Product Description

Simply Calphalon Stainless Multipot

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4739 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Brand: Calphalon
• Model: VMP8P
• Dimensions: 11.25" h x 10.63" w x 13.63" l, 8.50 pounds

Features

• Set Contents: Simply Stainless 8 quart Stock Pot, Stainless Pasta Insert, Stainless Steamer Insert and Glass Lid
• Stainless Steel
• Impacted bonded heavy bottom for even heating
• Dishwasher safe
• 10-year warranty against defects

Amazon.com Review
Ideal for myriad cooking options, this four-piece set is sturdily made of 18/10 stainless steel. Key to the set's versatility is an 8-quart pot with an aluminum disk in its bottom to conduct heat quickly and uniformly. With or without its tempered-glass lid, the pot can be used for simmering soup or stock and for cooking beef stew or pasta sauce. Two steamer inserts come along, a shallow one for steaming vegetables, fish fillets, or pieces of poultry and a deep one for cooking pasta or steaming lots of vegetables. The entire set is dishwasher-safe, and the aluminum disk in the pot's bottom is fully enclosed in stainless steel for a uniform look and easy cleanup. The inserts are highly polished, while the pot has a contemporary brushed-steel exterior with a mirror-finish band under the rim. The set carries a 10-year warranty against defects. --Fred Brack

Customer Reviews

pot ok - concept not
I bought this set to replace another pot of similar size. I figured that this would be a great deal - it's got inserts and it's from Calphalon at a great price too. The tempered glass cover fits well and is helpful because you can see inside without removing the cover although it spits when the pot is at a full and rapid boil. It's a stainless steel piece so it's not dark when you look inside like many other Calphalon pieces. The aluminum bottom is not the same as on their commercial or professional lines. It's a heavy-duty aluminum bottom attached to a stainless steel pot. Even though the pot along with the bottom is thicker and heavier than most other lines that do the same, it did not heat up like other Calphalon pieces that I own. Still, I cooked a stew at a slow simmer for six hours and it didn't burn at the bottom. A good thing.

This is the first time that I have inserts like these and I don't think much of the big insert. To cook pasta or food, you need to add an additional 2 quarts of water (the amount needed to touch the bottom of the insert) making it more time consuming to use. I will cook my pasta without the insert and may use the insert as a colander/drainer. The small insert is useful because you can steam items while boiling pasta or other items

All in all, a good pot not a great one at a great price.

Good pots BUT ...
After about a month's use, we had a major disaster with this pot. After the contents reached boiling, we turned the flame down, as the recipe said. The glass lid fit so tightly that it formed a partial vacuum, and as the pressure inside dropped, suddenly the lid shattered into zillions of tiny pieces. It totally ruined the food, of course, as well as destroying the lid.

We did find a lid from another pot that we had that fit, so we use that. Otherwise it's a pretty good pot. We use the small basket a lot for steaming. The larger basket, as others have suggested, isn't very good for making pasta, but it works to just use the pot, and use the large basket as a strainer.

After a few years, the pots still look quite good.

But I'd suggest that you file a few grooves in the edge of the lid, to prevent an airtight seal. If you don't, you may end up with a shattered lid as we did.

Beautiful ...BUT
...pasta insert only reaches down about 60% into the pot so you have to put about 4 quarts of water in before it even touches the insert...which means to do any kind of volume you are practically filling pot to brim which is both time consuming (to boil)and heavy to deal with once ready (to move/drain). Similarly, because of this design tragedy, you can't really cook much more pasta than what could have been accommodated in a properly designed 6 quart pot/insert, so you don't even get to benfit from the size....all around shame ! (Just a pretty stock pot now)

...and I haven't even used the lid yet to experience all these other horrors I am reading about.

Calphalon should have recalled/replaced or Amazon should have accepted a little more responsibility for peddling it once issues were brought to light.

JMHO...