The Best Frying Pans in Australia (2026 Stovetop Guide)

A frying pan is the hardest working thing in a new kitchen. Eggs on the first morning in the new place, a quick stir fry once the moving boxes are gone, a proper steak when the budget allows it. Get the pan right and you will barely think about it for a decade. Get it wrong and you will be scrubbing burnt patches off a warped bargain-bin disc every second night, then buying its replacement by Christmas.

The frustrating part is that searching for a frying pan in Australia mostly surfaces retailer category pages and American lists full of pans you cannot actually buy here. So we did the homework locally. We pulled the live Amazon Australia listings for the major stovetop frypan brands sold here, Scanpan, Tefal, Pyrolux, Sensarte and the premium imports, verified every price and star rating in July 2026, read the one star reviews so you do not have to, and ranked the six pans that are genuinely worth your money.

One boundary before we start: this guide covers stovetop frying pans only. If you want a plug-in pan with its own thermostat for the caravan, the bench or a rental with a terrible cooktop, that is a different appliance, and we cover it separately in our electric frypan guide.

Which frying pan is best in Australia right now?

For most Australian kitchens, the Scanpan Impact 28 cm ($54.99) is the pan to buy first. It is uncoated 18/10 stainless steel with a thick 6.4 mm bonded aluminium base, it works on every cooktop including induction, it is oven safe to 250 degrees Celsius, and it carries a 10 year warranty. There is no non-stick coating to wear out, so it is the closest thing to a buy once, cry once purchase at a price that is currently well under its usual list.

If you would rather have easy non-stick for eggs and weeknight cooking, the Tefal Virtuoso 28 cm ($57.49) is the highest rated pan of our six picks at 4.7 stars, pairing a stainless steel body with Tefal's titanium reinforced coating and the red Thermo Signal dot that tells you when the pan is at cooking temperature. And if you just need a reliable pan for as little as possible, the Sensarte 24 cm ceramic pan ($32.99) is the cheapest pick in this guide and still rates 4.6 stars.

• Best overall: Scanpan Impact Frypan 28 cm, $54.99
• Best non-stick: Tefal Virtuoso Induction Frypan 28 cm, $57.49
• Best budget: Sensarte Ceramic Non-Stick Frypan 24 cm, $32.99
• Best Aussie brand non-stick: Pyrolux Pyrostone Fry Pan 24 cm, $48.50
• Best stainless steel under $60: Tefal Emotion+ Frypan 28 cm, $59.98
• The pro import to think twice about: Made In 10 inch Non Stick Frying Pan, $508.42

How do the picks compare at a glance?

All six pans below are stovetop pans that work on induction, gas, ceramic and electric cooktops. The real decision is between uncoated stainless steel, which lasts decades but asks you to learn heat control, and non-stick, which is effortless from day one but is a consumable you will replace every few years. Prices, ratings and review counts were verified on Amazon Australia in July 2026.

How we chose these frying pans

NestPath is a research house, not a test kitchen. What we do is aggregate: we start with every stovetop frypan brand with meaningful distribution in Australia, then pull each candidate's live Amazon Australia product data and put it through the same gate. A pan only makes this page if it is in stock, has a genuine star rating from real purchases, has enough reviews to mean something, and sells at a sane price for what it is. Grey-import listings priced far above the brand's own Australian pricing get cut.

From there we weigh the things listing photos do not show. We read the critical reviews for repeat failure patterns, warping on induction, coatings failing early, handles loosening. We check the boring but important specifications on the listing itself: base construction, oven safe temperature, dishwasher guidance and warranty length. And we deliberately kept a spread of materials and prices, because the right pan for a couple in an apartment with an induction cooktop is not the right pan for a family of five on gas.

Every price, rating and review count you see here was captured from Amazon Australia in July 2026. Prices move around, especially on cookware, so treat the numbers as the state of play at the time of writing rather than a promise.

Scanpan Impact 28 cm: the best frying pan for most Australian kitchens

The Scanpan Impact 28 cm ($54.99) is our top pick because it removes the one guaranteed failure point of most frying pans: the coating. This is uncoated 18/10 stainless steel from a Danish brand Australians have trusted for decades, built around a 6.4 mm impact bonded base with an aluminium core, so it heats quickly and evenly on every cooktop type including induction. At 4.6 stars across 129 ratings, buyers consistently describe it the same way we would: a no nonsense pan that does everything.

The spec sheet is exactly what you want at this price. It is oven safe to 250 degrees Celsius, so you can start a steak on the cooktop and finish it under heat, something most non-stick pans forbid. The riveted stainless handles are cast to stay cool longer, the rim is designed for drip free pouring, and the whole pan is dishwasher safe even though Scanpan recommends hand washing. Capacity is a generous 3.6 litres, and at 1.79 kg it is solid without being arm-breaking. Scanpan backs it with a 10 year warranty.

The catch, if you have only ever cooked on non-stick, is that stainless steel asks you to learn a two minute technique: preheat the pan properly, add oil, then add food, and let proteins release on their own before flipping. The most helpful Amazon Australia review of this pan is essentially a tutorial on exactly that. Once it clicks, you get better browning than any non-stick can deliver, plus the freedom to use metal utensils and scrub the pan as hard as you like. There is simply nothing on the surface to damage.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Eggs and delicate fish will stick until your heat control improves, and there is no way around that learning curve except cooking. The mirror polished interior also shows rainbow heat tint and water spots over time, which is cosmetic but bothers some owners. And while the pan is dishwasher safe, repeated dishwasher cycles dull the finish, so hand washing is the smarter habit. None of this affects performance, which is why we still rank it first.

Tefal Virtuoso 28 cm: the best non-stick frying pan

If you want food to slide out of the pan from the first use, the Tefal Virtuoso Induction 28 cm ($57.49) is the best non-stick option we found on Amazon Australia, and at 4.7 stars from 401 ratings it is the highest rated pan in this guide. It wraps Tefal's titanium reinforced non-stick coating, which the brand rates as three times stronger than its standard coating, inside a proper stainless steel body, so it looks and feels closer to premium cookware than the dark aluminium pans most of us grew up with.

The feature that makes Tefal pans genuinely easier to live with is the Thermo Signal dot in the centre of the cooking surface. The pattern turns solid red when the pan hits the ideal cooking temperature, which quietly fixes the most common way people ruin non-stick pans: overheating them empty. Used as designed, on low to medium heat with the dot as your guide, the coating lasts dramatically longer. The pan holds 2.5 litres, is dishwasher safe for easy cleanup, and its induction base heats quickly and evenly according to the owners who cook on it daily.

Reviewers repeatedly describe eggs sliding off without oil, months of daily use with the coating still perfect, and a quality of finish that surprised them at this price. For a first home where one pan has to do everything from pancakes to curries with zero technique required, this is the pick.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The listing marks this pan as not oven safe, so cooktop-to-oven recipes are off the menu, and that is the clearest functional gap against the Scanpan. One induction user reported minor warping in the centre after running it very hot, which reinforces the low to medium heat rule that applies to every non-stick pan. And like all coated cookware, the surface is a consumable: treat even a titanium reinforced coating as a three to five year proposition rather than a lifetime one.

Sensarte 24 cm: the best budget frying pan

At $32.99, the Sensarte 24 cm ceramic non-stick pan is the cheapest pick in this guide and the one we would buy for a first rental, a granny flat or a spare pan for eggs. It rates 4.6 stars, and while its 28 ratings are the smallest sample among our picks, the brand sells this same design in huge volumes overseas and the Australian reviews echo the global pattern: slick surface, solid build, easy cleanup.

The body is cast aluminium, which is why a pan this cheap does not feel flimsy, and the cooking surface is a Swiss ILAG ceramic coating that the listing states is free of intentionally added PFOA and PFOS. The interior has no exposed rivets, so there are no crevices for old oil to build up in, and a quick wipe genuinely gets it clean. The woodgrain bakelite handle stays cool on the stovetop, and the base is induction compatible, which is not a given at this price. It arrives with the handle unattached, but assembly is a single screw and the screwdriver is in the box.

For the price of a few takeaway coffees a week, this is the pan that proves you do not need to spend three figures to fry an egg well. Buy it as your everyday pan and upgrade to stainless later, or buy it alongside the Scanpan as the dedicated delicate-food pan.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It is hand wash only, so it fails the dishwasher test that the Tefal and Scanpan pass. Ceramic coatings are also the shortest lived of the non-stick chemistries, and they lose their slip faster if you use cooking sprays or high heat, so expect to replace this pan sooner than the titanium coated Tefal. A couple of buyers also note the sides are higher than a classic skillet, which is great for containing splatter but makes flat flipping slightly harder.

Pyrolux Pyrostone 24 cm: the best non-stick from an Australian brand

Pyrolux is the cookware house of Sheldon and Hammond, the same Australian distributor behind several kitchen brands you already own, and the Pyrostone 24 cm ($48.50) is its most popular frypan on Amazon Australia at 4.5 stars across 122 ratings. If you want local warranty support and a pan you will also find at Australian retailers, this is the non-stick to shortlist.

The Pyrostone formula is a forged aluminium body, which resists warping better than cheap stamped pans, under a Whitfords stone-look non-stick coating that the listing describes as hardwearing and abrasion resistant, and PFOA free. At 0.92 kg it is noticeably lighter than our stainless picks, which matters if you have wrist issues or simply hate heavy pans, and the soft touch handle stays cool on the cooktop. It runs on every cooktop type including induction, it is oven safe to 180 degrees Celsius, and it is dishwasher safe with hand washing recommended to extend the coating's life.

Owners praise exactly the things a daily pan needs: genuine food release with minimal oil, a solid base that sits flat on induction glass, and a coating that shrugs off utensil contact better than the price suggests. The 24 cm size suits one to three people; there are 20 cm and 32 cm siblings in the same range if your household runs smaller or larger.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The 180 degree oven limit is the lowest of our picks, so this is a cooktop pan first. One detailed review reports a slightly domed centre that sends pancake batter toward the edges, which appears to be unit variation rather than the norm, but it is worth checking your pan when it arrives. And the 1.2 litre capacity of the 24 cm size will feel tight for family stir fries, so size up if you regularly cook for four.

Tefal Emotion+ 28 cm: the best stainless steel pan under $60

The Tefal Emotion+ 28 cm ($59.98) is the value play on the Scanpan formula: uncoated 18/10 stainless steel with a mirror polished finish, a 10 year guarantee, and with 826 ratings it is the most reviewed of our picks under $100. At 4.4 stars it sits slightly below our other picks, and the reasons why are instructive, so read on before you buy.

The hardware is genuinely good for the money. Tefal's Thermo-Fusion base heats fast and evenly on gas, electric, ceramic and induction cooktops, the deep 28 cm shape is built for searing then tossing generous portions, and at 1.63 kg it is lighter than the Scanpan while still feeling planted on the cooktop. Because the surface is bare metal, it is scratch resistant, metal utensil safe and dishwasher safe, and the 10 year guarantee covers the pan itself rather than a coating that will inevitably wear.

The critical reviews are almost all the same story: buyers expecting non-stick behaviour from an uncoated stainless pan, then reporting that eggs burnt onto it on day one. That is not a defect, it is how stainless steel works before you learn preheating and oil timing. If you go in knowing this is a technique pan, the 4.4 star average understates how good it is; the five star reviews from experienced stainless cooks read like a different product entirely.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The sidewalls are thinner than the base, so the rim can discolour if you routinely run high heat with oil, and like all polished stainless it shows heat tint that needs a vinegar or barkeeper style cleanup to remove. If you want zero technique cooking, buy the Virtuoso instead; this pan rewards a little patience and punishes none.

What should you look for in a frying pan?

The Australian frypan aisle is crowded, but the decision comes down to five things. Get these right and almost any well reviewed pan will serve you well.

Which frying pan material is right for you?

Uncoated stainless steel, like our Scanpan Impact and Tefal Emotion+ picks, lasts decades, sears properly and tolerates metal utensils, but demands basic heat control. PTFE and titanium reinforced non-stick, like the Tefal Virtuoso, gives effortless food release for delicate cooking but must be babied on low to medium heat and replaced when it wears. Ceramic coatings, like the Sensarte and Pyrolux options, are marketed as the free-of-intentionally-added-PFAS route and work beautifully when new, but generally wear fastest of the three. Many households end up happiest with one stainless pan and one non-stick pan, which our top three picks deliver for under $100 combined if you pair the Scanpan with the Sensarte.

What size frying pan do you actually need?

A 28 cm pan is the sweet spot for two to five people, big enough to sear two steaks without crowding. The 24 cm class suits singles, couples and egg duty. Going bigger than 30 cm sounds appealing but check your cooktop first: a large pan overhanging a small induction zone heats unevenly at the edges.

Will it work on your cooktop?

Every pick in this guide is induction compatible, but plenty of cheap aluminium pans are not, so always check for an induction symbol or a magnetic base before buying anything else. Gas cooks should favour heavier bases that spread flame heat, and glass cooktop owners should avoid dragging any pan across the surface.

Is it oven safe?

Oven safety is where pans quietly differ. The Scanpan Impact goes to 250 degrees Celsius, the Pyrolux Pyrostone to 180, and the Tefal Virtuoso is listed as not oven safe at all. If you cook frittatas or finish thick cuts in the oven, this single spec should drive your choice.

How much should you spend?

In Australia in 2026, $30 to $70 buys an excellent everyday pan, as this guide shows. Spending $150 plus buys nicer materials and brand cachet, not fundamentally better dinners. Spending $500 on an imported non-stick pan whose coating will still wear out is, in our view, the wrong end of the curve, more on that below.

How do you make a frying pan last?

Whichever pan you buy, three habits determine whether it lasts three years or fifteen. First, control your heat. Non-stick coatings degrade rapidly above medium heat, and an empty pan left preheating on high is the fastest way to kill one. The Tefal Thermo Signal dot exists precisely because of this. Stainless steel tolerates high heat happily, which is one more reason it is the better searing tool.

Second, wash gently even when you do not have to. Dishwasher detergent is abrasive to coatings and dulls polished stainless, so even for our dishwasher safe picks, a thirty second hand wash with warm soapy water extends life meaningfully. Let the pan cool before it touches water, because thermal shock from running a hot pan under the cold tap is a common cause of warping. For stuck-on food in stainless, soak, then scrub; for stubborn heat tint, a paste of bicarbonate of soda lifts it without scratching.

Third, store the pan like you paid for it. Pans stacked bare inside each other scratch coatings and polished interiors alike. Felt pan protectors cost a few dollars a set and eliminate the problem entirely, and hanging the pan you use daily saves the cupboard shuffle altogether. Finally, retire non-stick pans when the coating is visibly scratched, flaking or has lost its slip; at that point no amount of care brings it back, and the pan has done its job.

You'll also want

A few small additions make any of these pans easier to live with, and none of them cost much:

• Beijiyi silicone spatula turner set: heat resistant turners that will not scratch non-stick coatings, with thousands of positive ratings.
• Cuisinart mini silicone spatula set: small scrapers for getting every last bit out of the pan without marking it.
• OXO Good Grips splatter screen: stainless mesh with a folding handle that keeps bacon fat off your new splashback.
• Felt pot and pan protectors, set of 12: the cheapest insurance for coatings and polished interiors in a stacked cupboard.
• Tefal cookware protectors, set of 4: Tefal's own thicker stacking protectors if your cupboard is mostly non-stick.

The competition

The Made In 10 inch (25 cm) Non Stick Frying Pan is the pan cookware forums will tell you to dream about, and the product itself deserves the reputation: 5-ply stainless clad construction made in Italy, a professional grade PTFE surface, oven safe to 260 degrees Celsius, and 4.3 stars from 2,074 ratings, the most reviewed pan in this guide. The problem is the Australian price. At $508.42 on Amazon Australia, it costs roughly nine times our top pick, it is not dishwasher safe, and its coating is just as much a consumable as any $50 pan's. We list it because it is the priciest pan here and people ask about it, not because we think you should buy it at this listing.

Plenty of other well known names did not make the cut. HexClad's hybrid pans are heavily marketed in Australia and genuinely durable, but their laser etched stainless ridges mean they behave like semi non-stick at best, and their Amazon Australia ratings sit at 4.2 stars or below, under every pan we picked. The Jamie Oliver by Tefal sets that dominate department store sales are solid, but they force you into buying three pans at once when most kitchens need one good one. Stanley Rogers' Matrix tri-ply frypan looks like a bargain hybrid, but at 3.9 stars its reviews split sharply between delighted stainless veterans and buyers who found the textured surface nothing like non-stick, and it had no offer price at the time of writing. And the sub $25 no-name pans that flood the listings fail our review gate almost universally: thin bases that warp on induction, and coatings that die within months.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tefal or Scanpan better?

They are better at different jobs. Scanpan's Impact 28 cm is uncoated stainless steel, so it sears harder, goes in the oven to 250 degrees Celsius and has no coating to wear out, with a 10 year warranty behind it. Tefal's Virtuoso 28 cm is the better everyday convenience pan, with a titanium reinforced non-stick surface, the Thermo Signal temperature dot and the higher rating of the two on Amazon Australia, 4.7 stars against the Scanpan's 4.6. If you will only own one pan and hate technique, buy the Tefal. If you want the pan you will still own in 2040, buy the Scanpan.

What size frying pan should I buy?

For most households a 28 cm pan is the right first buy, and both of our stainless picks and the Tefal Virtuoso come in that size, with the Scanpan holding a generous 3.6 litres. If you mostly cook for one or two, the 24 cm Sensarte or Pyrolux Pyrostone is lighter, cheaper and easier to handle, at 0.92 kg for the Pyrostone against 1.79 kg for the 28 cm Scanpan.

Are non-stick frying pans safe to use?

Modern non-stick pans sold in Australia are made without added PFOA, the chemical behind older health concerns. The Sensarte's Swiss ILAG ceramic coating is listed as free of intentionally added PFOA and PFOS, and the Pyrolux Pyrostone's coating is PFOA free. The practical safety rule is heat: keep coated pans at low to medium temperatures and never preheat them empty on high. If you want to skip coatings entirely, the Scanpan Impact and Tefal Emotion+ are bare 18/10 stainless steel with nothing to degrade.

Do these frying pans work on induction cooktops?

Yes. All six picks in this guide, the Scanpan Impact, Tefal Virtuoso, Sensarte 24 cm, Pyrolux Pyrostone, Tefal Emotion+ and the Made In 10 inch, are induction compatible according to their listings, and they also work on gas, ceramic and electric cooktops. The one induction caution from owner reviews is to avoid maximum power boosts on non-stick pans, which can warp thinner bases over time.

When should I replace a non-stick frying pan?

Replace a coated pan once the surface is scratched through, flaking, or food starts sticking to a clean pan, typically after two to five years of daily use depending on care. That is why we price non-stick as a consumable: at $32.99 for the Sensarte or $57.49 for the Tefal Virtuoso, replacement is painless, which is exactly the argument against spending $508.42 on the Made In. Stainless pans like the Scanpan Impact do not have this clock ticking at all.

Building out your kitchen?

A good frying pan is usually the first of many kitchen upgrades in a new home. These guides cover the rest of the bench, researched the same way as this one:

• The best knife sets in Australia, because the pan is only half of dinner.
• The best cutting boards, the other half of your prep station.
• The best oven mitts, essential once you own an oven safe pan like the Scanpan.
• The best kitchen scales, for cooks who measure rather than guess.
• The best food storage containers, for everything the 28 cm pan produces in bulk.
• The best spice racks, to keep the seasoning within arm's reach of the cooktop.
• Our full kitchen essentials checklist, if you are setting up a kitchen from scratch.

About the author

Anish Puri founded NestPath in 2026 after going through the Australian first-home-buyer process himself. NestPath focuses on Australian first-home buyers because the existing review sites are American, generic, or both. Anish handles editorial selection across the homeowner hub. Reach out: hello@nestpath.com.au