It means that it'll melt, burn, or scorch. Laminate will get scorch marks from a hot pot, as will wood, and corian. The laminate that I had in my old kitchen had a few scorch marks.

Granite & Quartz composite counters can suffer from thermal shock. Rare, but it can happen. That's when a crack forms because of the rapid expansion of the top of the surface vs the slower moving cool bottom surface. If it does happen, it's the fault of the owner.

The counters in my new kitchen are soapstone. I can pull a pan from a 500 degree oven and it directly on the counters with no ill effects. They make fireplaces out of soapstone, because it withstands heat so well.

Hmmmm. I know what not heat resistant means, I think I asked the wrong question. There must be different levels of "not heat resistant". For Example, you might be able to set a pot off the stove on one, or might be able to pull a pan out of a 350 degree oven, or you better keep the air conditioner going on a hot day. What I'm curious about is where on the range of "not heat resistant" lyptus, laminate and swanstone counters would fall.

Thanks!

Since both the laminate and swanstone are plastic, I just wouldn't risk it. Use a trivet if you aren't angling for stone counters. With the lyptus, it might be able to take a bit more, just because sanding is always an option.

If laminate and solid surface are on the table for budgetary concerns, I'd highly recommend checking out precut granite or DIY soapstone options. We DIYed ours. If you just prefer the plasticky feel, then go trivet shopping. There are some beautiful options out there.

Do a google search on Heat Resistance of Laminate and you'll get a bunch of sites that discuss this. Seems like 200-250 F is the higher rated laminate, but it's a "few and far between" type thing, not constant use.

Sounds like how a product is constructed (like the glue use with laminte) also plays a big part. Your laminte might hold up the the heat, but the glue will soften(that is what the hot sunlight does, and then you get a bubble).

Looks likes swanstone is heat resistant up to 450F, so at least twice that as laminate.

Forget laminate - for reasons mentioned above - glue, plastic. Forget Swanstone / Corian because it will melt / scortch / scratch and it's expensive to fix. As mentioned, only soapstone is truly heat resistant, but wood isn't too bad either - you can sand out any scorth marks. BUT, it also depends on the finish on the wood - do NOT use Poly (melt = FUMES)! Stick with mineral oil if you will put hot pots on it. I'd still get some trivets though! You can get wood counters and then pick up a small slab of stone to use as a larger trivet next to your range.

"As mentioned, only soapstone is truly heat resistant"

Actual granite is very heat resistant.

The problem is that may of the stones are NOT actually granite, but other type of stone.

For what it's worth, Swanstone/Corian can be easily sanded by the homeowner. They are NOT inexpensive materials though. (And I abused the heck out of my Corian and it refused to scorch or crack or show the scratches it must have had.)

Most ceramic and porcelain tiles are pretty much heat proof, and I'll put my stainless steel counters up against soapstone for kitchen heat any day.

Soapstone traditionally used for fireplaces and lab counters doesn't have the veins that make typical kitchen soapstones so pretty. There is always a possibility that the impurities providing the pretty will expand differently that the surrounding material. I sure wouldn't worry about it though.

Soapstone will scratch easier than Swanstone/Corian too.

Obviously they are different materials with very different properties, and neither is bad. There is quite a bit of faulty information to be had about the plastic counters, so I'm glad you're doing your research!

I had granite in my old house and constantly put hot things on it. Never had a single problem.

Marble?
I'll look it up.
I had rose colored marble before,never had a problem with hot pots and pans. Now I have carrara, I hope I didn't make a mistake. My family vetoed soapstone.