About $60 a year — that’s what comes back if you swap the nonstick-replacement habit for a single cast-iron skillet. Nonstick pans wear out, the coating fails, and the honest replacement cycle is two to three years. Spend $80 on a decent one, replace it three times a decade, and you’re at $24/year just to keep the pan working. A cast-iron pan, bought once for $30 and used the same period, runs about $3/year. Add the slightly better cooking outcomes and the math is unsubtle.
This isn’t an “everything-cast-iron, nothing-nonstick” piece. There are a few specific things nonstick still does better. The point is to know which job is which, and to stop spending money replacing a tool that’s quietly built to fail.
The honest case for nonstick
Two pans worth of cooking per week is actually nonstick-correct: scrambled eggs, fish skin-side-down, anything where the food’s relationship to the pan is “delicate, please don’t tear me.” Crepes. Omelettes. Some pancakes. The forgiving release is real and matters when the food can’t tolerate friction.
There’s also a real ergonomics argument. A 10-inch cast iron weighs four pounds. A 10-inch nonstick weighs about two. For people with wrist or shoulder issues, that gap matters every meal.
If those are your primary uses, keep one nonstick pan. Don’t pretend cast iron does what it doesn’t. Just keep it to one pan, and don’t expect it to last a decade.
Why cast iron lasts (essentially) forever
A cast-iron skillet has no coating to fail. It’s pig iron, smelted into a shape, with a baked-on layer of polymerized oil (the seasoning). When the seasoning gets damaged — through a soapy scrub gone wrong, a dishwasher trip, an acidic sauce sitting too long — you scrub it off and re-season. The pan itself is, in any meaningful sense, indestructible.
The 50-year-old hand-me-down cast-iron pans you see at estate sales aren’t an exception; they’re the rule. With basic care, the same pan you buy now will outlive you.
Versus replacing nonstick every 2–3 years$60/year
The seasoning routine, demystified
The cast-iron internet is full of elaborate seasoning rituals. They’re mostly unnecessary. Here is the actual maintenance:
- After cooking: while the pan is still warm, wipe it out with a paper towel. If something stuck, hot water and a stiff brush. Soap is fine. Modern soap doesn’t strip seasoning the way 1950s lye-based soaps did. Don’t soak it. Don’t run it through the dishwasher.
- Dry immediately. A wet cast iron rusts. Towel-dry, then put it on the stove on low heat for two minutes to evaporate any remaining moisture.
- Light oil. A few drops of any neutral oil, rubbed in with a paper towel until the surface looks dull rather than wet. That’s it.
- Re-season once a year, maybe. Heat the empty pan in a 450°F oven, upside-down, for an hour, with a thin layer of oil. This restores the surface to factory condition. Most home cooks need to do this once or twice a decade.
That’s the ritual. Five seconds at the end of every cook, and an hour in the oven once a year.
What to buy
The Lodge 10–12” skillet, $25–35, is the right answer for 95% of people. Lodge has been making cast iron in Tennessee since 1896; the pan is good, it’s everywhere, and it costs less than a nonstick. You can spend $200 on a Smithey or a Field Company pan with a smoother factory finish — they’re beautiful, but they don’t outperform the Lodge in any way that matters at home.
A second skillet (smaller, 8”) is useful but not necessary. Skip the lid; a sheet pan covers the same job.
What we explicitly don’t buy: cast-iron sets, “preseasoned” boutique pans, decorative cast iron, the enameled-cast-iron-Le-Creuset-as-a-skillet move (it’s a fine Dutch oven, it’s a mediocre skillet).
The five-second wipe-and-oil after every cook is the entire maintenance routine.
What the math doesn’t capture
Two real upsides that don’t fit on a spreadsheet:
Better food. A cast-iron sear on a steak, a pork chop, or a chicken thigh is not the same as a nonstick sear. The high heat retention means real Maillard browning. Things taste better.
Less anxiety. When you don’t have to worry about scratching a coating with a metal spatula, dropping a fork, or putting it in the oven, cooking is calmer. The pan is a tool again, not a thing you’re tending around.
A note on the math
The $60/year figure assumes a $80 nonstick pan replaced every 2.5 years versus a $30 Lodge used the same period. If you currently buy an expensive nonstick ($120–150 brand-name), the gap widens to $90–110 a year. If you currently buy the cheapest nonstick from a big-box store and replace it yearly, the gap is similar. The pattern matters more than the dollar.
Your cookware math
You save $29/year