MauvielM'Heritage 150 B 1.5mm Polished Copper & Tin Inside Bain Marie Double Boiler With Porcelain, Lid & Brass Handles, 1.8-Qt, Made In France

I live at high altitude... Copper conducts heat the fastest. I just love ALL the products I have purchased from Mauviel.... boils water faster than all other main name brands. I just love my copper pots and pans!!!!

This is getting a very generous 2 stars only because it works very well for its intended purpose. When it comes down to the raw materials, you can't ask for a better combination: the copper reacts to changes in heat very quickly -- get that water boiling (or not) more quickly than most other options. The ceramic insert is the opposite - it holds heat for a good long time. It's impossible to burn a pudding. Melted chocolate/candy for coatings stays melted much longer than my old stainless steel bowl. From a distance, it's beautiful.HOWEVER, the fit-and-finish on this thing was atrocious:The bottom pan isn't quite round, leaving a big gap between the pot and the ceramic insert big enough for water droplets to spit out, and then to make up for the bulging "corner", the pot rubs against the insert on the two "sides" of the oval.The tin liner is far from smooth; since all that ever goes in that part (for me) is water, I'm not worried about food sticking to it, but I've seen much less expensive products with much nicer tin jobs.The copper band that surrounds the ceramic insert doesn't seat with uniform snugness. It is tight at the top of the band, but kind of 'flares out' at the bottom. I suspect because the closure flange (hidden on the other side of the pot in pictures) has only one bolt, which allows some amount of torquing to happen.Finally, the handle on the bottom pot isn't mounted quite perfectly level.If this were sold as a factory second for $100 or less, I'd forgive all the imperfections. But at nearly $400 for a single piece of narrow-purpose cookware, I would have expected absolute perfection. I didn't return it, but I also won't likely ever buy Mauviel again; certainly not sight-unseen from an online vendor.PS - Keep a potholder handy. Those bronze handles get HOT!

Just a note that I don't think Mauviel makes this kind of finial knob handle anymore as shown in the picture.I just bought one of these (August 2015), and though the image looked like this with an "acorn" style finial handle on top of the lid, it comes with a different kind of standard Mauviel handle (that a real chef would probably prefer, but that I don't think is quite as pretty.Mauviel also doesn't have this kind of lid on its page for replacement lids. If this is important to you, you might want to look for vintage. Otherwise, it's a beautiful pot in every detail, and gorgeously hammered, and gleaming when all polished up.It may be that the smaller size (Mauviel item number 2703.12) DOES come with this finial type handle, but it's pictured here for the larger size (Mauviel item number 2703.14), and that one (the one on this page) does not have this type of finial handle.I've added a picture to the page of the type of handle this size actually comes with.

Hard to find, but works just dandy in the kitchen.

EExExcellent product to

Perfetto sotto ogni punto di vista, ottima qualità, rispondente ad ogni mia aspettativa: il rapporto qualità prezzo ineccepibile.Suggerisco di cambiare la foto poichè non è quella del prodotto pervenutomi.

Very nice water bath. Unfortunately, the bottom of the pot is uneven, thus heating the water on an electric stove is very delayed. Exchange necessary. Probably no problems when used on a gas stove.Bagnomaria molto bello. Purtroppo, il fondo della pentola non è piatto, quindi riscaldare l'acqua su una stufa elettrica è molto in ritardo. Necessario scambio. Probabilmente problemi quando utilizzati su un fornello a gas.