Magnalite Cookware Refinishing

A. Use the finest grade #0000 steel wool [on eBay or Amazon] and Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish [on eBay or Amazon]. Scrub with a blob of Mothers on the steel wool. It will turn into a grey sludge. Use dish detergent to cut the sludge. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary to remove all tarnish. Then to restore the shine use Simichrome [on eBay or Amazon] . It is expensive but worth it ⇨

A. Marilyn's advice sounds excellent for the outside of the pots & pans, but I would be more comfortable with the insides being re-anodized rather than polished.

If you get the inside good and clean (steel wool and pumice [on eBay or Amazon] or cream of tartar [on eBay or Amazon] ), you can do a somewhat passable job of "re-anodizing" by simply boiling distilled or de-ionized water in it for 24 hours. You don't need to dangerously keep it boiling while you sleep, you can do it in two 12-hour sessions. Have extra bottles of the water on hand because it will be constantly evaporating.

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Apparently the manufacturer of Magnalite has been taken over by American Culinary. They can be contacted through their web site at
americanculinarycorp.com ⇩

It would be interesting to know if they will honor this warranty.

[Ed. update: The above link isn't loading. Thankfully, The Internet Archive has preserved many versions across the decades
These days information often never sees print, then disappears forever. If that frightens or concerns you please consider a donation to The Internet Archive.

A. I believe the name of the company that makes Magnalite is General Housewares Corp. Their address is 1536 Beech Street, Terre Haute, IN 47804. Hope this helps anyone trying to use the warranty to get them refinished.

A. Just to let you know - General Housewares (800-999-3436) just told me to call 888-327-8472, who told me to call 800-767-5160, who told me they are only honoring the Magnalite warranty on pans made in Korea. I am unable to find who is honoring the warranty on the Magnalite Professional pans which were made in the U.S. Does anyone out there know?

A. I, also, have Magnalite Professional purchased in the late 80's. Although they look terrific from the outside, the insides are discolored and very unprofessional. Using the telephone number offered by a previous message, I called today. The company representative or CEO on the other end was very informative and concerned. He said that the discoloration was a result of acidic foods or carbon build-up. He recommended a thorough scouring with Bon Ami [on eBay or Amazon] and a Scotch-Brite [on eBay or Amazon] to be followed by wiping the inside with Wesson Oil. Afterwards, heat it in the oven or on top of the stove to allow the pores of the metal to absorb the oil. This seasoning is similar to the process completed upon using the cookware for the first time. Also suggested was a spray sold in restaurant supply stores called "Carbon Off" [on eBay or Amazon] . In addition, to take away the discoloration of the handles and lids a metal polish was recommended. This polishing paste made in Germany is called "Flitz" [adv: Flitz on eBay or Amazon]

The gentleman also said that if there were further issues to please e-mail him at
wagnerware.com or americanculinarycorp.com ⇧.

I hope this helps others who thought we had bought the last pot in our lives. I might add that the representative or owner of the company thought we had the best cookware on the market and it was indeed professional quality.

A. I looked on the bottom of my Magnalite classic pots that I bought in 1996 and it has a phone number 1-800-545-4411. I don't know if they can help with warranty, but I'm going to try and call when they are open Monday.

A. Hi Marlene. We appended your inquiry to a page which already has numerous suggestions about the warranty, which I have reviewed and summarized here ...

- "the manufacturer of Magnalite has been taken over by American Culinary. They can be contacted through their web site at americanculinarycorp.com"

- "the company that makes Magnalite is General Housewares Corp. Their address is 1536 Beech Street, Terre Haute, IN 47804"

- "General Housewares (800-999-3436) just told me to call 888-327-8472, who told me to call 800-767-5160, who told me they are only honoring the Magnalite warranty on pans made in Korea"

- "I called General Housewares ... about 8 years ago ... and they replaced them"

- "please e-mail wagnerware.com or americanculinarycorp.com"

- "After several e-mails to American Culinary Corp., I am about ready to give up the quest ... the company doesn't respond to e-mail"

- "I looked on the bottom of my Magnalite classic pots that I bought in 1996 and it has a phone number 1-800-545-4411"

- "purchase the original Magnalite pots (not made in China). Go to www.wagnerware.com"

Magnalite / Wagner

After decades of acquisitions and divestitures, there might not be an answer for Magnalite. And a more recent sin, which Congress refuses to outlaw, is 'meatball whoring': licensing trademarks, with their history and implied promises, to companies who actually have nothing to do with that history and who feel no obligation to honor its history when they slap the trademark on their product :-(

So at this point please try those leads, and please get back to us with what you find out, but frankly I expect little success based on this Wikipedia entry ⇨

You probably can't expect the millionaires who made you those promises to dock the yacht and honor them. Still there ought to be a law preventing selling off a company or buying one up in a way that cheats customers out of their warranty.

Regards,

A. For those asking about their MAGNALITE that went through Katrina. All you need to do to sanitize them is to fill with clean water and add approx. 10% Chlorine and allow to sit for 2 -3 hours, Empty and wash with Bon Ami cleanser. After the cookware has been dried, apply a VERY THIN coat of vegetable oil to both the inside and out, then bake in the oven @ 350 °F for 1 hour to Re-Season the cookware. In the future as I mentioned before use only Bon Ami [on eBay or Amazon] or Dish Soap to clean in the future and re-season approx. once a year. I am a retired Captain FDNY and used to cook for my Engine and Ladder Companies. I have a very large set of the Magnalite Professional Cookware that I purchased over the years and used at the Engine house. They all are still in excellent condition and I still use them today.

Stay Safe,

A. Hi Charlett. Countless millions of teflon-coated pots and pans and other food service items are in use, so millions of people feel they are safe. You certainly don't have to agree, and certainly don't have to use them, but don't throw them out and overload the landfills -- sell them. But I suspect they are anodized rather than teflon coated.

A. Hi, Debbie. You should be able to detect whether your cookware has a smooth teflon-like lining or not in these ways ...

You can feel the softness of the coating, you will see that water beads on it instead of any tendency to wet the surface, and you'll observe that it tends to "scuff" as opposed to scratch because it is relatively soft whereas anodized aluminum is extremely hard.

Hopefully, of course, it functions as a non-stick surface :-)

Regards,

A. To update you on having your Magnalite pots refinished, I just had 36 pieces of mine done by this company here in Los Angeles. My pots are back to a new and even better shine! This company is willing to refinish any cast aluminum pot, i.e. MagPro, Magnalite Classic, All-Clad, Revere-Ware, Wear Ever,Vintage aluminum pots and pans like Wagner Ware, Guardian Service and 18 grade Stainless Steel. His specialty is anodizing. He does Residential or Commercial Pots and Pans (like for restaurants and such). I took pictures of my pots to show to anyone interested.

A. For all that is interested here is the name of the company in Los Angeles, CA that cleans pots including copper and brass: Kaleidoscope Polishing. The company is in the City of Gardena, which is a suburb of L.A. The owner is Mr. Ray H. Johnson, when contacting his office, speak to him and let him know I referred you to him from this site.

As I stated in March, my Magnalite pots are beautiful and since then I have more that I purchased from an Estate Sale along with some other items I will be taking to him. Good Luck and post your comments or questions here for all to share!

A. Just heard from the man at Kaleidoscope and they do NOT re-anodize AllClad. Just clean and polish. Anybody know anyone who might re-anodize allclad?