The word “titanium” on a pan almost never means the pan is titanium. In most of this category it means titanium particles were added to a non-stick coating to make it harder-wearing — and the coating underneath is usually PTFE.
That is not us inferring. One of the biggest names in premium “titanium” non-stick states it outright on its own support pages, and we have quoted it below.
Scanpan states its STRATANIUM coating contains PTFE and Le Creuset states its Toughened Non-stick PRO coating contains PFAS, while the Titanium Always Pan Pro puts a coating-free titanium cooking surface on 3mm tri-ply construction with no chemical release layer at all.
Scanpan's STRATANIUM is probably the best-known titanium-branded non-stick surface in the premium market. Scanpan's own customer help pages state:
“Yes — our non-stick coatings do contain PTFE (Teflon).”
“Scanpan's non-stick products contain PTFE which is included in the large group of PFAS substances.”
That is unusually straight, and Scanpan deserves credit for it rather than criticism — it is the same transparency Le Creuset shows on its non-stick line. The company also states its pans are made without PFOA or PFOS, and that the PTFE is bound in the hardened coating.
But if you came to this category to avoid PTFE, that is the sentence that matters, and you would not learn it from the word on the box. Scanpan does also sell a separate ceramic line, which it states contains no PTFE or other PFAS. Read which line you are buying.
Coating-free titanium. The cooking surface is titanium, bonded into the pan. Nothing sprayed on. Our Place's Titanium Always Pan Pro is the mainstream example.
Titanium-reinforced non-stick. A PTFE coating with titanium particles for hardness. Scanpan's STRATANIUM is the premium example; the mass market is full of cheaper ones. Still a PTFE pan.
“Titanium-infused” ceramic. A sol-gel ceramic coating with titanium in the formulation. Not PTFE, but still a coating, and it wears the way ceramic wears.
Quotations read verbatim from each brand's own website: fromourplace.com, scanpan help pages and hexclad.com, 25–27 August 2026. Our Place prices re-read 16 October 2026.
If you want coating-free titanium: Our Place's Titanium Always Pan Pro is the mainstream option we have verified. $155 for the 8.5″, $179 for the 10.5″, $199 for the 12.5″ in Chrome or Brushed ($20 more in Gold), all with a limited lifetime warranty — prices read 16 October 2026, after a repricing that lifted the 8.5″ from $85. The trade is that release depends on heat and fat rather than chemistry — worked through here.
If what you actually want is published testing: HexClad. It is a hybrid rather than titanium, but it is the only brand in this comparison putting third-party lab results on the record, and that is a stronger form of evidence than any claim.
If you want Scanpan's build quality and do not mind PTFE: buy it knowingly. Scanpan tells you what is in it, which is more than most. If you do mind, its separate ceramic line is the one to look at.
If you want to remove the question entirely: stainless steel, cast iron or carbon steel. No coating, no claim to evaluate, no premium for the word titanium. They ask more of your technique — but so does coating-free titanium, at a higher price.
You do not need us for this. Read the care instructions.
A pan that permits metal utensils, the dishwasher and abrasive cleaning has nothing on its surface to protect. A pan that says “wooden or silicone utensils only” has a coating, whatever the marketing calls it.
Steel wool is the clearest single signal in the category. No manufacturer permits steel wool on a coated pan, because it would destroy it. When a brand tells you to scrub with steel wool, it is telling you there is nothing there to scrub off.
Scanpan comes out of this well. It states on its own help pages that its non-stick coatings contain PTFE, and that PTFE belongs to the PFAS group — a brand that publishes the thing buyers are nervous about is being straight with you, and that is worth more than a vague claim. If a titanium-reinforced coating is what suits your cooking, buy it knowing exactly what it is, which is precisely what Scanpan lets you do.
What Scanpan does not offer is a pan with no coating at all, and that is the only place Our Place's NoCo titanium wins the comparison — not on being safer, but on there being no coating to disclose, wear through or replace. That is why the steel-wool test sorts the category faster than any marketing copy. Specifications for each size are linked below.
This page compares what each brand publishes about its own surface, quoting the manufacturers directly, and tells you how to apply the same test yourself.
The titanium-branded category is large and much of it is mass-market cookware. Absence from this page means we have not verified a brand, not that it is bad. If a brand you are considering is missing, apply the care-instruction test to it.
1919 Cookware earns a commission on the Our Place and HexClad links and nothing on Scanpan, stainless steel, cast iron or carbon steel — four of which this page recommends to somebody. Manufacturers revise safety copy frequently; every quotation here was read on the dates given and is worth re-checking before you buy.
1919 Cookware is an independent guide to Our Place cookware, written to help you work out what to buy. We earn a commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you, and it does not decide our verdicts — where a rival or a cheaper model is the better buy, we say so. Prices and specifications are read from each manufacturer's own published product data rather than from long-term kitchen testing, and the page below explains what that does and does not settle. We do not accept press samples and no brand reviews our pages before publication. Our Place prices and specifications last verified 16 October 2026; competitor prices 25 August 2026.
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