Willie,<br><br>No, the hard-anodized stuff is pretty new - I do not know anyone with experience with that stuff. Funny; I recently learned how to anodize and hard anodize, and then I got to thinking about cookware, and "poof!" it's been done.<br><br>My guess is that no, it is not as carefree as cast iron - aluminum conducts heat so extremely much better than cast iron, that hot spots seem likely if one does not take care. OTOH, it should take significantly less coals throughout the cooking cycle. Hopefully, I'll let you know first-hand before the end of the summer....<br><br>I remain skeptical of high acid foods in aluminum, hard anodized or not. I'm demented enough without accelerating things via aluminum salts... In theory, properly sealed anodizing should lock off the aluminum. But if it's not sealed properly, anodizing is porous. Then there are scratches... From a practical standpoint I'd say it probably makes no difference overall for weekend type use - if you can't taste the metal, probably don't be concerned about it. I bet there can be a lot of debates held on this - I'd like to hear more opinions, especially links to scientific evidence.<br><br>On a related topic, I noticed that they left everything natural color - too bad. A black dye on the outside before sealing the anodizing would have been a really nice touch...<br><br>Yeah, I am VERY intrigued with the hard anodized no-stick stuff - I foresee at least a skillet, and possibly a kettle in my future...<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Tom