Is All-Clad Safe? Two Companies in One Brand, Scored
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Short answer: it depends entirely on which All-Clad. The bonded stainless steel lines the brand is famous for — D3, D5, Copper Core, G5, D7 — put bare 18/10 stainless against your food and score a 5, the top of our scale. The nonstick lines that carry the same logo — HA1, HA1 Expert, Essentials, NS Pro, and every set with “Nonstick” in the name — are PTFE, which is a PFAS coating, and score a 2. All-Clad says so itself, on a chemical disclosure page it’s required to publish, and it lists the states where those pans can no longer be sold. So the question isn’t whether All-Clad is safe. It’s whether the pan in your hand is the stainless one or the coated one, and the box doesn’t make that as obvious as it should.
This is a materials review built from All-Clad’s own disclosures, the 2022 class-action settlement documents, and the construction of each line. We don’t lab-test anything and we don’t get pans from brands.
The two All-Clads
Bonded stainless — Score 5. This is the company John Ulam started in Pennsylvania in 1971, and the pans are still bonded in Canonsburg. A D3 pan is three layers pressed into one sheet: 18/10 stainless steel on the inside where food goes, aluminum in the middle to spread heat, and a magnetic stainless outside so it works on induction. D5 adds two more layers with a stainless core, which heats slower and more evenly. Copper Core swaps the middle for a copper band, which is why there’s a copper stripe around the outside. G5, the newest, uses a graphite core. D7 is the seven-ply outdoor and braising line. In every one of these, the only thing your food touches is bare stainless. That’s the material we score a 5 for every brand, and All-Clad’s version is as good as it gets: heavy, flat, and made to be handed down.
Nonstick — Score 2. HA1 and Essentials are hard-anodized aluminum pans with a PTFE coating, made in China. NS Pro and NS1 are the newer nonstick lines. And there are nonstick versions of the bonded pans — D3 Nonstick, D5 Nonstick, Copper Core Nonstick — that take a stainless pan and spray PTFE on the inside, which turns a 5 into a 2. PTFE is the material most people call Teflon. It’s a PFAS, it’s a coating with a shelf life, and when it’s scratched or overheated it’s the same story as every other PTFE pan. All-Clad’s nonstick is a well-made version of a material we don’t recommend.
Ceramic nonstick — Score 3. The newest lines, HA1 Ceramic and NS Pro Ceramic, replace the PTFE with a silica sol-gel coating, the same class as GreenPan and Caraway. No PFAS, per the disclosure. Still a coating on aluminum with an expiration date, still a 3.
Enameled cast iron — Score 4. All-Clad sells Dutch ovens now, and they’re the same material class as Le Creuset: glass fused to iron. All-Clad’s disclosure lists diboron trioxide, a glass-forming ingredient in the enamel, which is why we’d read the fine print, but an intact enamel surface is a surface we’re comfortable with.
For reference, our scale: 5 is a single inert material (stainless, cast iron, carbon steel, glass); 4 is a coating we’re fine with on a metal we’re fine with; 3 is a coating with a shelf life or a transparency gap; 2 is PTFE or aluminum in contact with food, or plastic that’s heated; 1 is a hard no.
What All-Clad’s own disclosure says
California’s AB 1200 and Colorado’s HB 22-1345 require cookware makers to list intentionally added chemicals of concern, and All-Clad’s page is unusually plain about it. Its PTFE-coated products, it says, “contain PFAS chemicals (polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), perfluoroalkoxy alkane (PFA), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP)).” The same page lists the lines: NS1, NS Pro, HA1, HA1 Expert, HA1 Curated, Essentials, Copper Core Nonstick, D3 Stainless Nonstick, D3 Everyday Nonstick, D5 Stainless Nonstick.
Then comes the part we’d put on the box. Under Minnesota’s PFAS law, none of those products could be sold in Minnesota from the start of 2025, and All-Clad says the same list can’t be sold in Maine or Colorado from the start of 2026. When a manufacturer publishes a table of its own pans that three states won’t allow, you don’t need us to score them.
The bonded stainless lines get a disclosure too — stainless steel contains chromium and nickel, and the pans have an aluminum core — and that’s the honest boilerplate every stainless pan on earth would carry. The aluminum is sealed inside the layers and never touches food. The nickel is in the alloy, not migrating in any amount that matters for most people; if you have a nickel allergy, our stainless guide covers the nickel-free options, and All-Clad doesn’t make one.
“PFOA-free,” and why it’s true and beside the point
Every All-Clad nonstick listing says PFOA-free. It’s true. PFOA was the processing chemical used to make PTFE, the industry stopped using it by 2015, and no reputable pan sold today contains it. What the pans do contain is PTFE, and PTFE is itself a PFAS — a fluoropolymer, made with newer fluorinated processing aids whose safety record is shorter than PFOA’s. “PFOA-free” answers a question from 2010. The question now is whether there’s a fluoropolymer on the pan, and for HA1 the answer is yes.
The lawsuit
In 2022 All-Clad agreed to a four-million-dollar settlement in a class action over its “dishwasher safe” claim for D3, D5, and the discontinued LTD line. The complaint said the dishwasher could leave the rims of the pans with sharp edges. All-Clad denied wrongdoing; buyers from 2015 through July 2022 could send in damaged pans for new ones or take a discount; the claim window closed in early 2023.
This was a durability case, not a chemistry case, and it points at the one weak spot in a bonded pan: the rim, where the layers are exposed. Aluminum in the middle of the sandwich doesn’t like dishwasher detergent, and years of cycles can erode it. Nothing leaches into your dinner from a rim. But the lesson is worth the price of a sponge: hand-wash bonded stainless, and it will outlast you.
Made where
The bonded stainless — D3, D3 Everyday, D5, Copper Core, G5 — is bonded, formed, and assembled in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania; the lids and handles come from China and are fitted in the US. HA1, Essentials, and the other nonstick lines are made in China. That matters less for safety than the coating does, but it’s the reason a D3 pan costs what it does and the reason it’s still the same pan it was thirty years ago.
So which All-Clad is safe?
D3, D3 Everyday, D5, Copper Core, G5, D7. A 5. Bare stainless cooking surface, nothing coated, nothing to wear out. Buy whichever you like; the differences are weight and heat response, not safety. D3 is the one to start with.
Anything with “Nonstick” in the name, HA1, Essentials, NS Pro, NS1. A 2. PTFE on aluminum, or PTFE sprayed onto a stainless pan. If you own one, cook eggs in it at medium heat, never heat it empty, and replace it when it scratches — the way you would any nonstick pan.
HA1 Ceramic and NS Pro Ceramic. A 3. Better than PTFE, still a consumable.
All-Clad enameled cast iron. A 4, with the same “keep the interior intact” rule as any enameled pot.
The stainless bakeware. A 5, and the rare sheet pan that is one. The Pro-Release nonstick bakeware lists no PFAS on the disclosure, but the company doesn’t say what the coating is, so we’d buy the plain stainless line instead.
What we’d buy
All-Clad D3 Stainless 10″ Fry Pan — Score 5
Why it’s here: The pan that made the brand: 18/10 stainless inside, aluminum core, magnetic stainless outside, riveted stainless handle, bonded in Pennsylvania. Sears, deglazes, goes in the oven, and does it for decades. The 10-inch is the size most kitchens use daily; the 12-inch is the one for a family.
All-Clad D3 Stainless 4-Quart Saucepan with Lid — Score 5
Why it’s here: The saucepan you reach for most: rice, grains, sauces, reheating soup. Bare stainless, stainless lid, no plastic anywhere. If you buy one saucepan from the brand, buy this size.
All-Clad D5 Brushed Stainless 10″ Fry Pan — Score 5
Why it’s here: Five layers with a stainless core: slower to heat than D3, harder to scorch, and the brushed finish hides the scratches that polished stainless shows. Same 18/10 cooking surface, same score. The choice between D3 and D5 is about how you cook, not what you’re exposed to.
All-Clad Copper Core 12″ Fry Pan — Score 5
Why it’s here: The copper band in the middle gives it the fastest response of the bonded lines, and the copper stays sealed between stainless layers where it never touches food. The most expensive All-Clad that’s a 5, and the one for people who cook on gas and care about control.
All-Clad D3 Stainless 10-Piece Cookware Set — Score 5
Why it’s here: If you’re replacing a whole kitchen of nonstick at once, this is the set: fry pans, saucepans, sauté pan, stockpot, all bonded stainless, all 5s. Skip the “mixed materials” sets that sneak a nonstick pan into the box; this one doesn’t.
Tramontina Tri-Ply Clad 12″ Fry Pan — Score 5
Why it’s here: The honest budget alternative. Same construction idea — 18/10 stainless over an aluminum core — for a fraction of the D3’s price, and a 5 for the same reason. The All-Clad is heavier and flatter and better made; the Tramontina cooks the same dinner.
Skip: any All-Clad with “Nonstick” in the name; HA1, HA1 Expert, HA1 Curated, Essentials, NS Pro, NS1; the “mixed materials” sets that bundle a nonstick fry pan with stainless pots; and the dishwasher for any bonded pan.
If you already own All-Clad
Look at the inside of the pan. Silver metal, maybe a little discolored from heat: that’s stainless, a 5, and you own one of the best pans made. Keep it, hand-wash it, and if it’s stained, a paste of Bar Keepers Friend brings it back. Dark grey or black and slick: that’s a coating. If it’s HA1 or another PTFE line, it’s a 2 — fine at medium heat until it scratches, and then it’s done. Replace it with the stainless version of the same size, and put the old one out of the rotation rather than in the back of the cupboard.
What would change our mind
Nothing needs to for the stainless. For the nonstick, All-Clad moving its whole coated range to something other than PTFE — the ceramic lines are the start of that — would lift those pans to a 3. A coated pan that lasts as long as the stainless one would be a 4, and nobody has made that yet.
Frequently asked
Is All-Clad PFAS-free?
The bonded stainless lines (D3, D5, Copper Core, G5, D7) are. The nonstick lines are not: All-Clad’s own disclosure says its PTFE products contain PTFE, PFA, and FEP, all PFAS.
Is All-Clad PFOA-free?
Yes, like every nonstick pan sold today. PFOA was phased out by 2015. The coating itself is still PTFE, which is a PFAS.
Is All-Clad D3 safe?
Yes: bare 18/10 stainless on the cooking surface, aluminum sealed in the core, nothing coated. A 5 on our scale.
Is D5 safer than D3?
No. Same cooking surface, same score. D5 heats more evenly and forgives a hot burner; D3 is lighter and responds faster. Choose on cooking, not safety.
Is All-Clad HA1 safe?
It’s a PTFE pan, a 2. Used at medium heat and replaced when scratched, it’s the same risk as any Teflon pan. Three states now prohibit its sale under PFAS laws, and All-Clad lists them.
Is All-Clad made in the USA?
The bonded stainless lines are bonded and assembled in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, with lids and handles from China. The nonstick lines are made in China.
What was the All-Clad lawsuit about?
A “dishwasher safe” claim on D3, D5, and LTD pans that the complaint said could leave sharp rims after dishwashing. All-Clad settled for four million dollars in 2022 without admitting fault. It was about durability, not chemicals; hand-wash and it’s moot.
Does All-Clad stainless leach nickel?
Trace amounts, like all 18/10 stainless, mostly in the first uses with acidic food, and not at levels that matter for most people. Nickel-allergic cooks should look at nickel-free 18/0 pans, which All-Clad doesn’t make.
The bottom line
All-Clad is the best argument for reading the line name instead of the logo. The bonded stainless pans are a 5, made in Pennsylvania, and worth every dollar over their lifetime. The nonstick pans are PTFE, a 2 by the company’s own disclosure, and three states have already stopped selling them. Buy a D3, hand-wash it, and you’re done with the frying-pan question for good.
Scores last reviewed September 2026. How we score.
