Archive | 2010

We started this business to help people (including us) get more use and enjoyment out of their Revere Ware cookware.  In addition to selling parts, we’ve made a point to try and collect as much vintage information, such as product manuals, and make it available for people.

But we also help out in another way, which is in answering any and all questions people send us, regardless of whether it has anything to do with our actual business.

To make these questions and answers available to a wider audience, and possibly keep us from answering the same questions over and over again, we’ve added a FAQ section (Frequently Asked Questions) to our website and will continue to add questions answers as they come up, such as where to find Revere Ware resources, fixes for common problems, where to find certain parts, and where to get Revere Ware warranty replacement.

That last question has been a bit perplexing for us, as, despite prominent statements on our home page, on our support page, our contact page, and several posts in our blog that we are not the company that makes the cookware and do not provide warranty support, people continue to ignore all that and contact us for warranty replacement for their Revere Ware cookware.

So just to clarify one more time, we are not affiliated with the Revere Ware brand or the company, World Kitchen, that makes the Revere Ware cookware.  Our name includes the words Revere Ware because we make parts for, and only for, Revere Ware cookware, a brand we have been particularly fond of out of all the brands of cookware over the last 70 years.

I came across a question recently about overheated Revere Ware:

How to remove a gray stain on interior of Revere ware Copper bottom stainless steel 7inch fry pan

The gray stain was caused by heating the pan for over 5 minutes after the boiling water in it was boiled away because I was momentarily (5+ minutes) distracted away from the cooking range.

Is there a method and a special compound/solution which I can use to restore the appearance to its nearly new shine instead of the dull gray look? Is the pan still usable in its present state? Will there be release of any metallic toxins because of the overheating of the pan in its dry state?

I’ve also had people contact me directly with the same problem and concerns about any ill health effects.

To answer her last question first, it is worth noting that it is unlikely that anything related to the stainless steel will cause health problems.  I have friends that are nervous about stainless steel because it has chromium in it, but the type of chromium used in stainless steel, chromium III, which provides the corrosion and discoloration resistance stainless steel is known for, is completely unlike the very deadly hexavalent chromium made famous by the film Erin Brockovich.  In fact, chromium III is required by the body in trace amounts for proper digestion of sugars and fats.

In terms of the health of the cookware, it is always a bad idea to heat a pan without anything in it for an extended period of time, because this will likely warp the bottom of the pan, effectively ruining it.

To determine an effective repair for any discoloration, I set out to duplicate the problem.

Heating the pan without anything in it for a good 15 minutes didn’t cause any discoloration at all, but it had a pretty harsh affect on the copper bottom.

The extreme heat caused little pieces of the copper bottom to flake off and made the bottom rough to the touch.

Next I tried the experiment with some water in the pan, let the water boil off and heat for a good 10 minutes after the water was gone.

This time there were burned on hard water stains and some iridescent discoloration.  As we don’t have particularly hard water where I live, I suspect this would be much worse where there was very hard water, and probably the cause of the discoloration in question.  I have gotten pans in such shape from thrift stores and the solution below also did wonders on them.

While any warping caused by such heating will likely be permanent, the stains and discoloration on the inside of the pan are fairly easy to correct:  simply scrub well with a Scotch Brite pad (never use steel wool or SOS pads) and then polish with some Bar Keepers Friend.  Looks much better.  It is important to note that a Scotch Brite pad should NOT be used on the outside of the pan as it will dull the finish.  The inside of any pan will become dulled anyways from use, so a Scotch Brite pad won’t hurt it any worse.

The bottom was more difficult to polish; I tried Bar Keepers Friend and copper polish, but the roughened surface due to the over heating made it more difficult to get good results.

There is one more danger to overheating pans; the Bakelite handles can break down at high enough temperatures.  This particular test resulted in some slight breaking down of the Bakelite material where it touched the metal.

About a month ago I discovered a new type of Bar Keepers Friend, one of the better all-around cleaners for stainless steel cookware and many other household cleaning tasks.  I wondered how Bar Keepers Friend cookware cleaner would compare to the regular version.

Whether this is a recently introduced product, or I just havn’t noticed it before is a mystery to me, as the company that makes Bar Keepers Friend hasn’t returned my email about this.

First let me say that Bar Keepers Friend is one of my favorite all-around cleaners for cookware, and if I had to choose only one cleaner to have around, it would definitely be Bar Keepers Friend.

So it is with those high expectations that I compared the two cleaners side-by side on several pans with burned on grease, dulled and scratched stainless steel, and tarnished copper.

First, I tried them on a couple of copper bottom skillets.  The results are below, showing the regular version on the left and the cookware version on the right.  In the middle is what the cooper part looked like before.

I had trouble finding any difference between the results of the two.  Note that the the above results are not exhaustive.  I probably could have gotten almost all of the burned on grease and tarnish off had I done an exhaustive cleaning.

Below is a Revere Ware tri-ply skillet that had a particularly tough coating of cooked on grease on the bottom.

The results are pretty impressive, as either version was able to cut through the grease with only a moderate application of scrubbing, although getting the corners and inner edges clean requires a bit more work.

Seeing no difference between the two as far as I can tell, and given the slightly higher price of the cookware version (about 15% more), I would guess this is more of a marketing distinction than anything else.

Recommendation

Overall, this product easily removes copper tarnish, burned on grease, heavier burned on food (with plenty of scrubbing), and does a pretty good job of bringing a nice shine to dulled stainless steel.  Note that it won’t remove deep scratches, but I wouldn’t have expected that.

I recommend sticking with the regular (cheaper version) of Bar Keepers Friend.  Just follow the simple directions on the packaging and it might be a good idea to wear gloves when using it, as it is a bit hard on the hands.

World Kitchen, the owners of the Revere Ware brand seem to have moved further away from treating the Revere Ware brand as anything special by abandoning a Revere Ware specific site; they now include Revere Cookware with all other brands on their site.  Another sad milestone in the modern day story of the once revered (pun intended) brand.

Here is the site from a few years ago:

Here is where you get redirected when you go to www.revereware.com now:

Unfortunately they have also removed any mention of the history of Revere Ware and made their contact page and information about their warranty very hard to find.  Their contact page can be found here and their warranty links are all listed at the bottom of their FAQ here.

They do have a FAQ now about lack of availability of replacement parts:

Where can I get knobs and handles for my Revere cookware?

We discontinued our Revere repair service in 1986 and we no longer have the replacement handles, knobs, or hardware for your cookware. We are sorry for any inconvenience.  Revereware does carry a 25 year warranty and we may be able to provide you with warranty service.  Please call our Consumer Care Center at 1-800-999-3436.

And how about this FAQ that claims the new Revere Ware with less copper is as good as the old stuff:

Why does my older Revereware seem heavier than my newer cookware that looks the same?

Through research and testing, we’ve learned that the same cooking results were achieved when using lighter materials.

By making this information harder to find, we can only assume that World Kitchen is wanting to make it harder for customers to receive warranty replacement of cookware under their warranty.  Prior to this, they had a very low reply rate on emails sent to them with warranty questions.  I personally received responses to one of five emails.

We continue to support the older (and newer) Revere Ware by making replacement parts available and will be introducing more handles, hardware, and gaskets in the next month.  Also be sure and try our Ebay categorization tool for Revere Ware to find replacement cookware.