HELP - Oneida Tri-Ply 10 Piece Hammered Copper Cookware Set

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spanglersplace

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jan 14, 2023
Messages
7
Location
Mechanicsburg, PA
Hi everyone, first post here...

So I got my wife a set of these beautiful cookware for the holidays and while we love the look and make of them, they are nothing but trouble and we are not sure what to do. I have read reviews from Kohls, Wayfair, Dillards and so many others with people saying how wonderful they are, how they clean up, etc...

Our problem is simple, keep in mind, my wife is a stickler for cooking and is very careful in her approach to cooking correctly and cleaning of the items.

After the first use of one of the pans, the entire copper outside discolored and the silver lining in the point was impossible to clean out and still is to this day. We have no clue how to clean these pots and keep there color let alone protect the inside to keep things from sticking.
Online everyone says no high heat, warm the pans up first before food, etc..We have tried with no luck and of course Onieda pretends like these items don't exist since they are special made for online companies, so they have clue how to tell us to use them and clean them, their suggestion was to return them and purchase another set at no cost and see if the first set was just a bad set.

My goal is to see if anyone has experienced this before with this set or something similar and what is the proper way to clean and cook with them? What are we missing....

Here are some photos to show you the brand and the issues.. PLEASE HELP!! , thank you.
 

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Barkeeper's Friend is an excellent suggestion. I don't think those are pix of the problem. I think those are the marketing pix.
You can see it better in the first photo and in the 2nd one the one of the left in discolored, the one on the right is new.
 

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First, those are not copper pans, they are tri-ply pans, with a decorative copper outer layer. the interior is stainless steel, and needs to be treated as such. Barkeepers friend is the best way to polish the interiors. If you aren't familiar with it, it comes in a can like Comet or Ajax cleanser, but it is NOT the same thing. It is a metal polish, and is safe on your SS finish.

The copper exterior may have a lacquer coating on it. If so, you need to remove it with some chemical type of remover. If it doesn't have a coating, just use as normal. Copper will darken with use. It's called 'patina'. I have solid copper pots from France that I've had over 40 years. The interiors are nickel. I spent the first 10 years trying to keep both the copper and the nickel polished and shiny. Eventually, I decided I was wasting a lot of time and energy for no practical purpose. I just let them age gracefully.

That hammered copper finish will be especially difficult to keep polished. To do it properly, you would probably need a buffung wheel.
 
First, those are not copper pans, they are tri-ply pans, with a decorative copper outer layer. the interior is stainless steel, and needs to be treated as such. Barkeepers friend is the best way to polish the interiors. If you aren't familiar with it, it comes in a can like Comet or Ajax cleanser, but it is NOT the same thing. It is a metal polish, and is safe on your SS finish.

The copper exterior may have a lacquer coating on it. If so, you need to remove it with some chemical type of remover. If it doesn't have a coating, just use as normal. Copper will darken with use. It's called 'patina'. I have solid copper pots from France that I've had over 40 years. The interiors are nickel. I spent the first 10 years trying to keep both the copper and the nickel polished and shiny. Eventually, I decided I was wasting a lot of time and energy for no practical purpose. I just let them age gracefully.

That hammered copper finish will be especially difficult to keep polished. To do it properly, you would probably need a buffung wheel.
So how do you remove the lacquer coating, what should I try?
 
That doesn't look like a burned on lacquer coating, but it wouldn't hurt to wipe them off with some solvent based lacquer thinner, or maybe some acetone. I have never seen any discoloration of coppers like that, but the SS linings of some pans gets that color, and it comes off with that Barkeeper's Friend. However, that is a fine abrasive - to get that color off of the copper, look for something specifically for copper, like this Brasso I use. There are several others, including a cheap Copper cleaner powder (I have that, too, just can't find it!). These have chemicals to clean the copper - I took my cleanest copper pan, and wiped it with the Brasso, and you can see how much wiped off, and there is no abrasive in it.
Polished copper, showing the Brasso, and the amount of copper that wiped off of a fairly clear pan. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

That "patina" Silversage mentions is something that happens to older copper, especially, since it is much more pure. I like the way she lets it "age gracefully" - I do that with most of my pans, and here's a photo of that freshly polished gratin pan above one of those with the patina. But they never got discolored like that - just a slow oxidation. (Maybe
It has something to do with the "hybrid metal" they use now?) Cleaning one of those patina coated pans with the Brasso would result in a paper towel almost covered in black!
The bright polished pan above a pan with that patina - not polished for years, probably, just washed normally, and dried. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
splangler, sorry you had to find out the hard way that copper cookware is high maintenance... very high. I too, discovered it the hard way but way back in the mid 60's. Should have known better as my mom had copper bottomed pans but such is youth... eyes got carried away from practicality.
Only have one now, a fairly recent purchase (maybe 5 years ago) a 12" copper bottomed pan. First use discoloured it and nothing gets it back to the original shine. Not Brasso nor any other metal cleaner. It is probably a reflection on the quality of the brass mixture. But that's OK, I just live with it as I really like how it cooks.
BTW, Welcome to DC. Hope you stick around!

I also wanted to ask, are you cooking on a gas stove?
 
BarKeeper's is the best I've found. here's a before / after
cleaned1s.jpg

cooking on gas one gets two flavors of coloration - one from a bit a sulfur in the gas, the second from just from heat. if you intend to use these daily and intend to keep them shiny, buy Barkeeper's by the case.
DSC_0309s.jpg
 
I wouldn't give it a second thought. My only concern with any cookware is how well it cooks.
And I second Bar Keepers Friend. Good stuff. Cheap too.
 
splangler, sorry you had to find out the hard way that copper cookware is high maintenance... very high. I too, discovered it the hard way but way back in the mid 60's. Should have known better as my mom had copper bottomed pans but such is youth... eyes got carried away from practicality.
Only have one now, a fairly recent purchase (maybe 5 years ago) a 12" copper bottomed pan. First use discoloured it and nothing gets it back to the original shine. Not Brasso nor any other metal cleaner. It is probably a reflection on the quality of the brass mixture. But that's OK, I just live with it as I really like how it cooks.
BTW, Welcome to DC. Hope you stick around!

I also wanted to ask, are you cooking on a gas stove?
Thank you and no, electric here.
 
There is a product named Twinkle that always worked well on copper. You can get it on Amazon. The shine would come right back with it without much scrubbing or effort. Still, like others, I opted for another option after many years of requiring special cleaners after use on my copper pan.

I concur about barkeepers friend for the inside!
 
Hi everyone, first post here...

So I got my wife a set of these beautiful cookware for the holidays and while we love the look and make of them, they are nothing but trouble and we are not sure what to do. I have read reviews from Kohls, Wayfair, Dillards and so many others with people saying how wonderful they are, how they clean up, etc...

Our problem is simple, keep in mind, my wife is a stickler for cooking and is very careful in her approach to cooking correctly and cleaning of the items.

After the first use of one of the pans, the entire copper outside discolored and the silver lining in the point was impossible to clean out and still is to this day. We have no clue how to clean these pots and keep there color let alone protect the inside to keep things from sticking.
Online everyone says no high heat, warm the pans up first before food, etc..We have tried with no luck and of course Onieda pretends like these items don't exist since they are special made for online companies, so they have clue how to tell us to use them and clean them, their suggestion was to return them and purchase another set at no cost and see if the first set was just a bad set.

My goal is to see if anyone has experienced this before with this set or something similar and what is the proper way to clean and cook with them? What are we missing....

Here are some photos to show you the brand and the issues.. PLEASE HELP!! , thank you.
Hi everyone, first post here...

So I got my wife a set of these beautiful cookware for the holidays and while we love the look and make of them, they are nothing but trouble and we are not sure what to do. I have read reviews from Kohls, Wayfair, Dillards and so many others with people saying how wonderful they are, how they clean up, etc...

Our problem is simple, keep in mind, my wife is a stickler for cooking and is very careful in her approach to cooking correctly and cleaning of the items.

After the first use of one of the pans, the entire copper outside discolored and the silver lining in the point was impossible to clean out and still is to this day. We have no clue how to clean these pots and keep there color let alone protect the inside to keep things from sticking.
Online everyone says no high heat, warm the pans up first before food, etc..We have tried with no luck and of course Onieda pretends like these items don't exist since they are special made for online companies, so they have clue how to tell us to use them and clean them, their suggestion was to return them and purchase another set at no cost and see if the first set was just a bad set.

My goal is to see if anyone has experienced this before with this set or something similar and what is the proper way to clean and cook with them? What are we missing....

Here are some photos to show you the brand and the issues.. PLEASE HELP!! , thank you.
There's bad news and worse news. The Worse News is that you don't have copper cookware--you have stainless steel cookware with a copper coating that is, as the Pa. Dutch supposedly say, "chust for pretty" and has zero effect on cooking. The finish isn't hammered, just pressed in by machine. In short, you have expensive high-maintenance crap. (I've been collecting copper for about 50 years, and I've learnt my lessons the hard way.) And fyi, it won't work on induction stoves.
What to do? Apparently you can';t get a refund, so you could ask for a prepaid return shipping label and accept a new set. Frankly, I doubt that that'll do any good. And Oneida might say you have to pay shipping!)

If you keep the current set, just accept the fact that the interiors will never clean up to new condition. (The happens with real tin-lined copper as well.) If your have actual stains, you can scrub all you want with whatever you want, but the mirror finish won't return. If you have cooked-on residue (you will be able to feel in on your finger, eyes closed), you can gently scrape it off with a single-edge razor blade (unaided, from an art-supplies store, or in a small holder by Stanley, Hyde or Red Devil, from hardware store).

For the exteriors, I posit 3 grades of care. 1. Sanitary Care & Cosmetic Negligence.: clean the pot but pay NO attention to shining the thing, just let it naturally patinate, and get used to the fact that at best it will look like old pennies. I suspect your wife will not like that, but there are plenty of people who say "Look--it's a POT not a work of art." 2. What I call a Restaurant Shine I achieve with ease: wash pot in hot water and, while still hot, slather it with the cheapest store-brand ketchup you can find. Let it sit for a bit, then rinse. Result won't be perfect; you might want to do a second round. At that point, you've gone as far as the easy way will get you. Rest assured they will look nice enough to hang up for display, but they won't gleam. They'll glow. A little. (White vinegar+salt slopped onto a rag also works, but is nasty.) 3. For holiday dinners, or when I want to show off, or when I want everyone to leave me alone for a day, a Martha Stewart shine is called for, and that means polish. I experiment often with various products, and I am now very pleased with this one: Autosol Metal Polish (2 75ml tubes $9.90, Amazon) It’s new to me, and it is, I think, the equal of the gold-standard, Simichrome. (For lagniappe, you get twice as much for a couple of bucks less.) Both from Amazon, along with Noxon, nearly as good, and Brasso, pretty good too.) Autosol works so well I now use it on my Zwilling Pro Line knives, and I wish I’d found it sooner.

Always remember: your results may vary. Not all copper is created equal.

Here’s how I marthastewartize my pots: wash, polish, wash again to remove any residue--god only knows what's in that stuff. And always dry by hand: water spots will NOT come off.--Bill Marsano is a home cook whose daughter calls his kitchen “Dad Mean-o’s Restaurant” because she hates eggplant.
 

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