The size a frying pan is sold by is measured at the top, from rim to rim. Get a ruler or tape measure ready and do the following with your current pan:

1. First check whether a size is marked on the bottom: better pans often have their diameter there, along with symbols for the heat sources they're compatible with.
2. If there's nothing, place the ruler across the top of the pan, exactly through the middle.
3. Then measure the base on the underside: the flat part that rests on the hob. That number will be a few centimetres smaller, and it's the width you actually cook on and that determines how the pan sits on your cooking zone.

For a new lid you need the size of the top: the replacement pan lids use that size in their name.

A 26 cm frying pan can have a larger base than a 28 cm one. The Blackwell Koekenpan Carbon Staal ø 26 cm has a base of 20.5 cm, almost a centimeter more than the SCANPAN Koekenpan CTX ø 28 cm. Between two 28 cm pans the difference can be even greater. The base of the Blackwell Koekenpan Carbon Staal ø 28 cm is 3.4 cm wider than that of the SCANPAN.

Such a difference can come from the wall: if it slopes, there's less flat surface at the bottom than with a wall that rises steeply. In the specifications of some of our frying pans the width of the base is called "Base diameter". If you want to cook a lot at once without moving up a size, compare pans by that base measurement.

How much heavier does a frying pan get if you choose one size up?

A size up makes a frying pan heavier, but material can matter more than the size. For example, a 28 cm ceramic pan in our selection is lighter than a 24 cm De Buyer steel pan. Empty, such a ceramic pan weighs 0.89 to 1.4 kilos, and a 24 cm De Buyer 1.42 to 1.49 kilos.

A pan weighs even more when full. If you can't lift it easily with one hand, our pan expert recommends a counter-handle: a short handle opposite the main handle. From 24 cm upward some of our pans include such a handle.

Our pan expert pairs a small pan with a large one, or a medium with a large. While the meat is in the large pan, you fry mushrooms or an egg in the small one. That way neither pan has to be so heavy you can barely lift it.

Of our frying pan sets, almost every set combines the sizes 24 and 28 cm. If you want a small one as well, there are also three-piece sets from 20 to 28 cm. If you already have a 24 or 28 cm pan, you can buy the other size separately.