http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x70049Oh my.
It's all very interesting, the things primitives dream up to discuss.
Dover (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-18-09 01:40 PM
Original message
Anyone know about anodized aluminum pots?
I've been trying to decide what to do with a large Magnalite 7 qt. anodized stock pot I received as a gift several years ago. I've primarily used it for cooking soups and pasta. Anyway, the last time I cooked pasta in it I had to toss the meal out because it tasted so metallic. I examined my pot and noticed that the anodized surface was coming off in the lower half of the pot's interior, which is now just regular light gray aluminum.
It doesn't wipe off with a cloth or anything, but it does seem to be leaching off during cooking.
Now I'm not sure what to do with it. Is it salvagable? Is it unsafe? It's a very nice pot otherwise, but it may be time for something new. The company was bought out some time ago and from what I've read online by other customers it's really tough to return it under warranty under the new ownership. So I can drop it off at the Goodwill, toss it in the garbage, use it as is or look into recoating it (which I'm not sure I would bother with or trust that it wouldn't leach some again).
franksolich has the ideal solution. Don't use any cookware that isn't (a) glass or (b) stainless steel or (c) cast iron.
eleny (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-18-09 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
1. I've got some anodized Magnalite
In fact, I have a sauce pot that has the black missing from the bottom of the inside. I had set it aside some time ago and just came across it the other day when clearing an area of my pantry. I'm getting rid of it. Btw, I have vintage Magnalite without the anodized coating and am careful not to use it for acidic ingredients.
Mostly, I use my stainless cookware that I bought in 1976. I'm rearranging my pantry shelves so I can stack it at an easy-reach level. It's getting hard dragging pots from the lower shelf of a cabinet. I'm beginning to see that kitchen drawers for pots make a lot of sense.
Paper Roses (219 posts) Sun Oct-18-09 03:24 PM
Response to Original message
2. My daughter had Calphalon pots and pans which she bought when she was married. They are anodizes aluminum. Through the years, she used them and the anodizing wore off and the pans looked horrible. Light grey on the bottoms and up the sides. It was no use trying to clean them. She wrote to the manufacturer about what had happened and they had her return the pans. When she did so, they sent her a complete set of new pans corresponding to the sizes she returned.
I never found out if they told her they were dangerous, like the worn Teflon but they gave her no grief about the problem. It was hundreds of dollars worth of pans.
If I were you, I'd try and contact the manufacturer. They may replace the pan if you complain loud enough. This should not happen.
Better yet, get stainless pots to compliment your cast iron pans.
One wonders how that's done, considering pots and pans are mute objects.
The defrocked warped primitive:
Warpy (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-18-09 06:08 PM
Response to Original message
3. The anodized coating will come off under some conditions but people used plain aluminum pots for decades and there wasn't a sudden epidemic of Alzheimer's disease as they aged.
I don't cook acid foods in them because they do impart a metallic taste. All my aluminum saucepans were coated with Teflon, fine for pots that aren't heated to high temperatures.
I'm guessing that if you taste aluminum in plain pasta, you must have an extremely acidic water supply. An acid water supply could also account for the surface destruction. If you're tossing the pasta with the sauce in that pot, instead, don't do it any more because the acid in the sauce is leaching aluminum out.
The only other thing that grey could be is hard water deposits which can start imparting off flavors if you don't clean them off.
It is salvageable as an ordinary aluminum pot. It's also safe as one.
(FWIW, I've reduced balsamic vinegar in a Calphalon pan before I knew what I was doing and the surface didn't deteriorate at all)
Dover (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-19-09 12:39 AM
Response to Original message
4. I don't recall any specific incident, but knowing me this pot has been exposed to various kinds of abuse in the 12+ years I've owned it - acidic things and perhaps being left on the heat too long empty, or burning things in it. I don't know if these pots all eventually end up losing their coating or just the abused ones. But its happened and perhaps I'll give it one more try before dropping it at the thrift store.
I recently bought the Chantal stew pot at Tuesday Morning so probably won't be replacing the Magnalite (and most likely won't go through the hassle of returning it for a replacement).
I do wonder about the safety issue.
I AM going to return my Calphalon non-stick Everyday Pan, however.
kestrel91316 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-19-09 03:08 PM
Response to Original message
5. The only aluminum I allow in my kitchen is my pressure canner (not cooker).
I banned it 25 years ago.
surrealAmerican (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-19-09 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
6. I assume you mean "hard anodized" aluminum.
I researched this a few years ago: the pot is safe to use, but will lack the non-stick characteristics it had before it became "de-anodized".
NMDemDist2 (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-19-09 09:52 PM
Response to Original message
7. if it were mine, I'd drill a big hole in the bottom and plant azalias in it but that's just me
franksolich would drill a big hole in the bottom and then bury it in the ground, deep.
