Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Not sure why some people had so many problems but I've had this for 3+ years now, use it 2-3 times most weeks and have had no problems. I use it mostly for beans, but have used it a few times for meat and veggies. For you bean eaters, lemme tell you how I use it and I can say that my beans turn out great... I do about 2 cups of dried pintos, peruano, or black beans. Add about 3 1/2 cups of water... sprinkle some salt into it, a bit of cumin powder, sometimes some oregano, and the secret bean ingredient... a SMALL AMOUNT of chili powder. Set it for 26-30 minutes on high.... let it do it's thing... allowing it to cool/release pressure naturally. No soaking needed... and websites I read that said not to add salt to beans before cooking them ... lies! OK, having given you my perfect bean strategy, i'll tell you about the pressure cooker itself. I try to stay away from nonstick, cause it doesn't last forever. My main cooking pans are two iron skillets, a steel comal, and a stainless steel pot for things that need to be cooked in a pot. I wish this thing didn't have nonstick. After 3+ years, the nonstick is still there... but you can see it doesn't look as great as it did on day one... and it prevents me from really scrubbing it with a green pad like I would like to. Pressure relief valve comes off completely for cleaning. After each use, I pop it off, run it under fresh water... it shows some corrosion, but nothing bad. Gasket to seal cooker is attached to a thin metal plate/disk that pushes into the lid. After each use, I pop this off, rinse it in water... and also put the whole lid under cold water to flush out all the pressure release holes. Maybe this is why some people are talking about it getting clogged and needing to tap it, not sure, but folks, you gotta clean it!. It sounds to me like the people who said it worked great for the first x time then stopped sealing are not cleaning their cooker. I don't do any thing extreme.... just rinse the lid parts under cold water... and the pot itself that comes out, I rinse out then pop it in the dishwasher or clean it quickly by hand... pretty basic cleaning needs. Features: THIS is what makes this pressure cooker awesome! I used a stove top pressure cooker in the past, and this is SOOOO much better. I don't have to take up a spot on my stove. I can take this with me to keep things warm. I can set it and forget it... set to high for 27 minutes, leave for work...come home 10 hours later and the beans are cooked and the cooker is on warm. The high and low setting make this dummy proof. No messing with stove top temps for the perfect temp for the perfect pressure. It has settings for saute, browning, and simmer (only additional settings I have used are browning, which I used to brown some pork prior to cooking and it worked really good). As I said, I've used this for over 3 years using it 2-3 times a week with no problems. Just do basic cleaning and you should not have problems with seals or valves sticking. If it broke tomorrow, I would not hesitate to buy another. I've definitely gotten my moneys worth. If the cooking pot was not nonstick, I would have given it a 5 star review... no me gusta non stick!