One goes in the dishwasher, takes metal utensils, survives 900°F and is warranted for life. The other forbids the dishwasher and warrants one year. This is not a close comparison on paper.
Dishwasher safe, metal-utensil safe, 900°F, lifetime warranty, and third-party lab results published on PFAS. A bigger pan for less money.
Eight colourways, a flat exclusion list naming every chemical, and a one-year warranty with the dishwasher expressly forbidden.
Buy HexClad if you want a pan you do not have to think about. Dishwasher, metal spatula, hot oven, lifetime warranty — it is the more forgiving object by a wide margin, and right now it is a bigger pan for eighteen dollars more.
Buy Caraway if the pan is part of the kitchen's look, if you want the broadest written exclusion list, or if you genuinely will hand wash and use wooden utensils. Plenty of people do, and for them Caraway's one-year warranty never becomes relevant.
What you should not do is buy Caraway expecting HexClad's tolerances. The care instructions are not suggestions.
No. Caraway states directly that the dishwasher will damage the ceramic coating. HexClad is dishwasher safe, though its FAQ notes repeated cycles may dull the finish.
Both publish PFAS-free claims. Caraway's is broader in writing — PTFE, PFOA, PFAS, lead and cadmium named. HexClad's is narrower but backed by published third-party lab results reporting non-detect. Neither has a safety advantage in any evidenced sense.
No independent long-term test of both exists. What is documented is that HexClad warrants for life and permits dishwasher and metal utensils, while Caraway warrants one year and permits neither.
Yes, per HexClad's FAQ, which describes a magnetic stainless base. The 12in product page itself does not state cooktop compatibility. Caraway states it on the product page.
If HexClad's tolerances are what appeal but you want Caraway's exclusion list too: dishwasher safe, metal-utensil safe, 1000°F, lifetime warranty, and PFAS, PTFE, PFOA, lead and cadmium all named as excluded.
$169 as most commonly configured. Price checked 25 August 2026.
Both are legitimate buys for different cooks. Caraway for looks and the broadest written claim; HexClad for tolerance and published lab data.
See HexCladSee CarawayPrices checked 25 August 2026 and change without notice.
We earn a commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. Neither Caraway nor HexClad is the brand this site covers most closely, and both are recommended above on their own merits where the specifications support it.
This is a comparison of published specifications, not a hands-on test. Product photography belongs to Caraway and HexClad respectively. Figures verified 25 August 2026 against each store's own product data.
1919 Cookware is an independent comparison site. We earn a commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you, and it does not decide our verdicts — we name a competitor as the better buy on more than half of these pages. Every comparison is built from published manufacturer specifications, verified against each store's own product data where such data exists, and each page states plainly what it could not establish. We do not accept press samples and no brand reviews our pages before publication. Figures last verified 25 August 2026.
These two brands sell to the same person and answer completely different questions. Caraway asks what your kitchen should look like. HexClad asks how long you intend to keep the pan. Put the spec sheets side by side and the answer to the second question is not ambiguous.
Sources: carawayhome.com and hexclad.com product pages, Caraway's warranty page and HexClad's FAQ, all retrieved 25 August 2026. Both prices were confirmed against each store's own structured product data; Caraway's storefront is headless, so its data lives on a separate subdomain. HexClad's $143 is promotional against a $179 list. These are different sizes, so diameter and capacity are not like-for-like.
Caraway warrants this pan for one year. HexClad warrants its pan for life against manufacturer defects. Warranties are the one place a cookware company has to put money behind its durability claims, and these two have made very different bets.
The care instructions say the same thing more quietly. Caraway states plainly that the dishwasher will damage the ceramic coating. HexClad calls its pan dishwasher-safe and notes only that repeated cycles may dull the finish. That is a pan built to be treated carefully against a pan built to be treated normally.
The exclusion list. Caraway names PTFE, PFOA, PFAS, lead and cadmium in a single flat sentence. HexClad says PFAS-free and free from PTFE, and backs it with third-party lab results reporting non-detect — which is arguably stronger evidence, but a narrower written claim. Caraway gives you the broader promise; HexClad gives you the data.
Caraway also publishes capacity where HexClad does not, states induction on the product page rather than burying it in an FAQ, and offers eight colourways against HexClad's single black. If your pan lives on the hob rather than in a cupboard, that is not a trivial consideration.
And Caraway is cheaper at list — though HexClad's current promotional price closes that, and HexClad's is the larger pan.
The laser-etched steel lattice is HexClad's entire proposition: steel ridges take the abrasion so the ceramic between them survives. It is a plausible mechanism and it is why the pan can be sold as metal-utensil safe. Whether it delivers a materially longer service life than a well-kept conventional ceramic pan has not been established by any independent long-term test we could find. The lifetime warranty suggests HexClad is confident. It does not prove the mechanism.