really great prices. They have been in trouble a few times but they keep finding a way through.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/22/french-people-...
Also anything cast iron like Lodge and Le Creuset for example are usually going to last generations. When I used to sell them, I used the line "You are buying heirlooms not land fill".
- IronWolve
Ive been happy with All-Clad, but last ones I bought was horrible quality, this explains much. Brands living off their reputation, but private equity running them into the ground.