My wife and I absolutely love this Cuisinart set. While it seems everybody has a "nonstick" set these days, these pans are truly nonstick. Some of the things that used to be headaches to clean are so easy with this set, most notably my attempts involving eggs. Eggs are usually one of the more difficult things on pans, because the egg whites thin out and burn onto the surface of the pan. But with this set, even if I don't use enough oil, it's a breeze to scoop the eggs off the pan with a regular spatula, and it's just as easy to clean up afterward. Just as a more dramatic example, I've tried putting a single egg on the pan (with the heat on) and I let the egg white spread out a little. I've noticed that when the egg white starts to cook and become opaque, instead of burning onto the surface of the pan, it actually curls away from the pan. And that was without using pam, oil, or butter.

So I think that gets the nonstick point across. The other great thing is that these pans are really light. That's particularly good for my wife, so she doesn't have to hurt her wrists when carrying these things around full of food. But it's even good for me, especially when I'm tilting one of the pots sideways to drain out excess water (I often don't feel like using a strainer). They're nice and easy to pick up and tilt without having to use two hands, and they don't make you feel like your wrist is going to fall off.

Another note on the cleaning, I almost want to say that you really don't have to clean them... After some really light uses, all that might be left on the pan is some oil that could be taken care of with quick deployment of a paper towel. You really ought to clean these things between uses, but there won't be that much to clean, so you can focus on the few spots that need a good scrub, and since they're light it won't be difficult to turn them this way and that to get to whatever spot needs scrubbing. Especially for the price on amazon.com, they're absolutely worth the money.

Impressive- you can use lower heat with the black in particular and pans heat up faster- The non stick surface is so effective that it almost becomes a disadvantage when trying to turn eggs over- easy-they just slip away from you.- easy cleanup- well worth the money
JRN

This set of cookware is great for my purposes of cooking for a small family. The heat distributes evenly and fairly quickly. Clean up is a breeze. I've had this set for a year, and only have one piece where the non-stick coating has been nicked, and that took a pretty serious hit to make that happen. Just use wooden or non-stick utensils and always hand-wash.

The first set we received had a defective stockpot, out of round & lid would not fit, it was clearly a factory defect as all packaging was intact and all other pieces were fine. The 2nd set had a defective lid, again clearly from the factory. Cuisinart's customer service was rude and would do nothing to help, Dependable Resource was EXCELLENT. They made the exchange process as painless as possible and we would definitely do business with them again. If we ever purchase any Cuisinart pans in the future, it will be at a storefront where we can inspect the merchandise BEFORE taking it home.

These were wonderful pots and pans. Not very expensive, and so far the nonstick lining has not worn out.