Cuisinart - 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker - Stainless Steel/Matte Black

Here's the problem with reviews... They usually take place when someone has had the product for only a short time so they give a glowing review because it works so well. I've owned this product for about 18 months and there is something important that customers need to know. At the 18 month mark, the metal on the handle is peeling away and it's not just paint. It's sharp and can cut you if you aren't careful. Search Cuisinart Handle online and you will see others with the same problem. If that isn't bad enough, calling customer service will consume about an hour of your time. They also say avoid the hold time and submit your question online and that they will get back to you in 24 hours. Well, after three days of not hearing back, the phone rep said "no, it's 48 hours". After going through all of that, you will find out that you have to send the defective part back to them at your expense. That's right, they manufacture a defective product and in order for them to make it right, you have to spend more money. I checked the price to send it back and the least expensive method is USPS and it costs around $20. They don't actually need you to send it back mind you, they just want it so they don't have to replace the part. You have to give them the serial number and jump through all sorts of hoops just to make a warranty claim. What is someone going to do with just a lid? It's clear from my interactions with them that they pretty much just hope customers will go elsewhere. Well, I'm here to encourage you to go elsewhere BEFORE you have to deal with Cuisinart and DON'T BUY CUISINART! That warranty looks good until you realize how much it costs you to take advantage of it. I bought this on sale for not much more than it costs me to send the defective part back... and other pressure cookers go on sale here at Best Buy all the time. Do yourself a favor and opt for a better product. Research manufacturers who build better products and stand behind them rather than one who makes big promises up front and then wants you to go away once they have your money.

I caught this at a good sale price, but it would be a good value at full price. You just pour in the ingredients, set the pressure and the time, and let it cook. It also has very useful options of sauteing and browning, which avoids having to use a separate skillet. It doesn't have a lot of buttons like some other units, but pressure cooking boils down to [pun intended] pressure (=temperature) and time. Two minor things I wish could be improved: 1. It's a bit tricky to position the pressure limit valve in the right place. Some venting is necessary at the beginning to purge out the air. You'll hear steam blowing out until you learn the correct (non-obvious) place to orient the valve. Once the unit starts cooking, there is very little venting. Better marking on the unit, or an obvious "click" in place would help. 2. The gasket picks up quite an odor from garlic, spices, etc., and the dishwasher doesn't remove it. I keep baking soda in the cooker between uses, which helps. A little geek-speak here re pressure cooking in case anybody else on the planet also finds this interesting! Cooking is basically a lot of complex chemical reactions. There's a very approximate rule of thumb in chemical reactions that a 10°C (18°F) rise in temperature doubles the reaction rate (halves the time). Not precise, more a guesstimate. Higher pressures mean water boils at a higher temperatures, thus faster reactions. At atmospheric pressure water boils at 212°F. At 7 psi it's 233°F. At 15 psi it's 250°F. At each of the two steps, the reaction rate approximately doubles, hence the faster cooking. The pressure holding in moisture also helps in the quality of many foods.

Often we are all consumed with other task and errands that steals us away from the who matter most, family and friends. This item will definitely help you gain some of that time back in the Kitchen. First time I used it I put a whole chicken. Browned the outside with the bird after seasoning thoroughly. Threw in baby red skins and carrots raw...28min after starting the high pressure. That birds was done! I love this pressure cooker. The only drawback I have with this cooker is the pressure release time. Some entrées will require the pressure to naturally release. It takes forever (exaggeration), but it's longer than I want to wait after hearing the beep and smelling the goodness within throughout my kitchen. Regardless, clean up is a breeze and if you truly can't wait for the natural pressure release, turn the pressure dial to quick release but know you stand a chance of ruining your meat. Impatiently, I've tried to release the pressure slowly and my bird still came out juicy. Be careful with the release, too much at one time and you might burn your fingers. Top won't open while pressurized of course. Happy eating. Very simple and straight forward to use, I just have to get better knowing how much water to add and make sure you have a pair of tongues to get your bird out, because it will fall apart easily with the wrong gear trying to remove it. My 7 year old like anything that comes from this thing!

I own two of these awesome pressure cookers. I bought another one for my mom. It’s so easy to use and clean. Best part??? It is fool proof! My mom owns an old school style pressure cooker. I don’t like using those because if you don’t set it up correctly or the pressure valve is not on right they can explode on you. I remember when I was a kid and my mother blew one up with split pea soup in it. Thank goodness it happened when she turned away from the stove or she would have been hit by it and badly burned. With the safety shut off this electric version will shut off or not take pressure until it’s right. Cooks quick, I make all kinds of meals and desserts with it. Great for meats too. They last a long time too, my first one is about five years old and it keeps on cooking. It’s dish washer safe but I don’t put it in the dish washer. I hand wash it all, I think this has contributed to its longevity. By the way my mom loves it too, she gave away her old school one. You can walk away from this one with no worries of over cooking or burning. If you don’t have one you need this awesome pressure cooker.

Had been thinking about getting a pressure cooker for probably more than a year and finally committed to purchasing one roughly 2 months ago. I always thought to myself "What exactly would i cook in it?" When it finally came i still didn't know what to use it for so i just started using it for most things: rice, pasta with sauce and meatballs, corn; they all came out great. Rice comes out creamy almost like risotto, that might be because i don't put the correct amount of water but i love when it comes out like this. Also attempted making things that i have hated making in the oven in the past. Pot roast takes 4+ hours and i have never been able to make ribs tender even having them in the oven over 8 hours i just gave up on them. This makes the meat fall apart in only 30 minutes it's amazing! Also used it to make soups. Has a great feature so you can brown/sauté so you don't have to use the stove to brown meat before hand or sauté veggies. I chose this model mostly because it was one of the highest rated on Amazon, Best Buy priced matched them for me so that is why i ultimately purchased from them :)

When I got this I really didn't know what to expect. I had heard a lot of pros of pressure cooking but wasn't sure if it was really up to all of the hype. I did a lot of checking before finally settling on this one. The instruction booklet isn't very user friendly in explaining things. I got more info off Google and YouTube than that booklet inside of it but, that is not a reflection of the machine itself. Once you get the hang of it and figure out what they are actually saying the set up is so easy its almost embarrassing that the booklet confused so much. Its effortless! Like most I like easy and this is very easy. Use was a breeze and it performed perfectly. Literally start and walk away. The timer is loud enough to be heard in other rooms and even if you can't jump up and go to it right away, it auto goes into warm while it de-pressurizes itself. I'm extremely happy with my purchase. I can see it will get a lot of use.

This item was not for me. It took more time to prepare the food to cook than it would have taken me to cook it. The directions recommend to brown certain foods first in the pressure cooker; however, it took forever to brown the food! I ended up browning it on the stove much quicker. It is also supposed to cook rice very well. Wrong. We followed the instructions correctly, and we made it twice just to be sure that we didn't make a mistake the first time, and the rice was inedible both times...it was like porridge. We bought this with the thought that it would save time in the kitchen. Wrong. It took more time to prep and then we had to "babysit" the pressure cooker...5 minutes at this setting, 10 minutes to let the steam out. Too much work and never a great outcome. I am not sure how other pressure cookers compare. This one seemed well-built, it just wasn't for us.

I must have really wanted one of these, because after receiving two from online orders that were dented, I returned the second one to a store and they let me open and inspect the one on their shelf to be sure it was not dented. (Even though I experienced this problem, I must compliment Best Buy's customer service. They were amazing both online and in the store in rectifying this issue, so you can be sure any problems will be addressed in the most professional, pleasant and fair way.) So, on to the product. I wanted to test the operation of the product right away so if there were any mechanical problems, I could return this one also. I bought a pork shoulder roast and researched some recipes for pulled pork. I read the directions (which I found adequate) and launched the cooker. I left to do some errands and when I returned I had fabulous, tender pork that I then shredded for pulled pork sandwiches. All my family loved it and I can't wait to explore more recipes. The cooker manual has very few recipes in it, but there are tons online so that was not at issue for me. I'm so happy with my purchase. I can definitely recommend this pressure cooker to anyone in the market.