What's The Average Lifespan Of Sheet Pans?

Sheet pans looking a little worse for wear? It can be tough to decide when it's time to throw out your go-to pans and shell out for a new set. How often you need to replace your sheet pans depends on how often you use them. If you bake once a week or so, replace your sheet pans every couple of years. If you bake less frequently, you may be able to get away with replacing your sheet pans every five years.

Two to five years is a pretty wide range, so keep an eye out for issues that mean it's time to throw in the towel and start fresh with new baking pans. Warping is an issue that causes baking sheets to lose their perfectly flat shape (even if you don't know the term, you've likely experienced the loud bang of the warping process while you have a baking sheet in your oven). While tons of baking sheets warp, especially when heated quickly, your pans should relax back to a flat shape after they have cooled. Repeated warping over time can become permanent and require you to replace your baking sheets. Another sign your baking sheets may be at the end of their expected lifespan of two to five years: a greasy coating that can't be scrubbed away. If typical methods to clean your dingy baking sheets so they look like new again don't work, it's likely time to go shopping for new ones.

If you've got a new set of sheet pans on your hands — or you simply want to help the ones you've already got hold up for the long haul — you'll want to do your best to take care of them well. Take a minute to hand-wash them with dish soap and water, rather than throwing them into the dishwasher. When you're baking, use parchment paper (it's the key to easy, breezy cleanup after baking) or aluminum foil to cover your sheet pans so that you don't have to spend a ton of time scrubbing stuck-on food away from the surface.

Another simple way to help your sheet pans last longer: Store them vertically. This genius storage technique for baking pans doesn't just save you space in the kitchen — it also can protect them from the inevitable dings and dents they can develop when they're stacked on top of one another. While sheet pans certainly don't last a lifetime, putting these tips to good use can stop you from having to replace yours as frequently.