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Boognishhh
January 30, 2026
FINALLY A TRULY SMOOTH CAST IRON SKILLET!!!
It’s ACTUALLY SMOOTH!!!!! This pan doesn’t turn everything grey or make your food taste bad!!! Easy to season and clean. Definitely going to stay rust free. Great value for the money! Perfect size! This pan is lighter but very durable and going to last a lifetime !! I’m completely impressed by the quality of this pan!!! I have bought multiple cast iron skillets and I always have to return them because they are very rough , have a terrible taste, turn everything grey and don’t ever season well.
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Quality is top notch
As advertised this 12 inch skillet is lighter than traditional cast iron but still has enough heft to it to get the job done. Unlike current skillets with a very rough interior finish the CookLife has a polished smooth finish and the food does not stick. They claim to have it pre-seasoned but not quite to my liking, having said that it was very easy to finish the seasoning process. Love this skillet.
✔ Verified Purchase
Worth the investment
Love it Love it. This skillet is so smooth. I needed more iron in my food. My level of iron is so low I needed to find a way to get more iron in my food and this skillet is helping with that. I got this lighter weight cast iron skillet because I'm getting older and my regular cast iron skillet is so heavy for me to use on a daily. And clean-up... I add a little oil and wipe around inside the skillet while its still hot and toss the paper towel into the trash and its ready to be used. I cook my veggies first then dump in the scrambled eggs. They turn out great. I love the quality of my new skillet. I think of cast iron is an investment, so why not get the light weight since I'm going to own it the rest of my life.
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Coffee Guy
December 22, 2024
Warped pan right out of the box
The pan that I received had an area in the bottom of the pan where it had a noticeable low spot that was almost a perfect circle. I figured that I could live with that, but when I turned the heat on low, the pan warps and doesn’t sit flat on the stove. It may be just as smooth as a popular, more expensive pan, but if the bottom won’t stay flat, it isn’t going to work for me.UPDATE:I contacted Amazon and they arranged for a replacement to be sent out. When it arrived, I tested it, and the pan was flat and didn’t have the problems that were shown in the video. I ended up seasoning it a bit more before cooking with it and I am happy to report that it is still flat after multiple rounds of seasoning it.Cooklife Customer Service also reached out to me shortly after my review was posted and wanted to make things right. They were very professional, and based on my interactions with them, they seem to stand behind their products and ultimately want their customers to be satisfied. Based on my positive experience with them, I wouldn’t hesitate to try out other Cooklife products.For comparison, I also ended up purchasing another smooth cast iron pan from another company on Amazon that seasons their pans with Organic Flaxseed oil. It too wasn’t without faults. It had a small shiny spot that looked like it was a different kind of metal than cast iron. The spot also never took seasoning and never changed color. It remained shiny and almost looked like stainless steel. I wasn’t comfortable cooking in it, so I set up an exchange for that one too and the replacement was perfectly fine.The Cooklife is a really great pan. It’s much smoother than the other affordable smooth cast iron pans that I’ve tried, and it is a lot lighter than the other brands too, which is a huge bonus. In our house, it’s quickly becoming everyone’s favorite pan.
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Pros and Cons
January 25, 2025
Perhaps the best
I'm commenting on the 12 inch pan. As a chef, I've worked with lots of cast iron cookware, including classic U.S. and Danish pots and pans--made from the very best iron ore and vastly better than the Chinese or Lodge stuff. I thought it was impossible to get great cast iron anymore, but when I read the reviews of this Cooklife pan, I thought, "what the heck, let's see." It turns out that this is a wonderful skillet.I did my usual seasoning process (10 micro-thin coats of oil in a 500F oven, followed by lots of cooking). And I found that I could've easily skipped all that. The pan--as new--is almost good to go in slip-and-slide land. I'd suggest frying some throw-away eggs in lots of oil, a couple of times--once I did that, the skillet became a bit blotchy but also became quite non-stick. And being cast iron, I happily use my heavy duty steel spatulas. Plus this thing works fine with acidic foods like tomatoes. Pretty amazing.So those are the pros. On the downside, Cooklife's machining process leaves a nipple in the middle of the pan and thin concentric lines around the cooking surface. So the surface isn't smooth and the center nipple gets in the way. Cooklife, if you're reading this, please consider a final smoothing process, one that results in a completely smooth surface.Secondly, the solid handles prevent any kind of hanging--unlike most pro cookware. Again, Cooklife, you might want to re-design your handles...look at le creuset's dutch ovens (which have wonderful handles).I would also suggest a longer handle. This one is a bit stubby and hence gets very hot very fast. Victoria does a very nice job with their handles.Despite these difficulties, I think this is a great pan. It's relatively light, has excellent proportions (love it's height), can handle acidic foods (unlike most cast iron), is strong/tough, and is far better finished than Lodge, Victoria, or any other contemporary cast iron brand that I've tried. It's better than enameled cast iron (e.g., le creuset, staub)--it won't chip and is pretty much bullet-proof. I think it's fairly priced as well. Sure, you can get cast iron for much less but in terms of value-for-dollar, this pan is tops.
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Robin M.
December 10, 2025
Love this flat cast iron pan
Thus is my new favorite pan. I use it all the time. Love the little leather pan handle holder too - effective and looks great. Heats up incredibly quickly on my induction stovetop.
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Cindy Williams
July 20, 2025
Good but not like smooth old school cast iron
I'm sure it cooks fine, but I'll look on eBay for an old one that is smoothed down. The new ones have a texture that I'm not liking.
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