Lodge Enameled 6-Qt Cast Iron Dutch Oven, Emerald

The majority of information on this pot you will find on other reviews. I will help fill in the blanks with this review. Facts first: Lodge Logic is an American Company that makes their cast iron here in the US. They have their Enameling done in China. Le Creuset is a French company that manufactures their cast iron and enameling in France. The Dutch Oven and the French oven are basically the same thing. There is no discernible difference between them. Lodge has their products 100% inspected before coming into the US for lead as does Le Creuset. Lodge and Le Creuset both offer limited Lifetime warranties on their enamel products. As of January 2012 Lodge ships all of their Dutch oven lids with stainless steel knobs with no heat restriction for safe oven cooking. They no longer use the plastic knobs on their products with the exception of the enamel panini press since most likely you will not be putting that in the oven. Le Creuset ships their french oven lids with their plastic (phenolic) knobs (oven safe to 350°) To buy a stainless steel replacement knob for your Le Creuset is going to cost you another $15 roughly. All of the BLACK surfaces on your skillets, pans, dutch/french ovens, and panini press are BLACK MATTE enamel coating. That is not a clear coat and it is not seasoned cast iron on either of the Lodge products or Le Creuset products. I feel I dont need to go into the benefits of Cast Iron cooking vs other cookware. There is a wealth of information on that subject all over the net and in these reviews. I will say this tho, with the exception of boiling water, no cast iron product needs to be heated more than on a medium setting. Boiling water can use high heat but once boiling begins it needs to be turned down. I use a Misto to spray refined peanut oil on anything that could potentially get hot to keep smoke down. Everything else I spray a light coat of EVOO to maintain a non-stick surface. No enamel product is going to be as non-stick as Teflon or Teflon-like products. If you want something that non stick without the chemicals and frailness you need a well seasoned cast iron product. (not pre-seasoned but well seasoned) Lodge Color vs Lodge L-series: I talked directly to their customer service to get the low down on this subject. Both sets are enameled the same way by the same vendor with the same amount of enameled layers. They obtain the same quality control. Other than the obvious shape and color differences the only thing that separates the 2 sets are the stainless steel handles and embellishments on the L-series. I was also told by customer service that they are phasing out the L-series and are going to continue to move forward with the Color series. Just an FYI the Emerald Green is a little darker than the Le Creuset Fennel Color if you are looking to match the two sets. You might notice more of a difference in color between the Lodge's dutch oven and Le Creuset's French oven (same thing) but overall they are quite close in color. But between the skillets you wont notice much of a difference unless you examined them right next to each other. They actually match quite well. I own Le Creuset pieces in Fennel and Lodge Color pieces in Emerarld Green. I have not seen either out perform the other.