Norpro Tin Heat Diffuser

I thought I'd write this first, but didn't - thus the first sentence -- but the rest is the same --- if you have never gotten anything low enough on your stove -- like to cook at a 'steep' and not a 'simmer' you will need one of THESE --- the kind with the holes in them, not the kind that hold them higher, or the kind that use more energy by makeing you heat a slab of cast iron. You will need a pair of pliers -- and just for reading this far -- an amazing discovery -- you can use hemostats for taking fish bones out of flits -- clamp on, pull, rinse under running water, and feel for next bone -- and when the bone is inside the meat as it often is with cod or salmon - you will find a hemostat with it's locking mechanism is EXACTLY what you have needed other than that special pair of needle nosed or regular don't use me outside the kitchen pair of pliers! So -- see? Extra points for reading just one paragraph!

The rest is the same review as the other product -- since they are exactly the same -- and Aluminum? I don't own any, but would be afraid to leave it alone in the kitchen unattended like I would these. The person who said that it took TWENTY MINUTES TO BOIL WATER!!!!!!! is right -- only they misinterpreted the data, it only proves that her tool works! you WANT it to slow things down -- I think she had the wrong idea -- spread the heat, make things cook faster -- I suppose that would make sense -- but it works the opposite!

Look at my discussion of the Norpro which I also own. 1) of COURSE the handle burns!!!! would you rather have a wooden smell for a bit, or burnt plastic for longer? and metal would make you get welders gloves -- the IDEA is to put it under your pot and LEAVE it there -- so really, there's little use for the handle. These products with the holes in them will keep water, even in the space age layered metals of today's pots, at a 'steep', below a simmer --- at a 'steep' -- which is wonderful. Yes they will rust - and if you go camping yes you will need to put it in a plastic bag -- EVERY pan has a 'hot spot' -- weather it's your great grandmothers Lodge or Cascade or Fireside or what ever Castiron, or if it's a $400 Kuhn-Rikhon pressure cooker -- this will make that 'hot spot' go away -- it will allow you to cook tomato sauce ALL DAY without having to stand there to stir it every so often, so you can go out to the garden, visit your neighbors, go shopping - and come home and take your WOODEN spoon and stir the pot.

I've tried many ways over the past 50 years to keep the handle on, and none has worked -- so don't fight it -- I have a pair of vice grips set for this, and the vice grips cost about $2 as a counter special at an auto parts store and should cost you maybe $5 at a hard ware store -- you only need he small one -- and that's to do the final little fraction of an inch push this way or that.

I didn't believe it, but these ARE hard to find -- when I was looking for some for my girlfriend last Valentines day -- I was saved by the bell because the local cooking supply/hardware store called in the order with half an hour to spare so they would arrive on time.

So-- the spray they use to make them all shiney will burn off -- and smell -- so do it before you cook -- both sides and get it hot -- the wooden handle will sooner or later burn off -- get used to it. It will turn black and rust -- but it's not IN your food, so it's like ditry dishes in your sink -- they don't change the color of your shirts in the laundry. and vice grips of pliers will help you make the final fractional inch adjustment that's not necessary except in your mind!

But when you think of all the vitamins, amino acids, poly-and phyto saccharides from your plants that are destroyed by boiling -- you can cook AND slowly leach out the chemicals into the water -- This and the other one with the holes on top are amazing --

Someone complained because these did their job - the paraphrase was "I put some water on to boil and it took 20 minutes rather than the regular X minutes -- it's so cheap, I'm just going to throw it in the back of my cupboard and forget about it.

so -- if you can stand the smell of metal preservative, and a wooden handle smoking (and eventually falling off) -- these are the most energy efficient items around your kitchen -- they put the hot stuff exactly where it belongs on the bottom of the pan, and don't soak up a lot of heat themselves, they allow it to pass through and do it's job.

So -- I'd suggest this over ANY other -- there was one that was star shaped and was really nothing more than a pot raiser -- put one open grate on top of another -- but the problem remains -- that 'hot spot' that every pan seems to have -- and you have taken for granted for so long you forget that it's there.

You can even use cheap one layer thick aluminum-- you an use a coffee can -- and cook in it without boiling the water over -- and if you do? turn up the flame, burn it clean -- let it cool, stack it with the others on the back burner so you can get to it -- and you are done cleaning -- LOOK MA! NO WATER!

I've used the cast iron ones -- and they are worth not much -- FIRST you heat the cast iron, THEN you heat the pot, and if too hot, you turn down the flame, but the cast iron is still hot and it keeps getting hotter until a bit AFTER you have turned it down -- it's like talking to Mars -- you can do it, but what you do NOW no one will know for 20 minutes.

With these - what you do now, happens now -- so you really CAN 'steep' with no problem and not worry about 'simmer' at all!

so -- these kinds will always be at home in my kitchen -- just like they were in grandmas and my great grandmothers -- my mothers, and mine -- burned beans? only when I gave most of mine away-- burned tomato sauce -- only when I gave them away -- otherwise -- set and forget as they say on late night TV - I sure would like to see this in stainless steel!

I grew up with diffusers the same style as these Norpro ones. We had very old gas ranges that produced much higher BTU's than most modern ranges do. In the 80's I bought the first new range I ever had--a pilotless GE. I had often wished I could find diffusers because I like to cook a lot of things very slowly. (Eventually a client of mine was actually marketing a housewares line that included diffusers with the pan area identical to these from Norpro, but that had a stiff folding wire handle--which I very much like for space-saving storage and because I did not have to worry about scorching the wooden handle.) I purchased these Norpro diffusers through Amazon for my sister-in-law who was totally unfamiliar with any diffusers other than a thick aluminum disc. The disc was handleless and heavy, and therefore not easy to move around if it was hot. My husband was visiting her and told her about my diffusers. She uses Visions® glass cookware and had trouble setting her burners low enough that flames did not touch the glass. I searched for diffusers with the folding wire handles and found none. My sister-in-law was very happy with these, and, had I not already seen/had ones with folding handles I would probably also have been happy with them. However I personally am very, very partial to the folding handle model. When we moved to our farm it was the first time I had ever used propane and the range at the house was very, very, very "cold"--it could take the better part of an hour to bring a large home pressure canner up to pressure. Eventually we figured out that the orifice had not been changed from natural gas to propane when that stove was originally installed (DUH!). That stove was also made with very thin steel and deformed significantly from the weight of a full pressure canner. I purchased my second new range in 2001--also a GE, and the "home kitchen" model with the highest BTU's on the market, and which is also very heavily built. I now have a really, really, really HOT range, and even the smallest burner turned as low as possible is often too hot for my style of cooking. It is very, very, very rare for me to cook without a diffuser--and often if I'm using all 4 burners I am also using 4 diffusers. I would very, very highly recommend that anyone with open flame gas burners get diffusers. I do have "non-stick" sauté pans, but all of my other cookware is Revere Stainless with heavy aluminum cooking plates on the pan bottoms. Without the use of diffusers I am certain that I would be endlessly trying to get burned-on food out of pans. I don't care how attentive a cook you are; it is often impossible to get a low enough flame to cook food without scorching it into the bottom of pans. Sometimes I even use 2 diffusers at the same time on one burner. I do have 3 double-boilers (various sizes) that I purchased when I was unable to find diffusers. Using DB's really slows down the cooking process. Using a diffuser instead of a double-boiler is much, much faster and has only a very slight possibility of scorching food (whereas it is impossible to scorch food with a double-boiler). In the summer-time I utilize electric pans as much as possible. BUT in the winter I use diffusers, welcoming the extra burner heat that keeps the furnace from cycling as often. IF THESE HAD FOLDING HANDLES I WOULD RATE THEM AS 5 STARS. I am rating them lower only because of the wooden handles. NOTE: these are plated tin, and in a very short time they will probably be completely rust coated. I never wash a diffuser unless I actually spill food on one--I just ignore their appearance--just as I do the appearance of my stove burner grates--which also rust on the surface when I am pushing/pulling pans over the original baked-on enamel finish. Once they are rusted they don't seem to further deteriorate--my mother's was an antique by the time I inherited it, and even the ones I bought in the 80's with the folding handles are not deteriorated or worn thin after the initial lost of the plating.