Hi FAUguy,
[quote]A friend of mine said that last year he tried one called Magniflex (made in Italy) and another called Essential and liked them both.
They both have dealers just north of me. Have you tried either one?
www.myessentia.com/locations/boca-raton/[/quote]
You can read some of my thoughts about Essentia and some of the misleading claims they make and some forum discussions with them in this thread and this thread and posts #3 and #4 here). Needless to say I would be very cautious here.
You can read a little more about Magniflex in post #6 here and post #2 here and post #3 here and a forum search on Magniflex (you can just click the link) will bring up more information and feedback about them as well. I would make sure that you confirm the quality/density of all the layers (see this article) in the specific model you are considering so you can confirm that there are no lower quality materials or weak links in the model you are looking at.
Phoenix