The Best Oil Misters

Like aerosol sprays, a good oil mister should dispense oil in a steady, fine stream that provides even coverage. We gathered a variety of models and put them to the test. Most featured a manual pumping mechanism to build the pressure that forces the oil out. One pump-free model looked like a bottle of cologne: a tall, thin glass cylinder with a button that dispensed a single, directed spray, no pumping required. We also included a continuous-stream spray bottle—a type of bottle that uses an innovative system to produce a long, steady spray.

We started by timing the duration and noting the quality of a single spray when each mister was full (or filled according to the manufacturer’s directions), half full, and one-third full. We then tested the misters by using them to grease our winning 12-inch skillet and 12-cup muffin tin. Next, to better understand each mister’s spray, we traced a skillet onto brown butcher paper and sprayed the misters vertically and horizontally onto the outline, mimicking the ways we might use them in the kitchen. For comparison, we sprayed PAM alongside the misters in each test. What did we find out?

We quickly determined that the quality of the spray was much more important than its duration. Some misters could sustain a long spray—up to 20 seconds—but that spray was still too thick and heavy. Other models produced sprays that looked like abstract oil paintings; the squiggles, blotches, and irregular patterns were fun to look at, but they didn’t represent the even coverage we were after. Comfort mattered, too. The cologne-style model’s spray was a quick, direct burst, so it directed a lot of oil into one space with poor coverage (and required 13 sprays to grease the muffin tin).

For a simple tool, the misters sure took some tinkering. Some dripped and dribbled or were hard to fill. Most pump-style models gave a specific number of pumps required for a single spray, but we found that they all sprayed better if we pumped until we felt significant resistance—up to 18 pumps for some models.

These ups and downs made us wonder why the nonaerosol misters couldn’t match PAM’s perfect, even spray. Our science editor explained that the higher pressure of an aerosol spray breaks the oil into finer droplets, making the oil less viscous. Additionally, PAM contains a propellant, which helps shoot out oil with more force than is possible in manual misters, and contains soy lecithin, which coats the fine droplets of oil, making them easier to disperse. Lecithin also plays a role in helping oil cling to pans more effectively. Without the propellant and soy lecithin, the oil is more difficult to spray and, once sprayed, the droplets clump together rather than remaining fine and separate.

Overall, none of the models matched the consistency and evenness of cooking sprays. While we hope that a better option will materialize, we think most people will be better off using our recommended traditional cooking spray winner from PAM or our propellantless winner from Chosen Foods because they’re easy to use and provide even distribution.