Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just did a test run on this unit, and so far, so good! Everything seems to function normally as I expect that it would! I've read the instruction manual thoroughly, inside & out, just to make sure that I understood everything as thorough as possible. At first, it can sound & look very intimidating to set up and use. But once you get past what might seem so complicated, you['ve already won half the battle!! I tested it with just plain water - pretending that I was cooking a roast in it or something. Once the water heated up and created enough steam to build up & maintain the cooking pressure, then the countdown timer starts counting down the minutes that you've programmed the unit to operated for whatever you are cooking inside the unit. I'm going to do a pot roast with all the fixings in it tomorrow morning! It should be very good! Ok, so I made the pot roast in the unit yesterday, and the meat came out fine! I browned and seared it right in the removable bowl, prior to sautéing the veggies a little. But don't be fooled by the infomercial when it says that the meat is done in 28 minutes. I found this info to be utterly false! It actually took about 90 minutes to cook & soften the meat to the point where you don't have to fight with the meat, saving all that hard work on your jaws! After the meat was tender enough, I added the cut up potatoes, carrots & frozen green beans, put THEM under pressure for about 10 minutes to avoid over cooking. Even though most or all of the cooking cycles have a preset time, you can lengthen the cooking time by adding additional minutes. To shorten any cooking cycle in operation, just press the KEEP WARM / CANCEL button and move the VENT control to the steam release position to remove pressure from the inner pot. After the taters, carrots and green beans were done, I then adjusted the seasonings and added some premade roux to thicken the liquid. This was the final stage. I did not do this part under the pressure mode. Had the dish over some hot cooked rice. This unit just merely replaces several cooking appliances that you may already have in the home, to integrate all of those cooking functions into one unit. It has many safety features that help keep the user from making any catastrophic mistakes. Just before the pressure begins to build, air is forced out of the cooker through a vent at one end of the lid's handle. After about a few seconds, the small gasket seals that vent to beginning the process of the pressure building up. You can select the pressure level between low, medium or high, depending on the intensity of pressure that you desire. The vent control is rather loose, but don't let the bother you. It is designed that way and works as it should be. There is no hissing or steam escaping from the vent, as with regular stovetop units. Only when the cooking time has ended and you want to remove the pressure immediately. This is no ordinary "run-of-the-mill pressure cooker! It is completely state of the art, and the on-board intelligent electronic control panel does all of the thinking for you!! It is designed as a sautee pot, rice cooker, pressure cooker, slow cooker and it can even be used as a pressure canner! You just choose one of the functions that you dire for the unit to do, press that button for it, adjust the time if you want to add more minutes and let it go. Be advised that you won't see the countdown display until the pressure has been successfully obtain that the unit is hermetically sealed. As with the stovetop units, you will not be able to remove the lid until all of the pressure has bee relieved. You can even cook pasta in the unit right out of the box with no pre-boiling necessary! Cleanup is a snap!! The removable inner bowl can be washed by hand or in the dishwasher. The lid must be washed by hand. When unplugged from the live outlet, the control panel can be simply wiped with a dame rag or sponge. There are no knobs, protrusions or anything else that would make cleaning the exterior difficult. No dirt-catching crevices at all!! ~Linus Oakerie.