Double Boiler Melting Pots and Gummy Candy Molds Reviewed

This is the full double boiler: two pieces that nest. The bowl holds 1.1 quarts and sits inside a 2-quart pot. The brand says both are 18/8 (304) stainless steel, and it names a silicone and stainless spatula as a third piece.

The brand gives the set as 7.08 inches across and 7.7 inches tall, with a weight of 1.3 pounds. A pot 7.08 inches across takes one burner and leaves room for a second pan. The finish is polished, and the brand lists the set as dishwasher safe.

The brand says the 2-quart pot can touch an open flame, so it works on gas and on electric ceramic. It also says the pot is fine for pasta, soup and vegetables, so it is not a pot you buy only for chocolate.

The bowl is the part to watch. The brand's reminder says not to put the mixing bowl on a stove over an open flame. Keep it above the water, not on the burner.

The brand pitches the set well beyond chocolate: butter, cheese, caramel, candy, wax, honey and warming milk. We would treat chocolate and butter as the real jobs. At 1250 ml, the bowl suits a home batch, not a party-size one.

The spatula is the sore point in the reviews. One buyer gave four stars and said the pot was good but there was no spatula, and that otherwise it would have been five. We can't say how often that happens, so if you need a spatula for the job, plan on owning one anyway.

The harshest review comes from a buyer in Canada who gave one star. That reviewer calls the steel thin and low grade and says the company refused to provide a return label. The reviewer also says it would likely release nickel into food, which is the reviewer's own claim that neither the brand nor we can confirm.

The thinness complaint is the one to weigh. It shows up in a single written review, against about 78 percent of ratings at five stars and 4 percent at one star. The brand says to email if you are unhappy.

On the happy side, a buyer who makes tallow lotions says the heat distributes evenly without scorching anything. The same buyer calls the set sturdy enough to last for years.

Who should skip it? Anyone who already owns a small saucepan and a metal bowl that sits well on it. Also anyone who cares about wall thickness, since the brand gives none and the one critical review is about exactly that.

The second set solves a narrower problem. It is a stainless melting pot with a long handle, 1200 ml or 1.1 quarts, sold with two silicone chocolate bar molds. The brand says the long handle lets it work over pans of various sizes.

The product page describes a pot and two molds. Buyers talk about setting it on pots they already own, so plan on supplying the pan underneath.

The brand describes the pot as 304 (18/8) stainless steel that is rust-resistant, sturdy and dishwasher safe. The details list the finish as non-stick, which sits oddly beside a bare stainless description. Nothing explains the mismatch, so we would not count on a non-stick surface.

The spec sheet gives 14.17 by 7.87 by 3.46 inches without saying what that measures. That makes it hard to judge how the handle and pot sit on your pans.

The molds are food-grade silicone, the brand says, shaped as mini chocolate bars. You press the bottom of the mold to pop the bars out. The brand calls the silicone flexible and non-stick, but it gives no mold sizes or bars per tray, so you can't plan a batch from it.

The reviews we read are short and happy. One buyer says the pot fits securely on different size pots and shows no signs of rust after a few uses. Another likes the side spout, which keeps chocolate from spilling on the pour, and says the bars turned out well.

The rest say it is easy to use and good value. We should be plain about the gap: the written reviews we could read for this one are all five stars, and none is critical.

The star breakdown is more useful. About 85 percent of ratings are five stars, 9 percent are four stars, and 6 percent are three stars or below.

The same warning applies as with the first set. The brand says not to heat the melting pot over a naked flame, so a water bath is essential. The handle and spout only help if the two sit steady together, and two buyers say theirs did.

The brand also says it will arrange a refund or replacement within 24 hours if you are not satisfied. We can only repeat the promise.

Skip it if you want a self-contained set, or if you need to melt more than 1200 ml at once. Skip it too if you want gummy shapes, because bar molds won't help there. It suits someone who has a saucepan, wants chocolate bars, and cares more about the pour than about the pot.

This set is the odd one out: no pot, no heat, just four silicone trays. Each tray has 35 bear cavities, so there are 140 in all. The brand gives each finished bear as 1 inch tall and 0.75 inch wide, with a 3 ml cavity.

The brand lists the whole set at 420 ml, which is 140 times 3. One tray of 35 takes about 105 ml of mix, which is easy to picture with a dropper in hand. The set comes in yellow, green, red and blue.

The brand says the silicone passes a pinch test for LFGB, the European standard. It gives a heat range of -104 to 446 degrees Fahrenheit and says the trays are safe in the oven, freezer, microwave and dishwasher. Those are the brand's claims, and the pinch test it describes is one you can do at home.

Buyers like how easily the gummies release. Several say the gummies popped right out, one after about 15 minutes in the fridge. One buyer used cooking spray on some batches and not on others and says the gummies came out fine either way.

Another reports no ripping after more than 10 uses with hard candy. That buyer also says the wide, shallow cavities hold more than other molds.

Two droppers come in the box, according to several buyers, though the brand's text doesn't mention them. They get mixed reviews.

One buyer says they did not stain with red gelatin dessert mix, where a baster had. Another says they are too small for a big batch.

The common complaint is flimsiness. One buyer calls the trays a bit flimsy and sets them on a baking sheet before filling. Another uses a small cookie sheet.

A third says the flex helps release but makes a full tray hard to carry to the fridge. Plan on a flat sheet under every tray.

One buyer who used the set with children says the bears come out a bit thin because the cavities are shallow, and that the back is flat and not rounded. Another buyer calls the wells nice and deep. Those two reports don't agree, so treat depth as unsettled.

Skip these if you want large or chunky bears, because the finished size is 1 inch tall. Skip them too if you hate fiddly filling, since this is a dropper job from start to finish.

One four-star buyer called the set a bit on the expensive side. About 79 percent of ratings are five stars, which is a good sign for a niche mold set.