Average Rating: 
Rating: - Good pasta/steamer set at a good price
Would be great, except for two things.1) The past insert should go down further into the pot (although this is the norm with the majority of pasta cookers). The bad thing here is you have to use alot of extra water to cover the pasta. This does have a plus side though - it allows the pot to act as a double rack steamer, since you can put water in just below the pasta insert and use the steamer rack as well. 2) The lid does not fit very well. It just sort of sits on the top lip and doesn't do a very good job of sealing out splatters from excess steam. Of course this problem would happen to any pot if the burner is set too high, after all steam has to escape! This is not a problem if you don't turn the burner up too high.
Rating:  - 1 year after purchase, I no longer use this pot.
Collector's Edition 8 Qt Multi-Pot
BTTOM LINE: Boil time was only minimally faster (gas: 16 min vs 20 min in standard stainless). Food residue sticks to the fared rim. No lid vent created boil-overs. Too long to clean within warranty: a quick meal took 20 minutes at the sink.This set came with 4 pieces:
SHORT STEAMER INSERT. With 2 opposite handles that swing down when steaming. Good concept. Very poor execution! Can be dangerous and for sure, very awkward to use: Handles hang down and get extremely hot so be careful when trying to dig them out of your veggies. Best if you use a mitt, if you can grab both handles with a mitt. Forget asparagus unless you want to individually place and remove around the handles.
Maybe they should be clip on handles. DEEP STEAMER. Works well as a steamer but the whole concept of an in-pot steamer w/ handles is over-rated. You have to take the twice-as-heavy pot with the steamer to the sink to strain, remove steamer to strain, find a spot to put it so you can pour out the boiling water. Think about it. The POT. Food residue collects by and in the inside rivots making it time consuming and difficult to clean within warranty. The LID. Nice glass but ... no vent so steam collects and water tends to boil over. Cleaning this puppy with its stainless rim is a chore to say the least. CLEANING. If you have hard water think twice as the rings are very difficult to remove within warranty. Pot is big too so it's cumbersome to clean in the sink within warranty (and who wants to be careful when cleaning). Special cleaners are required (Barkeeper's or similar). CALPHALON MAKES DIFFERENT GRADES OF STAINLESS. Be alert when shopping for Calphalon Stainless. This is 18/10 stainless, not all Tri-Ply. I thought this set was Tri-Ply. If it doesn't say Tri-Ply, it's not. CALPHALON CAN BE 'MADE IN CHINA'. I did not know until this purhase, but Calphalon maufacturers both here in the U.S.A. and in China. This set is made in China, as was another hard-anodized piece that had to be returned. Might want to pay a little more and get the Made in U.S.A. pieces. This reviewer thinks it's worth it! BOTTOM LINE: 1 year after purchase, I no longer use this pot; I use my new Farberware Copper Clad.
Rating: - 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...
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