Both are springform. I can't have two pans, I barely make one cheesecake every three years and the house is relatively small, plus I am trying to get a handle on my possessions, pare them down.

The one with the waffle bottom is the cheaper pan, I believe it's tin plated steel adn will eventually rust, I have 1 just like it. the other looks to be better quality aluminum....keep that one.

I've seen a lot of bread (loaf) pans made with dimpled metal so I'm assuming that the reason for it is to help keep food from sticking.

I like the looks of the waffled pan but, as Lindac mentions, there is the rust factor to consider. Still, I'd be inclined to keep the tinned steel one. It's prolly an old pan and rust hasn't been a problem so far....

My tinned steel spring form is about 20 years old...actually a set of 3 different sized pans.
I have problems with cheese cake pans. I take a cheese cake and leave the leftovers on the pan bottom and never get the bottom back....so I have bought several over the years.
The tin one looks like it was never used, but the aluminum one looks like it's well seasoned.
And on my waffle bottomed ones, the bottom doesn't fit as well as does the aluminum one.

The tinned one is mine, and it has been used, about as much as I mentioned. Same with mom's aluminum one. They are both pretty old, mine maybe 15 years or even longer, and mom's 40+. Rust hasn't been a problem with mine, but that may be due to little use. We both wished for more time to make cheesecake, but we both only made it rarely. The last time I made cheesecake was 2012, when my folks came to my old house for Thanksgiving. My SO makes it every year for Thanksgiving, and also sometimes for Christmas. He hasn't been living with me since 2013, and he sometimes just makes cheesecake in a regular round cake pan, so I think an argument could even be made that you don't need both round cake pans and a springform, since if you grease the pan or grease and flour it or even use parchment paper, you don't absolutely have to have a springform. It does guarantee neater results though.

Give SO one?

My cheese cake is too tall for a regular cake pan....

Yeah, but somehow my SO manages to make New York style cheesecake in a regular cake pan. It's a lower volume recipe. He actually makes up his own recipes, but it usually turns out good. He mostly makes pumpkin cheesecake. I'll have no problems giving either one of them away, it's just deciding which one. Right now I am leaning towards giving mine away, due to mom's having a lot of memories. HOWEVER, I think mom gave ME mine, since she probably did her own paring down when they moved into their current home and she realized she had two pans. I know after they moved out of the home I grew up in, when mom would visit she would often remark, "Oh, that's what happened to that!"

Cheese cake is about proportion....for every 8 oz of cream cheese I add an egg 1/4 cup sugar 1 T. flour and 1/2 tsp vanilla. I will use that amount when making some mini cheese cakes in mini muffin tins.....or double that for an 8 inch cake tin. But, usually I use 5 packages of cream cheese and 5 eggs......it makes a big tall cheese cake like is served in the Cheesecake Factory.
Since they nest, why not keep them both...who knows you might just want to make TWO cakes some day....and it will save you the angst of having to choose.

Yes, SO is a carpenter who majored in math in college. He is all about proportions!

I prefer smooth bottom pans. I've never had a problem with a cheesecake sticking to make me want something non-stick. If you want to slide the whole cheesecake off the bottom and take it on a plate or cardboard round (so you don't have to worry about getting the bottom back), it is easier with a smooth bottom. I've done it with or without parchment on the bottom. You can also leave leftovers on the host's plate. I think some people who don't bake don't realize that is part of your bakeware and not something disposable.

I am always nervous about sliding a3 pound 3 inches tall cheese cake with a crumb crust off of the bottom of the tin....so I usually put the whole thing on a serving plate. The plate usually gets returned, but a couple of times the bottom has not.

Linda, you can use a cardboard cake round (well greased) in the bottom of your pan and you should be able to slide even a big cake off. Should be cheaper than replacing the pan bottoms. :)

Lpink, my mother says the same thing! There are tons of things she's foisted on me over the years, and a few I've actually asked for that I knew she didn't use. Then we'll be discussing something, and she'll offer it again, and I'll say, "Mother, I've had that for ten years." "Oh! So that's where it is!"

Problem is, I normally don't have a cake round....and most of the time I can silde what's left of the cake off the bottom and leave it....and in 45 years of making and taking cheese cakes, I think I have only lost 3 bottoms....and I can afford that loss!!

I tested them out this AM, both of them leak! Both of them are a little rickety for wear. And I may have gotten both of them at different times from my mom. I think I'm going with the all aluminum one, I don't see ones like that around much anymore and I could always get another waffle bottom one if I missed mine. I will try and give SO the other one, but god willing someday we may move back in together and I'm not sure I want that cheesecake pan coming back around AGAIN! :)

Excellent decision. I have to ask (sorry I didn't think of it earlier)....you used something thick to check for leaks, right? Any two part pan will leak water...