I am absolutely not here to defend IKEA cookware; but here's how we have it. We bought it to put into a rental condo. I doubted anyone would use it, but we had to have a certain number of pots to get the condo into the rental pool. Later we found some other cookware for the condo and we took the unused IKEA home with us. It has sat on the top shelf of a cabinet in our utility room for years. Now that we have an induction hot plate, I scrambled to find anything that a magnet would stick to. My 40 year old stainless set was out. Newer aluminum non stick was out. I have a T-Fal pan and the pan that came with the Nuwave but no pots at all. Down came the IKEA and Bob's your uncle. The IKEA keeps water inside, has a glass top, welded handles, and also has quart and liter measurements etched inside. The walls are thin and give it a cheap feel, but again, magnetic. I think for induction the IKEA might be just fine. Heavier steel, dutch oven, or cast iron might be nice, but for the volume we're talking about, the increased weight is not necessary.

For the hash browns, heat your skillet on medium-high for a couple minutes with NOTHING in it. Then, add whatever fat you are using and allow another few seconds for it to come up to temp (because your pan is already very hot this will happen quickly)...then, after the fat is hot ONLY then add the potatoes. You can tell if the pan is ready by dropping a small piece of whatever your cooking into the pan...it should immediately sizzle...if it doesn't the pan was not hot enough when you added the fat. When the potatoes are in the pan, lower your heat slightly to medium-low. Then, and this is important....DO NOT TOUCH THOSE POTATOES. You mentioned you had "stirred" your hash browns and that's, probably, why they stuck. You have to let them sit until a crust forms. This is the same technique used for searing a steak or roast, etc. Do NOT touch whatever is in that pan until the caramalization has occurred. When the crust has formed on the potatoes they will let go from the pan and then are ready for turning. For me, I cut my potatoes in about 1" dice for hash browns and they can take a full 5-8 minutes before they are ready for me to touch. For a piece of meat, you will know when caramalization has happened because the previously stuck like glue steak has loosened itself from the pan and you can turn it easily...if it's still sticking it's simply not ready to be turned. Back to the potatoes...at most you might have to turn your spatula upside down and lightly loosen the potatoes in order to turn them but they WILL come right up and certainly not be glued to the pan. The key is learning to keep "hands-off" until the correct time to turn and starting with a properly pre-heated pan. For me, the instinct to fuss with food in the skillet was 'cause I didn't want it to burn. Unless you just walk away and completely forget what's cooking that won't happen. Be sure to use enough fat also...for, say, an 8" skillet filled with hash-browns cut in 1" dice and piled in the skillet 1-2" deep...go around your skillet 3-4 times with the oil. If there's not enough fat...then food could burn. In my weekend cooking class for home cooks at CIA, we practiced for an hour on this technique using hamburger patties. It took me quite a while to "get it" that my instincts to fiddle with the food in the pan were causing my problems. I've taken several of CIA's home-cook classes and they're wonderful...it's an advantage to living just 9 miles from the campsus which, BTW, is georgous...all old brick buildings set on a hilly site...very picturesque. I've taken 3 courses there....knife handling (excellent); artisan bread (too elementary & not enough time to practice); and a general technique class (excellent). But the parking lot is huge and I hated hiking with my cane and cooking stuff up to the buildings...I digress, sorry. Unfortunately, the one time DH and I coughed up the $200 or so to eat at the school's French restaurant it was ghastly and I do mean GHASTLY. It must have been truffle week in class and/or the school got a real deal from their produce supplier 'cause truffles were in everything...way too much of a good thing. Dinner was so horrible, we passed on desert. I couldn't bear the thought of truffle chocolate something-or-other. Now, with all that said...you WILL get some pieces of food that stick to a SS pan. But, you want that to happen...that's where we get the wonderful stuff to make sauces, gravies, etc. from. And, why a non-stick pan is not the best for searing. Quickly deglaze your skillet with a liquid of your choice and again...DO NOT STIR that pan. Just allow the liquid to quickly heat up and all the stuck pieces will loosen all by themselves with little or no assistance from the cook. Once that happens, lower the heat dramatically and stir away to blend any additional ingredients into your sauce. As for the high heat issue...there will be times when you want to do that such as searing meat, however, much of that flames shooting a foot in the air around the pan stuff you see on the Food Network and the chef tossing the skillets around is for show. They can shake that pan and move it all around the burner but what you WON'T see them doing is poking at the food with an implement of destruction until caramalization has happened. Then, with great fanfare they will toss the pan and flip.

gldnol: I'm in the same boat you are with the heaviness of some of the fry/saute pans. I sure wish we didn't lose what muscles we have as we grow older. Unfortunately, sometimes you have only one hand to use to to lift the pan to pour out the contents and the first time I did this the handle of the pan rotated in my hand due to the weight and I narrowly averted a big time disaster with hot liquid splashing over everything, including me. I did call the wonderful place where I had mailordered the pan and asked for advice. They sent me, free of charge, several heavy rough suede handle covers that were stitched in such a way that they kept the handle from rotating. I still don't take anything for granted when I pour hot stuff from the pan, and try to stabilize the handle on my arm, grabbing the handle as close to the pan as I dare. As far as the iridescence and discoloration: I just try not to look at it until I have the time and inclination to get out the BarKeepers Friend.

I have seen the Tramontina at my local Wal-Mart and it is nice stuff. I took a magnet with me and all the pieces on display were magnetic. It is more higly polished than any other tri-clad I've seen, and the handles are more comfortable than All Clad. I've compared it to All-Clad and Emerilware Pro-Clad and I prefer it over either. The Emerilware's lids are cheaply made. They are glass with a SS rim. The thin stainless they use results in easily bent and dented rims. Two of the lids on display were bent/dented. Another alternative is Kenmore Elite Tri-Ply. Another fully clad cook set. The handles are more comfortable than the Tramontina, not as nicely polished but very similar in finish to the All-clad. The price is slightly higher than the Tramontina but much less than All-clad. One thing about all these sets, the bases are the same thickness as the sides. The bottoms were fairly flat but not as flat and heavy as other sets made for glass/induction cooktops. And while all of these were magentic, they weren't as strongly magentic as those with the heavy flat bases. I don't know if that makes a difference in the performance of the cookware or not. I've heard a few people say thier thinner pans warped. I never knew Sears made cookware. Obviously someoen makes it for them but I don't know who. Here is a link that might be useful: Kenmore Tri-Ply