Aldi Selling the Crofton Awesome Pot, a Dupe of the Our Place Perfect Pot

Last Updated on October 26, 2023

This post is an open thread and contains affiliate links. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read our complete review of this pot here. 

Every fall, you can count on Aldi to ramp up its selection of cooking and baking gear in its famous middle aisle. As Thanksgiving approaches and everyone begins making plans for the next few marathon months of holiday meals and entertaining, Aldi rolls out cookware and small kitchen appliances galore. The most recent weekly ad features a stand mixer, glass baking dishes, cookie sheets, and cooling racks, to name just a few things.

One product that stands out in the recent ad is the Crofton Awesome Pot. While Aldi has not sold this specific product before, the Awesome Pot has a familiar ring to it.

In January of 2022, Aldi introduced the Crofton Awesome Pan. The pan — a ceramic skillet with a matching lid — was a much less expensive knockoff of a name-brand Always Pan made by a company called Our Place. Our Place was founded in 2019 and focuses on making kitchen products. The co-founder, Shiza Shahid, served as a mentor to Nobel laureate and assassination survivor Malala Yousafzai.

Our Place sells a variety of products, but its best-known product is the Always Pan, which features an aluminum body and ceramic nonstick cooking surface. Our Place claims the Always Pan “braises, sears, steams, strains, sautes, fries, boils, bakes, serves, stores…does it all!” It also comes with a beechwood spatula with built-in resting place and a steaming basket and colander.

The name-brand Always Pan retailed for $145 in 2022 and now sells for $150. In contrast, the Aldi Awesome Pan initially cost $24.99, and when Aldi sold it again later it went for $28.99, which was still a lot less than its name-brand counterpart.

Now, in the fall of 2023, Aldi is once again copying a popular Our Place product. The Aldi Crofton Awesome Pot appears to be a dupe of the Our Place Perfect Pot. The Perfect Pot is a 5.5-quart ceramic Dutch oven with lid that can be used for boiling, baking, steaming, and braising. Our Place’s website states that the Perfect Pot “combines every pot you’d ever need…and then some.” It has a built-in strainer and includes a beechwood spatula with a built-in resting place just like the Always Pan.

The catch is that the Perfect Pot costs $165.

But the Aldi version — dubbed the Awesome Pot in a clear nod to its predecessor, the Awesome Pan — costs only $29.99.

What We Know:

The Crofton Awesome Pan in green.

The Crofton Awesome Pot is an Aldi Find, which means it’s only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, it’s gone unless Aldi decides to bring it back at some later time. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that are not in stock at your local store.

This is scheduled to arrive in Aldi stores on either October 22nd or October 25th, depending on whether your local store’s weekly ad goes into effect on Sundays or Wednesdays.

The Crofton Awesome Pot cost $29.99 at the time of publication. As mentioned above, the name-brand Perfect Pot sells for $165. I also found the Perfect Pot on Amazon, where it went for $150. Either way, the Aldi version is much cheaper.

Here’s more information about the Awesome Pot, according to Aldi:

• Available in Green or Black
• Compatible with all cooktops including induction
• Awesome Pot body is oven safe up to 450 °F
• Awesome Pot lid is oven safe up to 300 °F
• Features FusionTi nonstick coating
• Holds up to 6.5 quarts

I noticed a few similarities and differences compared to the name-brand Perfect Pot.

In terms of similarities, both the Awesome Pot and the Perfect Pot are oven-safe up to 450 degrees (although the Awesome Pot lid is only oven-safe up to 300 degrees).

One difference is that the Awesome Pot does not have a built-in spoon rest, and it doesn’t come with a wooden spoon like the Perfect Pot does. (These features were also missing from the Awesome Pan from Aldi.)

The Awesome Pot also has a slightly larger capacity, coming in at 6.5 quarts versus the Perfect Pot’s 5.5 quarts.

The previous Crofton Awesome Pan came with a two-year warranty, but Aldi has not yet published information about whether the Awesome Pot has any kind of warranty.

What We Don’t Know:

I haven’t yet purchased this pot, although I plan to try to score one on the day they show up on my local store shelves. I’ve been needing to buy a new large pot like this anyway, so the timing is good for me. In the meantime, I don’t know how well the pot works or how it holds up to regular use. We write open threads at Aldi Reviewer so readers can have a place to discuss Aldi products.

Have you purchased the Crofton Awesome Pot? Tell us what you think of it in the comments below.