Fagor Stainless Steel Duo Combi 2-in-1 Pressure Cooker for Rice, Beans, Braised Meats, & Soups, 4 & 8 Quart, Silver, 5 Piece Set

Fagor pressure cookers where have you been all my life????Seriously I thought pressure cookers were explosive mini nuclear devices capable of inducing 3rd degree burns and hot lava on your ceiling. That is what I had been warned by generations of respected elders.I cook a lot of dried beans, stews, and soups from scratch and freeze them. It's economical and healthy. I like how affordable it is to buy dried beans and legumes vs. canned but drat! The time it takes on the stovetop and I don't think the quick soak method yields the same deliciousness and texture as the drudgery of simmering for 2-3 hours. And this totally stinks to do in the summer when it is 90 deg. F.I was lamenting this to a friend who said to me, "two words - pressure cooker". They then told me the modern models were explosion-safe given you can't open them when they are pressurized and they have safety steam escape valves built into the gasket area.I am very pleased with my Fagor cookers. I own two of the Duo's and use them weekly as pressure cookers and more often as stovetop pots. The Duo comes with one pressure lid (with silicone gasket and valve) and one glass lid, both lids fit both pots.They make quick work of anything involving dried beans and make the best soups and stews because they have the effect of infusing the flavors into the foods like it's been simmering away for hours. But it really only took you maybe 20-30 minutes of cook time (including natural release method time). Want mashed potatoes fast? Cooked beets? Beef stew? Pea soup? Want to make your own broth base that makes the richest broth ever and doesn't take all day? This is the solution. About the only thing I don't make in it would be cooked grains like rice, kasha, barley, bulgur, and pasta - which I think can be done with better results on the stovetop or in an electric rice cooker. Sorry but I'm not a fan of the "pan in pot method" explained in some cookbooks, but that's just me.The Fagor Duo is exceptionally sturdily built, easy to use and monitor that it is pressurized/set at proper burner setting. A yellow plastic nodule raises and stays raised indicating the pot is at full pressure. Then you just lower the burner to half temp or less, making sure there are wisps of steam escaping from the valve and run your timer. Remove your pot from the heat at time. The yellow nodule sinks once the pot is fully de-pressurized. You can depressurize the Fagor Duo via natural release, cold-water method, or by a manual release valve (seldom used but there).I have never burned anything or had a problem with stuck on foods - but I read manuals and follow directions. I have never had the lid get stuck on and I have never had difficulty putting it on (line up the little oblong lines and move top handle to the left) or getting the pot to pressurize (light coat of cooking oil on gasket) - but then again did I mention I read manuals and follow directions? When cooking beans I make certain that the cooker is no more than half full when all ingredients are in it and I always add a little oil to prevent foam/bean skins from clogging the steam vents. I have not had any problems and the beans have been just simply perfect. I have the water level to beans perfected - it did take me 2 or 3 times of draining the excess water from cooked beans before I established a level that leaves virtually no excess and I have not had burned beans or stuck on beans at all.The instruction booklet that came with it was clear and easy to understand. These also come with a DVD to watch on how to use but I have not watched it since the booklet for both use and proper care was perfectly clear to me. I have ordered extra gaskets and valves to keep on hand - Fagor seems to be good about making all the spares readily available.We have hard water here but a periodic wash with a little Bar Keeper's friend will remove any staining like the stainless steel was brand new again - like it does for all stainless and porcelain cookware, sinks, stovetops.I find it handy to have two different size cookers for larger and smaller dishes. I bought two sets of cookers so that I could have two pressure sealed lids so that while one is finishing with natural release or cooling the second can go on the stove. This has saved me so much time in making meals from scratch.Lastly, I think using these with a kitchen timer set at the moment of pressurization would be far easier that observing a "rocker top" model would be. I have not used a rocker top model but from what I read about them, the Fagor seemed much easier for a novice like me to operate when I first started out. I'm very glad I went with these.

I purchased this unit 17 months ago. It has a 10 year warranty. The unit worked very well until I noted that the 2 screws that attach the handle to the lid had fallen out. This allowed the handle to separate from the lid, dislodging the pressure apparatus and rendering the unit nonfunctional. I contacted Fagor and they promptly replied. They offered to send me 2 screws for free but refused to service or replace the unit as the warranty states "Moving and/or perishable parts such as gaskets, internal component parts, etc. which are subject to normal wear and tear are EXCLUDED from the warranty."The screws that hold the unit together are moving and/perishable? Clearly this is a design flaw as I have a lot of cookware and have never had anything fall apart like this unit.

This is a very well built pressure cooker, and it seems to work beautifully. The steel is heavy gauge, it's nice and solid, and you actually get two good pots out of the deal. The big pot is large enough to do a full meal for a good-size family (you could probably feed eight people, though I haven't tried), and the smaller pot is fine for little jobs.My only real complaint about it is the really super cheap trivet they use with it. There's a basket to go inside, which is meant to keep veggies out of the water if you want to steam them, but no plate. And they use an incredibly cheap little wire stand to hold the pot off the bottom. It's really nasty and cheap and crummy, and it does not belong with pots of this quality.So, out of the box, anything you want to cook above the water has to fit inside the veggie basket; there's no way to hold things out of the water without using it, as the wire stand needs a plate of some kind on top. (there is just barely anything to it at all.) This has impaired the usefulness of the cooker a fair bit for me. If I do a whole chicken (which you can cook in about 25 minutes, it's amazing), it has to be squashed into the veggie basket, and the skin over the breast will inevitably split.What this unit really needed was a true flat plate to go in the bottom. You can probably add it aftermarket, but honestly, they should have included it and charged an extra $10.In most respects, it's really excellent. The shape is good, with nice smooth sides, so it will work pretty well on any kind of heat without messing up the silicone seal, and the pressure valve is a really nice simple design that's very easy to clean. And the machining, fit, and quality of the pots and the lid are awesome. But the veggie basket and its wire stand are poorly done, and detract significantly from the overall value.This would be perfect if they just fixed that one thing.