I've typically been a heavy user of non-stick pots for cooking most everything. I'm aware it's not ideal but having had no other options for a long time, I'm pretty good at it and have gotten on pretty well with it over the years.

Recently my go-to pot was looking a little long in the tooth so I decided to replace it and the thing I've been beat over the head with for years was a Dutch oven. A lot of people seem to use them for the kind of one-pot cooking I do often. So I grabbed a Cuisinart one (because I do not have Le Cruset money) and...it's been a nightmare.

Everything sticks. Everything. Even when the pot is hot before anything touches, even with high temp oil (usually avacado,) everything sticks. Things heat inconsistently and the heat doesn't spread out in the pot hardly at all. I'm having food that's burning sitting right next to food that's barely sizzling. The fond is just burning. I'm having to do more cleaning than I did with my non-stick pot.

I know part of the puzzle is my range. It's a cheap, poor quality electric range but unfortunately there's nothing I can do about that.

I've cooked a wide range of things in it - potstickers, soup, meatballs, eggs, pasta sauce, bread, sausages, stir fry, pasta, taco meat, and stew just off the top of my head. Everything has generally sucked because it stuck, heated too fast or too slow, or just cooked unevenly.

I've tried using more oil, less, no oil, some other liquid aside from oil, heating it on lower heat for longer (which makes it take forever), using cooking spray, and it's still turning out pretty poorly.

Is this just something that's great for only a certain range of things or am I just missing something fundamental here?

EDIT: This got a little more traction than I'd expected.

The consensus seems to be to let it pre-heat for longer at a lower temperature. I appreciate all of the feedback and advice.