What's "the best" in springform pans?

[Jenise]

It seems that every couple years, I have to buy new springform pans. Either they're aluminum and the nicks rust because I prefer living by salt water, or the clasps don't hold up or the bottom plate gets misshapen or, well, something always happens.

Somewhere on this planet there is probably the perfect springform pan, the Cadillac that sets the standard, or the Dyson that says F* business as usual, but I don't know what it is.

Anyone?

I think we we've tried every kind mankind has produced including (shudder) tin. The best are stainless steel.

The best we have are made by Kaiser. Pretty good quality stainless with what appears to be a teflon-type coating. They get a fair amount of use and hold up well.

Those filled with cheesecake.

Carole bought the Frieling's Handle-It Glass Bottom Springform Pan after reading Cook's review. She loves them:

"But three years of intensive use in the test kitchen have taken their toll on the Kaiser pans, many of which suffered extensive peeling of the nonstick coating, especially on the pan bottom. As we wore down the Kaiser fleet, we started dusting off our little-used Frieling pans. To our surprise, we developed a preference for them. The glass bottom came in handy while developing our recipe for Vegetable Torta. How else could we monitor the browning of the crust, which can make or break the dish? And it turns out the tempered-glass bottom is anything but fragile--a conclusion we came to after it survived several falls onto the test kitchen floor. We also like the fact that the Frieling has handles, which are helpful when removing the pan from a water bath or oven. So it's time we revised our original recommendation and gave the glass-bottomed, two-handled Frieling the top berth."

I ordered them from Amazon for $30 each.

"But three years of intensive use in the test kitchen have taken their toll on the Kaiser pans, many of which suffered extensive peeling of the nonstick coating, especially on the pan bottom…"

This has not been my experience, but I probably give mine less use. Plus, I also use a number of spring forms that are close to a hundred years old. I have always lined mine with parchment paper—my mother used to use wax paper—even the nonstick ones.