Are Made In Sheet Pans Worth Buying? (Review & Test Results)

Made In’s half sheet pan is made with heavy-gauge aluminum and is marketed as a professional-grade pan for serious home cooks.

It seems like a solid choice—simple, durable, and made in the USA. But after months of testing it alongside five other top-rated sheet pans—Hestan, Nordic Ware, USA Pan, Vollrath, and Caraway—I found that while the Made In pan performs well in some areas, it doesn’t do enough to stand out.

In this in-depth review of the Made In sheet pan, I’ll walk you through how it performed in real-world tests and compare it to the other brands to help you decide if it’s worth adding to your kitchen.

To compare Made In to the competition fairly, I put each sheet pan through a series of controlled tests. I used the same oven, cooking times, temperatures, and recipes for every pan. I measured how well each pan roasted potatoes, how cookies baked and released, how difficult each one was to clean, and how well they held up to high heat. 

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Use the links below to navigate the comparison:

• Materials and Construction
• Roasting Test
• Cleaning Test
• Baking Test
• Warping Test
• Bottom Line: Is the Made In Sheet Pan Worth It?

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Materials and Construction

The Made In sheet pan is made in the USA from heavy-gauge 3004 aluminum. It has the same basic dimensions, wall height, and weight as Nordic Ware and Vollrath—17.75 inches long, 12.75 inches wide, 1-inch tall walls, and a total weight of 1.6 pounds. It feels solid and well-made but not noticeably stronger or thicker than lower-priced alternatives.

Made In lists its heat tolerance at 500°F, which is higher than Nordic Ware’s 450°F. But this number likely reflects what Made In (likely their legal team) was comfortable publishing—not a functional difference in the aluminum itself. There’s nothing unique about Made In’s aluminum that allows it to withstand higher temperatures. They’re simply willing to take on more liability by listing the higher number.

The pan is uncoated and has a bare aluminum surface, which is typical of commercial-style pans. It offers fast heat conduction but at the cost of food release and ease of cleaning.

Over time, the surface develops visible micro-scratches—especially if you use metal utensils. These don’t impact performance but give the pan a worn look fairly quickly.

Roasting Test

To evaluate roasting performance, I cut small yellow potatoes in half and placed them flat-side down on the pan’s surface. I used exactly 239 grams of potatoes on each pan and seasoned them with one teaspoon of oil, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper.

I roasted the batches at 400°F for 15 minutes without rotating the pans to test heat distribution, browning, and food release.

The potatoes browned evenly and developed a nice color—slightly deeper than what I got with Nordic Ware. That was one of the few areas where Made In stood out. But the sticking was worse. 

Several pieces clung to the surface and broke apart when I tried to lift them with tongs. That’s expected with uncoated aluminum, but it was more frustrating here than with Nordic Ware or Vollrath. Compared to USA Pan and Caraway—both of which have non-stick coatings—it’s a very different experience.

Cleaning Test

After roasting, I left each pan out overnight without rinsing or soaking. The following day, I hand-washed the pans using warm water, dish soap, and a soft sponge, and I timed how long it took to get each one clean.

The Made In pan required more scrubbing than average. The stuck-on potato residue took real effort to remove, and some light staining remained even after cleaning. It wasn’t the most challenging pan to clean—Hestan took that title—but it was more work than Nordic Ware, which had less sticking, and far more than USA Pan or Caraway, which basically wiped clean.

There’s no coating to worry about damaging, so you can scrub aggressively if needed. However, the surface scratches easily and will continue to show signs of wear over time.

Made In does offer a non-stick version of this pan, similar to USA Pan and Caraway, but it costs more and, like all non-stick coatings, will degrade with use.

Baking Test

For my baking test, I placed five equal scoops of cookie dough in a cross pattern on the pan—four in the corners and one in the center—and baked at 350°F for 12 minutes. I was looking for even browning, uniform doneness, and how easily cookies released from the surface.

The Made In pan baked the cookies evenly across all five positions with no cold spots or burnt edges, which is a sign of even heat distribution. But the cookies stuck slightly, and I needed to scrape them off with a spatula. Slight sticking is expected with bare aluminum, but it adds to the cleanup time, and you need to gently remove baked goods from the surface to avoid breaking them.

The cookies were slightly underdone in the center—similar to those baked on Nordic Ware. On the Hestan pan, they were even less cooked after the same amount of time.

Warping Test

To test for warping, I placed each empty pan in a 450°F oven for 20 minutes, then set them on a flat countertop to observe any movement.

The Made In pan didn’t warp dramatically like USA Pan, but one corner did lift slightly, and I heard a soft popping noise as the metal expanded. After cooling, it didn’t fully return to a flat shape.

The movement was subtle—less than a millimeter—but enough to feel when pressing on the surface. This was almost identical to the performance of the Vollrath pan, which has similar specs.

Nordic Ware and Caraway remained completely flat. Hestan also held its shape perfectly, but it’s more than twice as thick and far heavier. The slight warping in the Made In pan isn’t a major flaw, but it undercuts the value of its higher listed temperature limit and raises questions about long-term durability.

Bottom Line: Is the Made In Sheet Pan Worth It?

The Made In sheet pan performs well overall but doesn’t clearly outperform its less expensive competitors. It’s made in the USA and delivers even browning, but food sticks, cleaning takes effort, and it showed minor warping at high heat. There’s nothing wrong with it—but when performance is nearly identical, there’s no good reason to pay even a little more than what Nordic Ware costs.

If you already use Made In cookware and like the brand, this pan will fit perfectly with your setup. But if you’re just trying to get the best performance for your money, Nordic Ware offers the same experience for less. USA Pan is the better option for non-stick performance, and Hestan stands out for its unmatched durability and warp resistance—though it’s significantly heavier and far more expensive.

You can find the Made In sheet pan at (MadeInCookware.com, Amazon).