solid pan
I've had this sauce pan for 8 months now. I was waiting to write a review until I'd been able to use it a good bit. First some background as to what others I have used.0) lost track of what all I used growing up and as a college student.1) used to use a revereware steel set with heat plate on the bottom. It was ok. Got rid of that due to someone in the house winning a nicer set of cookware.2) calphalon hard anodized set. This was a nice pan. Even heat. Got rid of that due to getting rid of the person in the house who had won it.3) some walmart cheap ($10) stainless steel thing with a glass lid that had very thin sides and resulting poor heat conduction up the sides. Also the handle got really hotI finally got totally fed up with the walmart pan and bought this all clad stainless steel pan. The difference in quality and performance is quite substantial. Of everything I've used, this pan performs the best. The handle stays comfortable to the touch. Heat is quite even and easy to control. I have a gas range and the combination is really quite nice. I've used this for simple things like hot chocolate and find it quite easy to not scorch stuff (not true on some of the others I've used in the past). Same thing for simmering smaller quantities of sauces (home made pizza sauce for example). Besides performing like a champ in terms of heat control and even heat, the pan is solidly built. I have every expectation that one day my kids or grandkids will be flipping a coin to see who gets Dad's/Grandpa's sauce pan. I used to look at prices on All-Clad and think it was pretty darn expensive and not for me. It still isn't cheap, but it is so nice to use something that works really well and also something that I know will last a lifetime. I plan on replacing some of my other cookware with items from this line in the future.-------------------------update; It has now been 5 years and we still love this pan. My only complaint, and with this item you have to search for anything at all to complain about, is that the edge is straight all the way up and so I spill stuff sometimes when pouring into something else. As a note, the D5 all-clad series has a slightly rounded upper edge that solves that too. Even with this minor complaint we still love it and wouldn't even dock it 1/2 star. I'd guess it gets used on average 2x per week so we've probably used it ~500 times now. Looks like new, performs like a champ. Even, controlled heat. No hot spots or cold spots. Our use has been almost exclusively stove-top so I can't comment on the oven use.