Presto 01781 Pressure Canner and Cooker, 23 qt, Silver

no need to check gauge or buy another regulator
I just received my unit and although I have not used the unit, I have read the book completely and called presto and they say there’s no need to have the gauge checked. If it’s new, it’s ready go to, just follow the cleaning instructions on page 6 and 7 of the book. They also state there’s no reason to buy another 15lb rocker because it comes with one. I ordered the extra rocker for $12 but the unit came last night and has a 15lb rocker in it. Pressure regulator would be the better more proper term, not rocker. I also work in the air pressure industry for a living and we rarely test our gauges unless something obvious is happening and we have variable testing at our facility that goes from 10psi to 300 psi, which that kind of pressure can be dangerous. So I’m not sure why people think they need to get their gauge tested. Even if the gauge is faulty, the rocker is going to rock at 15lbs and never let the pot get higher than this. Additionally, the books states there is a vent pipe (page4) is the “primary pressure relief valve and will release pressure in excess of 15 pounds. The pressure regulator sits loosely on the vent pipe.” That’s a quote. So this unit is designed to be at 15 lbs or below which the pot can handle. I’m not sure why anyone would blow the lid off unless they rolled their rubber ring, their ring was old or not seated properly or the top was not locked. Again, I haven’t used the unit yet, and will follow up soon with a review on that, but from my perspective, I’m going to can tomatoes over the next couple of days and that is 11 lbs of pressure which means I will need my gauge and my rocker should never rock. I have to play with the heat to find where my stove dial holds the pot at 11 lbs and make sure I never see the pressure regulator move or that means the pot has reached 15 lbs. ?? Some of these reviews were confusing and also caused me to buy a 15 lb regulator that came with the unit. It seems unnecessary. ?? Sure seems it’s ready to go out of the box, no need to check or buy another item.Okay, I went home and used it last night. I have updates. First, this is a great unit. I can’t imagine anyone blowing the lid off if you align it and lock it down. I filled it with water, put it on and ran it up to 15 lbs of pressure. On my stove it took 19 minutes to get there but that’s going to vary. I think I understand why people suggest getting the variable weight. In my case, I can a lot of tomatoes. I need this at 10-11 pounds for 15 minutes. I either have to play with the heat setting on my stove to get it to stay at 10-11 pounds, while keeping an eye on it, OR if you buy the rocker weight that is 5-10-15 lbs, you can take it apart, make it a 10 lb rocker and just set it and forget it. I see the logic but don’t think that makes buyin the other part necessary, it just saves a little time. Plus, for tomatoes, they suggest 11 lbs. If you are anal and want 11, the variable weight can’t do that. if you don’t mind 10-11 pounds, no big deal. Either way, I didn’t take my cooker to have the gauge tested, This is ready to go out of the box. Just make sure and put a little oil on the ring to keep it in good shape and you might just want to have a back up ring on hand as the unit ages so that on that weekend you want to can, if the ring splits, you slide the new one in and keep going. Great unit and it’s HUGE! I love it.Another update…this baby is getting a good workout. Canned a bunch of sauce last night, working on more as I type. We bought the additional weight/rocker that you can make 5-10-15 pounds. Put it at 10 pounds and let it pressure for 16 minutes. Gets the tomato sauce in the jars up to 240 degrees killing all that might be present. Great pressure canner. Highly recommend. Again, still don’t understand how anyone could blow the lid off if you align this properly. No blown lids here. Just gotta read the book and use it properly I think.Another update – well, we’ve done 7 gallons of roma tomato sauce, 5 quarts a session and this pressure canner is great. It’s so easy to lock the lid. I’ve also realized it has a special lock that when pressure starts to build, but even before it can be read on the gauge, the lock pops up and there’s no way you can open this canner with pressure so no danger. I will say that when my 16 minutes at 11 lbs for tomato sauce are up, I take a kitchen knife and lean the pressure rocker over to let the steam out quickly. Within 4-5 minutes, all the pressure has bleed out, the lock goes back down and I take the lid off. This is not in the book, but I was just dying to see how the jars looks. As I took them out, they were still boiling and we put a laser temp gauge on them and they were reading 210-215. Given the heat was turned off over 4-5 minutes ago, it’s reasonable to assume it was indeed up to 240 which is what is needed to kill all the stuff for tomato sauce. Keep in mind, this is different for every food, for every size and for every elevation. So read the book for your food and it will tell you what to do. I recommend citric acid as well as the adjustable pressure regulator (rocker) and a canning kit, particularly to get the jars out. Taking them out at 215 degrees is careful business. But it’s cool to see them boiling inside the jars. And within 10 minutes, they are down to 160 which is when the ‘tinning’ or vacuming starts. As you know, the cooling is what causes the air tight seal, not the pressure canning. Pressure canning is to raise the temp up high enough to kill all the germs, when you take them out, they do the tinning sounds and you can hear all the tops going ting, ting…..ting…then you know you are getting a great seal!

Great canner for the price
I got this specifically for canning, and have used it now to make pickles, apples, applesauce, applebutter, roasted peppers and am going to be doing squash next. It has worked great, it seems of good quality, but this is ENORMOUS! I don’t think I really realized how big it would be. Due to it’s size you have the advantage of being able to get the water deep enough to hold 2 tiers of pint cans for a boiling water bath (though getting an extra rack would make that easier), and it holds 7 quart jars as well. Thing is though that the 16 quart says it can hold 7 quart jars as well, and while probably it couldn’t do 2 rows of pints as a boiling water bath, I bet it gets up to temperature alot faster and doesn’t take up so much space. Those are really my only complaints with this, it takes quite a while to build up pressure and it is just so big I have no choice but to stick it in the room I keep my canned products, no room in my kitchen.That said, before I bought this I had no idea you can use a pressure canner to cook. I tried using this to make a beef roast, and it was UNBELIEVABLE! In like 40 minutes I had beef that fell apart like I had roasted it all day, only it was juicier and the flavor was MUCH BETTER penetrated through, amazing! Of course the problem was clean up… it’s just so big that it barely fits in my sink. I ended up finding an 8qt pressure cooker that I’ve been using since to do my day to day cooking with (and you can save money buying cheaper meats that will taste like you cooked them all day!) and I pull out this for the canning… though I am seriously considering doing my Thanksgiving turkey in this!! (I bet it will be good too).This is I am finding out what is known as “first generation” for a pressure cooker, and it makes quite a bit of noise, but that doesn’t bother me so much, those others are alot more $$ of of my pocket… I can handle a little noise, thank you. If what you want is a really big quality pressure canner that looks like it will probably last the rest of your life (with maybe a replacement gauge or seal or something along the way), this is a great choice for the money.

This took just over two weeks to arrive from amazon. Easy instructions and setup. Quality product and safe..As you can see, the box is damaged and had a rough time. It concerns me with the gauge inside, as it clearly states, care is to be taken and no dropping and or hard knocks (the box tells the story)!

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