Breville Thermal Pro Stainless BEF560

Within a minute of first heating, strong electrical smell & plug started smoking. So disappointing & long drive back to store next weekend I won’t buy this brand again Show details

A Mixed Bag – To be fair, this frypan is a mixed bag. Starting with the good: I've owned stainless steel frypans for over 20 years, and they are easier to clean than non-stick when you know the tips and tricks. This frypan is no different. Starting with the obvious, try to be attentive to heat control and not burn oil into them (no frypan likes this). You… Read more

can get this out with a mixture of boiling water in the frypan and some gentle scouring but this is hard work. After cooking, cover the pan with cold water to soak for later cleaning, and stubborn bits can be coaxed out by boiling the water when the rare need arises. Follow this and these pans stay looking brand new for decades unlike other pans where the coating will eventually get soaked through and begin to fail.

The banquet pan size is great for family cooking and the whole pan and feet can go in the sink for cleaning, albeit the pan is heavy to haul around. This is also a very powerful frypan with 2,400 Watts ie. 10 Amps of current draw, so will heat and cook quite fast compared to a stovetop.

So the bad: The weakness of this frypan is the Temperature Controller, and unfortunately this is common in this category. There is definitely some sort of design flaw here that I will fault Breville here in its quality control that it does not appear to be testing its product batches for usability that would easily detect this problem. If I had to guess, the temperature probe is too loose in the pan temperature sensing socket an not making good thermal contact between itself and the pan. There is a fair delay between the actual pan temperature and when the controller probe heats to that temperature. This is why some have reported burning oil or burnt food when turning the temperature to say, "Simmer" and expecting the controller to only heat to this temperature. It does not do this, and from cold any setting will heat the pan to a far higher temperature than what the dial indicates, typically more like full heat for at least 2-3 minutes before the controller fully catches up. Unfortunately as this is also a very powerful frypan, you can easily burn oil into it or as my son found out, set off a smoke alarm whilst trying to "season it (even after I told him to not believe the temperature settings and manually turn the heat on and off himself). So, every cooking session, you need to set the temperature to the absolutely lowest setting of "Warm" and even then be prepared to manually turn the pan off to slowly get the pan up to the desired temperature, wait for the temperature controller to catch up and then finally can ramp up the controller to the desired setting once equilibrium between the pan and temperature probe is established. This is quite a chore with this frypan to having to keep manually turning the heat on and off on this for the first few minutes of cooking.

Is it noisy like others have reported? Yes, and this is from two things: The noise comes from its very high current draw of 10 Amps flowing through the heating filament similar to what you may hear from an oven grill filament etc. This combines with the large pan and the the metal-on-metal contact between the pan and the legs to amplify this noise. Personally, I don't mind it: It's an aural cue that the pan is heating and let's me know if someone forgot to turn it off, but if you want to cook more quietly, this is definitely not the frypan for you. It is an electrical current hum that is soft but is nonetheless easily heard in the next room.

In summary, a good stainless pan that looks like it will last in near new condition for a lifetime, but let down considerably by a design flaw in the temperature controller arrangement and is a little overpowered for what it needs to be.

Best electric frypan ever. Never go back to non stick frypans – Even though it's stainless steel there was no sticking when making a stir fry. Easy to clean. No more replacing non stick fry pans every six months. Best decision ever.

Fantastic FryPan - Best Ever – My speciality is cooking of fish 2 or 3 nights a week. Having used many pans over the last 40 years this fry pan is the best ever. The only thing is that one expects the thermostat to cut in/out at short intervals, once I set it I don't touch it thoughout the cooking, the temptation is to "chase" the setting. Just leave it alone once set. The only negative for some would be the weight. Show details

So disappointed in this Frypan – Breville makes some great electrical products, BUT this frypan is not one of them! Unfortunately I decided to buy it despite the mixed reviews here because I wanted a large stainless steel frypan, but the thermostat is just absolute garbage! None of the middle heat settings work, and it only seems to alternates between High and Low, and then… Read more

for good measure it regularly just cuts out leaving your food sitting in there uncooked. In desperation I’ve then turned the thermostat up to maximum Sear, and not even a bubble in the oil! The stainless steel frypan itself is big and beautiful and of great quality, but its totally let down by the dodgy thermostat. Paid $160 at The Good Guys and I’m returning it for a refund. Breville should be ashamed to put such junk out to the market!!!

Doesn't meet expectations – We have 5 of these in our community and all have similar issues; feet fall off, uneven heat and the thermostat goes in the first year. Additionally, there are no replacement part options on the Breville site. We can't find a good quality SS unit anywhere. Show details

Large, reliable and easy to clean – I purchased the Thermal Pro to replace my Sunbeam Ellise that broke after 5 years of almost daily use. I bought this frying pan based on the mostly positive reviews. As with most electrical products, there are a variety of good and bad reviews and it's difficult to find something that's just right. There are often problems. I have owned the… Read more

Thermal Pro for three months and am thus far happy with it. It heats up fast and I've found the base cooks evenly. It does get very hot, the heat settings are inaccurate and I usually end up frying food on the simmer setting. Apart from this it seems to be a very sturdy and reliable appliance. I like the larger size as I cook big batches for leftovers. I only ever hand wash and the stainless steel base is easy to clean.

The worst Frypan I have ever bought – Quality? Yeah right!!!!...Another FAIL for Breville. More to come soon about another product I am disappointed in and that I paid quite a lot of money for!!!!!....That cheapy controller seriously speaks volumes about this thing and odd thing is as mentioned in another review the surface heat is uneven and it seems to have cool spots that don't… Read more

cook and hot spots that burns things. The heat controller on this pan is either full on or full off just like another mentioned in their review of it and yes this unit is still under warranty and I still have the lovely box full of lies it came in. Another thing that stikes me as odd is how this appliance hums very loudly when it is heating. Quite scary really. Like as if it may short out and blow up. I have owned Kmart brand cheapies that cook far better then this thing. As soon as I have time I will return this overpriced heavy piece of garbage and go and buy another cheapy as it seems to be pretty cheap quality rubbish anyway. Don't waste your money people. It is NOT something to keep in your cupboard and feel a sense of pride in like you used to do in the old days

When you think you are investing in quality – $150 for an electric frying pan is at the higher end of the price bracket and so to have not 1 but 2 conk out with similar problems is frustrating. Part of the heating element stopped working twice so it will not heat the entire surface effectively. The temperature control dial no longer turns off the element - you have to turn it off at the… Read more

power source. What's the point of that? Someone else mentioned the feet of the pan falling off - we found that the feet of the second (replacement for first faulty pan) pan we got cracked from heat of the pan itself. A disappointing product as it seems we will need a 3rd replacement.

Feet falling off – Temperature control is poor and the feet fell off on one side basically as soon as I purchased it. Other than that it’s okay. I had another one for 15 years and never had a problem with it at all. I purchased this product from Myer in Penrith thinking it would be as good as the last one we had for years  Show details

Great, but not my favourite product of this type – I had the Sunbeam Ellise and when it died I replaced it with the Breville because the Breville was a better price. Don't get me wrong, this is a good frypan, but it gets too hot. I am having to use it with the heat set one setting below what I think it should be. It's also a tiny bit bigger than the Sunbeam which means it doesn't fit in the dishwasher as easily.  Show details

Best electric frypan – I have owned a lot of different electric frypans and this is by far the best electric frypans I have ever owned Nothing sticks to it, it heats really well and evenly Dead easy to clean Dead easy to use I highly recommend it There is nothing to hate about this frypan  Show details

BREVILLE! YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN!!! – A week ago my poor old Sunbeam which I've always loved short circuited our electrical safety switch and we lost power on all plug in devices. No T.V. no computer and no fridge etc. At that stage I didn't know what had caused the problem. Next day I plugged in the Sunbeam and off went the power again. This time I knew how to get it back on again… Read more

but it was definitely time for a new electric frying pan. I came here to product review to search review for another stainless steel frying pan. No way do I want to eat non stick surfaces ever again. Been there done that. The reviews for Sunbeam and also for Breville are not good, but no-one else makes stainless steel. So off to Harvey Norman where I buy most of my electrical items. They had the Sunbeam but not the Breville so went to the Goodguys where I could compare both brands. The Breville is slightly larger and looks slightly better made. Problem with both though is the dodgy control probe which lots of people are having trouble with, especially on low heat. I bought the Breville because I do a lot of bulk cooking and then freeze meals so we can have "fast food" when I don't want to cook at the end of the day. I've now cooked 30 meals since I brought the Breville home during the last week. Have had no problem with simmering and amazed at the power for searing. The best thing is that the base is very deep, which helps to prevent splatters and I can get one heck of a lot cooked in one go! I now like the shape being oblong. So easy to stir fry in this shape. The down side is that it won't fit into the kitchen sink and I have a very big sink! The non slip feet are good to make sure it stays put, but makes it harder to slide into the cupboard. It's also very heavy but that's O.K. Don't think it really needs non slip feet. When I first turned it on I got a fright because smoke came out all round and I thought it was going to explode. That soon stopped. Toasters often do this too when they are new. After reading all the negative reviews on the thermostat I bought the extended warranty for an extra $30 + So I have 3 years for the thermostat to cause me problems. There's only 12 months on it normally and 25 years on the body. Nothing will go wrong with the stainless steel, but the element will be covered for 3 years so I feel protected. Just hope it doesn't break down soon after the 3 years. Really wish we didn't live in the disposable generation. Things are built to fail so manufacturers can sell more. Anyway... I'm happy so far. The meals I've made are perfect and the Breville certainly looks wonderful with all my other stainless steel appliances. I recommend buying it, but not without the extended warranty. Also, use it a lot so if you're going to have trouble you can take it back for a replacement. Happy cooking, Dianne.

Rubbish – After having read negative reviews about the Sunbeam frypan I decided to purchase the trusted breville brand . Unfortunately it was very disappointing in performance. Great if you want to sear everything but when you buy an electric frypan you need a range of temperatures! No simmer or low temperature with this product... this rules out curries… Read more

casseroles and anything else needing a lower temperature. It promised even heat distribution but let down in this regard too. I will be returning it because I am unable to use it for anything but searing steak or pan frying

The Best Fry Pan Ever – My old fry pan had a Teflon coating and was terrible and that was my 2nd one!. Marinated meats would still stick to it. They pitted over time, food always sticking. I researched stainless steel ones without the Teflon coating. Read the reviews on the older model which is discontinued now and rang Sunbeam about the difference with this model.… Read more

Customer Service was great. From memory I believe they had changed the thermostat and there was a change in the plug. The size was the same, as I have it now not long since it came out. The trivet is also a bonus as well. It is so, so easy to clean, i just have to wipe it with a damp cloth to clean it most times even after cooking stir fry’s. Cooking eggs, marinated meat/chicken, I do fill it a bit with water when it’s still warm to soak, but it just comes straight off. I have never had anything burn or stick to it at all and the thermostat is spot on with the temps on the plug in. When I store it I just rub a very small amount of olive oil in the base. It does take a while to cool down under the base, so I leave it out, till cold. The size is great for big cuts of meat, it is rather heavy, but it is heaven. I still do not use metallic utensils in it though. Habit I suppose. It is worth the extra cost for the quality. Sunbeam Fantastic.