Get the set of 2 or 3 (different products in different parts of the country) non-stick pans from Costco, under $20. Replace when they start to wear. The set doesn't show on the online store.

That Lodge pan would be good. If you don't have a cast iron pan, I think that would definitely be the best route - everyone should have one - they are useful for so many things beyond eggs.

Read up on how to season/care for it. ''No soap''. The first couple of eggs might stick, then it should get better if you are wiping it with oil after every use.

I recall cast iron working fine on electric, but I wasn't too picky back then, and don't have electric now - so better get an answer from someone better informed.

If you're only looking for an egg pan, then I'd just get another cheap non-stick pan and replace it every so often.

(Cooks Illustrated tested inexpensive non-stick pans. They measured the number of eggs fried w/out fat before the pan lost much of its non-stickishness. The best was the T-Fal for $35 - probably the same one you have. Some pans started sticking after 70. The T-Fal's handle got loose after abuse, though. It is disposable cookware.)

I make omlettes, scrambled eggs, fried eggs etc on stainless steel. I just use oil/butter and lower heat, and it is fine. Or, more oil/butter with high heat (for omlettes).

Thanks for the info so far! Wow, maybe I'm just not using enough butter/oil in the stainless pans? I've been leaning towards cast iron as opposed to just another regular nonstick because there are other things I'd like to try cooking in cast iron (like homemade stuffing, steak, etc.). I just wasn't sure if it was worth it with a flat-top electric range... It might take forever to get the iron hot, no? Although, I have an enameled cast iron dutch oven that I use on my range, and it seems to work pretty well...

I second the recommendation for the Costco pans -- well priced, last a couple of years or more, and can be replaced cheaply. They distribute heat fairly well.

RB

I get my cheapies from Ikea. About $5 a pan.

Several years ago I purchased a set of 2 Calphalon non-stick fry pans at Bed Bath & Beyond that I use for eggs. I don't remember how much they cost, but they do the job for me.

maybe I'm just not using enough butter/oil in the stainless pans?

Or too much heat?

If you want to OCD, use a buffing pad, an electric drill, and some metal polish or rubbing compound to get your stainless pans nice and slick. Then stroke the glassy surface, murmuring ''ooooo'' until your SO gets jealous. Use wood, plastic, or silicone utensils.

There is no reason to buy the cheap coated pans that you have to replace. Better to buy an anodized aluminum one, like Calphalon, and it will last a very long time. The one I have is Magnalite, but it is 20 years old and no longer made. I use it for cooking eggs, and they do not stick. Still, you should also have the cast iron pan, as it heats differently from the Calphalon and has different uses.

Lars

I have an ancient "Wearever" non-stick omlette pan that my mom gave me and it works like a charm every time, washes up in the dishwasher, and doesn't stick after probably 20 years. I do use oil with it. The secret I think is it is thick cast aluminum, not pressed steel, and I don't heat anything on hight in it. That's the secrest to any good pan, cast aluminum as a core. I have it on the stainless pots I like too. But I also have a small cast iron one and that is great for eggs too. Oh, and also, that "Wearever" pan says "Made in the USA" on the back too. Yes, those were the days!! That's part of its secret too, IMHO.

I'm with Lars on this one - my Calphalon has lasted very well, except one pan which started flaking for some reason. Sent it back to Calphalon and within a week or two the mailman brought me a new one. No questions asked, can't beat that.

With enough fat and luck you can cook eggs on anything I suppose. But non-stick is foolproof and you only need as much fat as you want for taste. Even if you choose that amount to be zero.

I'd also get a cast iron pan, but wouldn't expect to use it for eggs.

I LIKE the cheap coated ware! I prefer commercial quality....cheaper and lasts longer.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: fry pans

Almost all my pans are non-stick and the newer coatings are not as good as the old ones.

The best, hands-down, for durability and non-stick, is Circulon Elite and Circulon Infinite. I have the 12" round slanted griddle pan in Circulon Elite and it is amazing. Over a year's worth of hard usage/DW cleaning and it's as slick and smooth as ever. Far superior to earlier Circulon products, BTW.

I have used the current crop of Calphalon, KitchenAid, T-Fal, and Wearever, and none of them compare with the earlier pots/pans I used twenty years ago, nor with the current Circulon products.

I don't do a lot of high-heat cooking, so I discarded my mother's cast-iron skillet. She only used it for cornbread, and I get just as good results preheating the baking pans/sheets for sear-roasting and baking, so it wasn't worth my storage space.

I stopped using Magnalite because we use a lot of tomato-based and acidic sauces, which are not recommended for aluminum-based products. It heats very evenly, though, which makes it a great stewpot.

I second Ikea non-stick. Mine is wearing like iron.

I have Calphalon hard anodized skillets and like them a lot, but you have to watch, some of the newer ones are made in China, not in Ohio, and the quality is far from the old stuff. I have a cheap (I bought it at GoodWill) non-stick pan that I use when camping and it works great for eggs too, so I think you should get what you like.

As for cast iron, I love it. I have a set that I got as a wedding present the first time I got mrried in 1974 and it's as slick as non-stick with 36 years of seasoning. I also have a deeper "chicken fryer" that's a Griswold, I got it at a yeard sale and I have an old Lodge cast iron dutch oven that I use for deep frying, beats any electric deep fryer I've ever tried, hands down. I cannot imagine not cooking with my cast iron...

I don't have electric, I have gas as my cooking medium, so I'm no help there, but I really like that I can sear a steak on the stove top and put it into the oven to finish, and I bake cornbread in mine, it gives a great crunchy crust. It's also good for shepherd's pie, I can brown the beef, add the vegetables, make the sauce, then top with mashed potatoes and stick it in the oven, all in one pan.

Plus, if you cook acidic things like chili in cast iron, the acid will leach the iron from the pot and you sure won't be anemic. I learned that from my old doc, who retired. Now I have the Boy Wonder, who spends a lot of time looking things up on the internet, LOL.

Annie

I'm using a reasonably priced Kitchenaid (under $20).
Works just fine. It replaced a cheap, CHEAP non-stick that was beginning to "shed", had a warped bottom.

I use cast iron skillets and dutch oven on my low-end coil electric range. Yes, I can sear a steak and finish in the oven as Annie said! Gets plenty hot and often gives my hood fan and smoke detector a work (you're supposed to test them once in awhile, right?).

Deanna

Personally, I would not buy cheap pans that last a year or two and then get tossed into a landfill.

I would rather spend the extra $$ and get a good quality piece that will last a long long time.

I have a cast iron frying pan that I got at a flea market years ago. It took a while, but it is finally seasoned well and I use it all the time. I have a glass top range too (which I loathe...) and the cast iron works fine on it.

Linda

Very few people are truly anaemic. I have carpal tunnel, so I don't like super-heavy cookware unless there's a real need for it. For an omelet pan, for example, using cast iron would make it more difficult, not easier - you need quick temperature response, unlike braising or deep-frying.

I do a lot of sear-roasting, and it works just fine for me to use a heavyweight shallow broiling pan, preheated, instead of putting the frying pan in the oven. I line the broiling pan with foil, and there's no extra pan to wash.

What this discussion points out is that it matters WHAT you cook and HOW you cook. There is no one pan material that is going to be perfect for every situation.

The OP asked about non-stick, so that's what the focus should be on.

I buy whatever looks good at TJMaxx or Marshalls. I like the colorful fry pans with designs on the bottom. They all seem to be about the same quality.
I put my non stick skillets in the top rack of the dishwasher and probably get a 5-9 year lifespan out of them. I never have them flake but they do eventually get less non stick.

jkom, the OP specifically mentioned cast iron and wondered whether it would be worth having with an electric stove. Although I have a gas stove, others answered that they had electric and cast iron was fine.

So, I answered that particular question with my experience. I'm sorry if my difference of opinion offended you, I assumed that of the two intertwined questions, people with experience with one or the other would answer the applicable portion.

I will no longer post to any threads regarding non-stick, since I seldom use it and so any of my opinions would be presumed to be off topic.

Annie

Annie1992, my apologies that you felt my language was too strong.

What I was trying to point out was, the OP didn't actually say how s/he was cooking the eggs. If you are scrambling or frying, for example, a well-seasoned cast iron might work just fine. But I make omelets - we love them - so I need to be able to pick the pan up and rotate it with one hand. Then I fill the omelet, again lift the pan up, holding it an angle with one hand while I use a spatula to roll the omelet onto a plate.

There's no way I could do that with a 12" cast iron skillet. Anyone who can, has my awe and admiration, LOL!

I prefer non-stick for cooking ingredients like eggs because I find I use no grease at all - just a spray with Pam. Conversely, when I make boiled custard or Hollandaise, I can use a higher heat than normal if I use non-stick, shortening the cooking time considerably. I never need a double boiler.

So again, it depends on what you're cooking, and how.

Fair enough, jkom. I seldom make omelettes because even with a nonstick pan I'm clumsy, and they just come out being scrambled eggs with stuff in them, they are never pretty. You won't see a picture of an omelette that I made on any of these threads.

I'm also not one of those people who can "flip" stuff in a pan, mine just goes all over the stove, I just stir or use a spatula and so the weight isn't as critical.

I have the Calphalon hard anodized skillets, which are kind of nonstick, although not Teflon. They are pretty heavy too, but I do like them a lot.

Cook's Illustrated actually liked the $35.00 T-fal Professional Total Nonstick a bit better than they did the $159 All Clad, so if price is an issue, that might be worth a try.

Annie

I have a T-FAL Armaral non-stick for many many years. Still pretty good.

I got it because it was the only 13.5" large size pan I could find. Everything else was 12".

Interesting that that pan has a circle in the center that changes color to tell you how hot the pan is.

The single most important thing about non-stick is only use soft spatulas, and never scrub.

dcarch

I have been trying out one of the new "Green Pans" for a little over a month now. They have the ceramic non-stick. I must say that I am very impressed. If eggs are what you like to cook then this non-stick is great. Use very little butter, you can swirl the eggs in the fry pan. They just don't stick. Clean up is a breeze. I do not put any of my non-stick pans in the dishwasher. Even if they say they can go in it. It just ruins the pan service and reduces the longevity of the pan. The detergent is just to harsh. Even the manufactorers say reduce the amount of detergent you use in the dishwasher when washing non-stick. So I don't even bother. I use wood or silicone utensils when cooking and have a gas stove now(use to have electric burners). NancyLouise

Katie:
When I was in my teens , my grandmother had a stamped steel fry pan.
It was used for nothing but eggs.

Then different pans evolved and the fry pan dissapeared.
( the Older folks don't know what good is )

Wish I had that pan today.
I have tried all the non stick pans and I am not too happy with any of them.
Plus I forget them on the Range until I see smoke coming from the kitchen. That does not help !

So I use the Cast Iron skillet.
I am going to a restaurant supply to find a steel pan, like the old one and season it.

They are used in restaurant kitchens.

I have an electric range with element burners.
If you use Cast Iron pan, polish the bottom like was mentioned,
in the Dcarch post.

LOU

Cast iron is excellent! There is no reason you cannot use it on electric. Although I have a gas stove, and prefer cooking on it, I have used all of my cast iron cookware on electric as well. There's just a tad more learning curve with electric, and a smooth surface would require you to be careful so as not to damage your stovetop. You can also take cast iron camping and cook over wood or charcoal with them.

Take care to season your cast iron and care for it, and you'll get a lifetime of use from it. Enameled cast iron such as LC and Staub are also excellent.

I have a lot of cast iron cookware from Lodge Manufacturing (made in the USA) from skillets, to griddles, to bread pans. My eggs slide right out of the pans, and I now cook pancakes on my round griddles because
I didn't want to use nonstick electric griddles any more.

I had a slight learning curve as to what burner settings to use initially for best results, but I would never go back to all the junky small appliances now. I use low to medium settings for most things. High heat setting when frying potatoes.

If you decide to try a cast iron pan for eggs, make sure to use enough butter initially with it until the pan becomes well seasoned. Contrary to what all the "studies" show, real butter is very healthy for you, and I have lost weight without trying after starting to use enough butter to make things taste good. You'll have the pan forever.