Our Place Essentials cookware sets: five sets from $169.95, and the 17-piece is the one that adds up
Essentials is Our Place's conventional line — fry pans, saucepans, a sauté pan and a stock pot in pressed aluminium under the Thermakind ceramic coating — sold only as sets. Five on 20 October 2026: the Griddle Pan Set at $169.95, the Pan Trio at $249.95, the 11-piece Cookware Set at $349.95, the 17-piece Complete Cookware Set at $549.95 and the 21-piece Cookware + Bakeware Set at $649.95. A two-year warranty, glass lids rated 25°F below the pans, and no utensils in any box.
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Four colourways on every Essentials set on 20 October 2026 — Terracotta, Cream, Char and Blue Salt — at the same price in each. Images: Our Place.
What Essentials is
A conventional set, not an Always Pan. Fry pans, saucepans, a sauté pan and a stock pot, each with a tempered-glass lid, a strainer basket for the stock pot and recycled-plastic storage units. Our Place's pages never mention the Always Pan or the Perfect Pot; the FAQ calls Essentials “the classic cookware set” made “better for today's home cook” with an “ultra-organized, space-saving design”. What carries over is the coating, “Thermakind® ceramic nonstick coating”, made without PFAS, PTFE, PFOA, lead or cadmium by Our Place's list.
Pressed aluminium, not cast. Every Essentials pan and pot is specified as “Thermakind® ceramic nonstick coating and pressed aluminum body”; the ceramic Always Pan and Perfect Pot as “cast aluminum body”. The two Essentials griddle pans are cast. Our Place's FAQ sells pressed aluminium as lightweight, but with its glass lid on the 10-inch fry pan is 4.02 lb, a shade more than the 10.5-inch Always Pan's 3.9 lb with its lid. Bare, it is 2.7 lb.
Sold only as sets. Our Place's product sitemap listed 106 products on 20 October 2026 and no Essentials pan or pot on its own. Its product data carries a compare-at price for every set — $553 for the 11-piece, $830 for the 17-piece, $1,058 for the 21-piece — but the pages show no strikethrough, and there is no shelf price to check the figure against.
Two years, not three, and no utensils. “Backed by a 2-year limited warranty” is the FAQ wording on four of the five sets; the Griddle Pan Set page gives no term. The ceramic Always Pan and Perfect Pot carry three years, and the 13-piece ceramic Cookware Set at $359.95 lists five utensils where no Essentials set lists one. Terms are on Our Place warranty and returns.
The three cookware sets, counted
Read from each product page and its product data on 20 October 2026. Piece counts are Our Place's and include lids and storage units; the per-vessel figure is ours, the set price divided by its pans and pots.
The 11-piece Cookware Set, piece by piece
Our Place's figures, read from the product page on 20 October 2026. Eleven pieces: four vessels, four lids, the strainer basket and two storage units.
Which set adds up
The 17-piece beats the Trio plus the 11-piece. The pair costs $599.90 for seven vessels, one of them a second 10-inch fry pan. The Complete Cookware Set costs $549.95 for seven vessels, the seventh a 2 qt saucepan with its lid. It gives up two lids in the exchange: the 8-inch and 10-inch fry pans are listed bare in the 17-piece. The sauté pan and the stock pot share the 10-inch pan's 10.57-inch diameter, so their lids should fit it — our inference, not Our Place's statement.
The 21-piece is the 17-piece plus the Griddle Pan Set, for $69.95 less. The piece lists match item for item: the Complete set's seventeen, then the Griddle Pan, the Mini Griddle Pan and two silicone oven mats. $549.95 plus $169.95 is $719.90; the combined set is $649.95. Per cooking vessel it is the cheapest Essentials set at $72.22; the 11-piece is the dearest at $87.49.
The 11-piece against the 13-piece. $10 separates the Essentials Cookware Set from the ceramic Cookware Set at $359.95, and it buys a different kind of set: two Always Pans and two Perfect Pots with cast bodies, five utensils and three years of warranty, against four conventional vessels, a strainer, two storage boxes and two years.
The prices moved between our reads. Our Place's catalogue listed the five sets at $135, $175, $275, $329 and $499 on 16 October; on 20 October the pages and the product data both gave $169.95, $249.95, $349.95, $549.95 and $649.95, with no sale banner. Sale prices on this site show on the page and never in the data, so the 20 October figures are the list prices. Both reads are on Our Place prices.
425°F is the lid's limit, 450°F the pan's. The FAQ says the cookware “including aluminum lids” is oven safe to 450°F; the specification says the lids are tempered glass and stops at 425°F. Cook uncovered above 425°F. The strainer basket is “dishwasher safe” in the care section and “never put it in the dishwasher” in the FAQ. Hand wash it.
No warranty term on the Griddle Pan Set page, no oven rating for the two silicone mats, and no word on whether the Essentials Griddle Pan is the $119 Griddle Pan sold on its own. Our Place's figures differ — 4.4 lb against 4.52 lb for the large, 2.5 lb against 2.4 lb for the mini — so we treat them as different pans.
Against the Always Pan sets
Read from each product page on 20 October 2026. The titanium sets are a different line again: Titanium Pro Cookware Set review.
The Our Place sets, priced
Every set in our index with its price on the date we read it, the five Essentials sets included. The buy buttons go to Our Place.
The questions people actually ask
Is the Essentials Cookware Set the same as the Always Pan?
No. Essentials is a conventional set — fry pans, saucepans, a sauté pan, a stock pot — with a “pressed aluminum body” and a two-year warranty. The Always Pan is one deep pan with a “cast aluminum body” and three years. They share the Thermakind coating and the 450°F rating.
What is in the 11-piece Essentials Cookware Set?
A 10-inch fry pan, a 3 qt saucepan, a 4 qt sauté pan and a 7 qt stock pot, each with a tempered-glass lid; a strainer basket for the stock pot; two storage units. 4 + 4 + 1 + 2 = 11. No utensils. $349.95 in all four colourways on 20 October 2026.
Is Essentials oven safe and dishwasher safe?
“Oven safe up to 450°F (glass lids oven safe up to 425°F)” and “hand wash only to preserve the nonstick coating”; the FAQ adds “never put it in the dishwasher”. The handles and knobs are metal, and the page says to use oven mitts.
What is the warranty on Essentials?
“Backed by a 2-year limited warranty”, per the FAQ on four of the five sets; the Griddle Pan Set page gives no term. The ceramic Always Pan and Perfect Pot carry three years. Terms on Our Place warranty and returns.
Which Essentials set is the best value?
By the arithmetic, the 17-piece Complete Cookware Set: $549.95 for seven vessels, $49.95 less than the Pan Trio and the 11-piece together. If you want the griddles, the 21-piece saves $69.95 over the 17-piece plus the Griddle Pan Set. No Essentials piece is sold on its own on 20 October 2026, so a set is the only way in.
How were these figures verified?
Prices, colourways and images from Our Place's product data; everything else from the five Essentials pages, the ceramic Cookware Set and Cookware Set+ pages and the product sitemap, all read on 20 October 2026. The 16 October figures are from that day's catalogue listing. How we check these pages.
Our Place prices and specifications last verified 16–26 October 2026; competitor prices re-read 26–28 October 2026 (All-Clad 25 August).
How we check these pages