Casa Essentials Aluminum Pressure Cooker, 5 Qt.

This turned out to be piece of junk. We lost $55 by buying this cooker and it gave us a lot of trouble. I have never wrote a review like this for any product.DO NOT BUY THIS COOKER as it locks up and did not open. We purchased about a year ago. Several times the lock got stuck and we could not open the cooker. My husband used pins and objects to lift the locking items and opened.Last week, it happened again. and this time the pins did not work. We had to break the plastic locking parts to open the cooker.The company has NO Customer service. We must have called 20 times and left messages at their phone number. Nobody called us back. I will never buy any product made by this company even it is Free ! I am also writing to FTC to complaint. The cooker has 5 year warrenty-says with big letters on the box. I am Extremely disappointed.There is no name of the company or address on the box. That should have been a warning sign, but I found out only recently. I got the name and phone number from the 'saved" use guide ! We also wasted lot of food as many times it did not open for several days.

I was thrilled to find a Pressure Cooker for this price ($35 @ Macy's). I had wanted one for some time, but not enough to cough up the $70+... So home I went to try it out. At first I thought it was awfully noisy, but the key there is turn down the heat until it barely makes any hiss. I tried lentils, garbanzos (pre-soaked), rice, and a bean soup blend from Henry's. They all worked great! It's really amazing how quickly these things cooked - I was hooked - until the silicone gasket tore on the 5th use (chicken) and now my $35 pressure cooker is a $15 saucepan... I'll call the toll free number in the manual tomorrow to see how much these gaskets cost - but I'm guessing they will be $10 each - so I didn't really saved much money in the long run... the gasket felt brittle where it tore, so I'm hoping they will warranty it for me.

I bought this for $19.00 on sale at Macy's January 2016. I wanted to try a regular (not electric) pressure cooker before I spent a lot of money on the electric ones. The first time I used it, I put a small, whole chicken with 2 cups of water, 2 lemons, spices, and broth. I have a glass, radiant, electric range. I turned the stove on to high heat. I was waiting for the regulator to start rocking to turn down the temperature, but the regulator didn't really rock or twist. Ultimately, there was too much pressure and the steam escaped from the side vents. Scared the heck out of me.What I learned: When the button on the handle pops up - it's at pressure. As soon as the handle button pops up, immediately turn down your range from high to LOW. Then start your cooking time. This regulator doesn't rock like most or really twist (at least mine doesn't and several reviews we've read said the same). I've cooked unsoaked pinto beans, one pot: beef, potatoes, and carrots in tin foil, super quick (like 12 minutes total after pressure).That chicken, by the way, turned out amazing in about 18 minutes after reaching pressure. We could really taste the lemon and it was really juicy. I made a broth afterwards from the carcass and pressure cooked stock - then cooked the unsoaked beans in the stock all in about 1 1/2 hours!I always wash the lid, take off gasket, and oil the gasket with a bit of coconut oil. I do this part last, after the dishes are done. I use about 1/2 tsp of coconut oil, warm in hands, oil the gasket, then rub the rest of the coconut oil into your hands.Since it's aluminum, it's heats up to pressure very fast. This is perfect for your first pressure cooker. Even when I upgrade to a larger model, I'll keep this one.Cons:Miss Vickie's Pressure Cooker page says you should look for a 15 PSI cooker, this one is 11.5 PSI. But, it works fine for now. You cannot can in this cooker. Even though it says 5 quart, you can never fill any pressure cooker more than what the manufacturer recommends - which is about 2/3rds for solid food, and 1/2 for soups and beans. So, 5 quart capacity is really only about 2 1/2 quarts or so.

Great pressure cooker. The steamer-release top is what makes it.

My 83 year old father was using this and it exploded, sending food all over his kitchen and he panicked. With his heart condition, it created quite an episode for him. It took us hours to clean up and hours for him to calm down. After researchnig on line, seem there are multiple similar incidents and people who were standing near it were burned, hurt with flying pieces, etc. Please do not use!

I have owned this pressure cooker for about 3 years. Having used one many years ago, the fact that it is 'low-tech' doesn't bother me at all. The key to making appliances work is to follow directions and be careful when care is called for. You handle the gasket gently, do a bit of research and cook things correctly. This is a good basic pressure cooker to use maybe once a month. If I used it more often I would be willing to spend more, but this one works just fine for my needs.

LOVE this. I have never had chicken stew with a whole chicken cook in about 45 mins! So juicy and tender, perfect. I will never be afraid to use a pressure cooker again!

Purchased some years ago for $20. A piece of ****. The thing would not pressurize, EVER. So I read the directions over and over and over making multiple adjustments as advised in the owners manual. No luck. If you have the same problem, be assured it is not your fault. You bought a piece of junk. See if you can get your hard earned money returned.