heat ring

[Turkey]

Question, was the heat ring on early production or late production skillets on Wagner Sidney -O- ? I have ordered my book but don't have it yet.
Thanks

[Roger Barfield]

According to my books, the smooth bottom pans showed up around the mid 1930's.  The ones prior to that had the heat rings.  I believe that is true for Griswold as well.

[Steve_Stephens]

Hi Brian,
You made it real quick over here.  Hope you chose to join WAGS and visit us at the Chattanooga convention Oct. 1.

There have been many discussions about the term "heat ring" and it's a term I think coined by collectors since I've yet to see it in any original maker's literature.  Several old Wagner catalogs say "made with raised bottoms to equalize heat" and they are, in this case, talking about their National skillets.  The only thing on the bottom on National skillets that is different from any heat ring skillet of that era is the writing.  Note that they say "to equalize HEAT" with no mention of "smoke" or "fire" or "stove".  For this reason I go along with the term heat ring but discount the other terms as not being indicative of the purpose of the "ring".  Actually, Griswold, in their early 1890-91 catalog, mention "rimmed" for all styles of skillets and griddles.  If view of that a better term might be "heat rim" but, since Heat ring has been in use for so many years we can stay with that unless people want to use heat rim.  If "rimmed" in conjunction with skillets and griddles is NOT what we call a heat ring, I don't know what it would be.  Their kettles and bowls are not described as "rimmed" yet they, like skillets at least, do have a rim-the top rim-but griddles really don't have a well defined top rim.

Stove holes varied in size even among stoves of the same size (i.e. No.7, No.8, No.9) so that one No.8 stove hole might be a 1/4" different in size than another No.8 stove hole.  Some pans from stove makers probably had the heat ring fit the hole exactly but I don't think the purpose was to fit down into the hole fairly tightly.
A long answer to a short question.

Steve

[C. B. Williams]

Brian: A welcome from me to. I just want to add what you have already found out about the heat ring and a flat top stove. In addition to what you mentioned about scratching, the fact that there is no direct contact with the flat top stove makes heat transfer a real problem. For flat top stoves, I would highly recommend a smooth bottom pot, pan, or whatever. C B

[Steve_Stephens]

Used on any gas stove there isn't any heat transfer issue with our without a heat ring.  But, when used on a coal or wood range with the burner covers in place there could be.  Most wood ranges do not have perfectly flat tops.  At the juncture of all the plates there are slight differences in height; enough so that there would be hot spots of contact here and there on the pan's bottom  By having a heat ring the pan's bottom is slightly elevated all over the top's surface keeping any direct contact to a very minumum (at the heat ring) so as to not have hot spots.  My theory it is.  Lodge kept heat rings on their pans until very recently for some reason.  Smooth bottom pans seem to have become the norm with G and W when electric stoves became popular.  But even a number of early 19th century stovetop skillets can be found with a smooth bottom.  Another reason for the heat ring on early (bottom gated) castings is to raise the bottom enough so the heat ring won't make unstable, wobbling contact with the stovetop.  In addition to heat rings there were tiny feet, broken heat rings, longer tab feet, and probably a few other ways of elevating the bottom slightly.

Steve

[Roger Barfield]

I like the heat ring pans on my gas cooktop because they help keep the pans from sliding around while I'm cooking.

[Steve_Stephens]

Isn't your stove level Roger?  Just don't touch the pans when cooking and they should stay put.

Steve

[Roger Barfield]

Sometimes you have to stir, scrape, or flip.  Stove is level, but the smooth ones will slide sometimes.  Nothing major.  I was expecting you to say that  if I would start using all cast iron with gate marks, I wouldn't have that problem . LOL ;D

[Greg Stahl]

what is the reason for the ring? i have heard it called a smoke ring, a heat ring, and a stove ring? and was told it was on the pans to fit in the holes of wood burning cook stoves after the lid was removed.i can say with all authority they are not real good for my new flat topped range ( if they have a nick out of them) thanks,brian

We had a special article in our WAGS newsletter about this subject.  Yet another reason to join WAGS.

Welcome again Brian.  I'm at Penn State, so my response is short.

[Roger Barfield]

I'm at Penn State

Don't forget to say Hi to JoePa ;D

[Greg Stahl]

Joe Pa is not much liked by the folks I've talked to here so far!!

[Roger Barfield]

I would imagine so, I'm a Longhorns fan.  Just giving you a hard time.  Enjoy your trip there Greg.  You're supposed to be off 3 days according to your post, but you can't stay away from the forum.   I can't either. LOL  It's like therapy for the cast iron afflicted.  Safe traveling to you.

[alanrockwood]

How much effect does a heat ring have when using cast iron on an induction stove? In theory it should be slightly less efficient because it moves the mass of iron slightly away from the induction coil, but I am taking a wild guess that the effect would be fairly small. Aside from that question, I wonder if the heat ring would tend to scratch the ceramic. Several of my pans have heat rings.

[C. B. Williams]

I cook on gas so I am no expert on this. Ceramic will scratch, but cast iron is fairly soft. A lot softer than ceramic. You probably won't have much problem there. But, I don't think your ceramic induction top is going to work well as far as heat transfer is concerned without surface contact.  Since you have both, I sure would like to hear from you after some experimenting. thanks, C B