This is the question the titanium category is least comfortable with, and the one most worth asking before you spend $135. The short version: a coating-free pan has no chemical release layer, so “non-stick” means something different from what it means on a ceramic or PTFE pan — and how well it works depends more on you.
A PTFE or ceramic pan releases food chemically. The coating is a low-friction surface that food struggles to bond to. You can put a cold egg in a cold coated pan and it will still slide, because the chemistry is doing the work whether or not you know what you are doing.
A coating-free metal pan releases food physically. Heat the metal properly, add fat, and the surface plus a thin layer of hot oil stops the bond forming. This is how a well-used carbon steel or cast iron pan works, and it works genuinely well — but it requires the heat and the fat. Skip either and food sticks.
Our Place markets the Titanium Always Pan Pro's surface as non-stick. What it is not is a coated pan, and the honest translation of that is: it will not forgive a cold pan the way a ceramic pan does.
The trade is not one-sided, and the gains are the reason this category exists.
Nothing can wear off. Every coated pan is on a clock. Ceramic in particular loses its release faster than PTFE does — that is the accepted trade-off for the chemistry, and it is why most people replace ceramic pans sooner than they expected. A coating-free surface has no clock.
You can treat it like a pan. Our Place states the Titanium Pro is dishwasher safe, metal-utensil safe and safe with abrasive cleaning including steel wool. The ceramic Always Pan is hand-wash-only and forbids metal utensils.
Heat. 1000°F against 450°F, so searing and oven-finishing are on the table in a way they are not with ceramic.
A lifetime warranty instead of three years — which is the manufacturer telling you the same thing in commercial language.
An affiliate site is supposed to skip this section. It is the most useful one on the page.
Do not buy titanium if you want a pan that works cold and unattended. If your cooking is eggs into a cold pan while you do three other things, a ceramic or PTFE pan will make you happier, and you will replace it every couple of years. That is a completely reasonable trade to choose.
Do not buy it expecting zero learning curve. Anyone who has moved to carbon steel knows the first fortnight involves some sticking while you work out the heat. Same category of adjustment.
Do buy it if you preheat by habit, cook with fat, put pans in the dishwasher, or have simply got tired of replacing coated pans. Those four describe a lot of people, and for them it is the better purchase.
If you want food to release because the pan is slippery, titanium is the wrong purchase and the ceramic Always Pan at $135 is the better buy — it comes with a lid, a beechwood spatula and a steamer basket, against the titanium pan's pan-and-spatula box. The trade is real in both directions: ceramic is 450°F, hand wash only, no metal utensils, three-year warranty. Titanium gives up easy release to get 1000°F, the dishwasher, metal utensils and a limited lifetime warranty.
If you want release that comes from heat control instead of a coating, titanium rewards technique and punishes impatience, and no specification sheet can tell you whether you will enjoy that. The cheapest honest way to find out is the 8.5-inch at $85, which undercuts the $109 ceramic at the same size. The full comparison is here, and the specification guide is here.
We have not cooked in this pan, and this is exactly the question where that limit bites hardest. Nobody here can tell you how a fried egg behaves in a Titanium Always Pan Pro at week one or week fifty-two, and a page that claimed to would be inventing.
What is on this page instead is the mechanism — coated surfaces release chemically, bare metal releases through heat and fat — and the published specifications that follow from it. That is enough to tell you which kind of pan you are buying and what it will ask of you. For how it actually performs, owner reviews and long-term video tests are the right source, and be sceptical of any written review claiming a rigorous test with no photographs of it.
The sensible way to find out whether the surface suits how you cook, before spending $135 or more.
Check price at Our PlaceEasier release, hand wash only, three-year warranty. Same price as the entry titanium pan.
Check price at Our PlaceMaterials, temperature ratings, care instructions and warranty terms read from Our Place's product pages on 25 August 2026. The explanation of how coated and uncoated surfaces release food is general cooking science rather than a manufacturer claim, and is written as such.
1919 Cookware earns a commission on both links above, so we earn either way — which is precisely why this page tells you plainly who should not buy the more expensive surface. Full titanium range and pricing here.
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.