Presto 01781 23-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Canner & Cooker for Home Canning, Preserving Food, and Cooking - Perfect for Jams, Pickles, Soups, and Meals

I have canned home grown foods for about 40 years. I have and old canner (dont even know how long I have had it) Decided this year to get a new one. Cant believe have much more efficient this one is. Build and holds up pressure much faster than themold models. I encourage ALL canners to try a new one and this one suits the purpose. It holds 7 Quarts and about 12 pints of your beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables.Dont make the mistake I did and hold on to those oldies.I can alot from our garden and this canner has been great. Follow the directions and check your altitude for gauging you need to be at. I'm in KY so under 1000 we can at 11psi.My sister and 2 cousins have the same exact canner and also love it.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!Have used it to water bath can and pressure can. Using on glass-top range -- never got answer from range manufacturer, so hoping it doesn't exceed weight limit. Would be nice if it had multiple pressure regulators to can at different temps instead of having to constantly watch the dial gauge to keep the pressure appropriate, but not a huge deal. Sealed easily (but I did take it off the glass cooktop to ensure I could press down hard enough to compress the gasket without overloading the cooktop).I like this item I should have bought the smaller one but I do love it. I especially like the safety features. It has many more than I thoughtHonestly, I was hoping this would last me through the summer at least until I could afford a "better" canner but...this one kicks butt. I have done at least two canning batches a day at least three or four days a week since I got it and I'm shocked at how well it works and how easy it is to use. It came nicely packaged, clear instructions as well as recipes and guides for canning and pressure cooking different meats and veggies, it's easy to assemble and disassemble for cleaning, it's lightweight while still being durable, it looks better made than I thought based on the price, and it does exactly what you'd expect it to perfectly every time with no issues or fuss. I have a portable electric burner cooktop system that I'm using while my kitchen is under renovation so I wasn't sure how well it would work but it has seriously held up better than I hoped it would. I'll be using this thing hopefully for years. I don't see why I wouldn't honestly.Final update: Thanks to Ann at customer service for sending me a new pressure cooker. It was shipped on Friday and arrived Sunday! Now I can continue to can veggies. Thanks!Update: I contacted the manufacturer. They were very responsive and got back to me quickly. They seemed to think that it was my stove coil burner that caused the problem. After the event, the burner definitely suffered damage too. However, the customer service rep Ann was very kind, and offered to send me a new canner, same model and size. I will update again when it arrives.I have been using this as a water bath canner, which is also a use for it, so I have never used it as a pressure cooker. I have never even used the lid, only the insert canning rack which it says to use. This pot was great until this happened. I purchased this last summer and only used it last summer and started again this summer. I am not a big canner, so it was not used that much. It surely should be able to last longer than a couple months. If I had been using this as a pressure cooker, it would have blown up my kitchen!Very high quality construction. I'm very happy with this pressure cooker, having used it twice. I like to use it for canning peppers/pickles and also as a way to ultrapastuerize my wort for homebrew. Will likely also use it soon to sterilize grain so I can cultivate some yummy shitake and oyster mushrooms at home! Would buy again. Even though the price was steep for my budget, you get what you pay for hereThis canner comes as advertised and works well. I have made 3 batches of food so far and they have turned out well. The canner is definitely less expensive than the other major brand of canner, which impacted my choice to purchase the presto. I am an experienced water bath canner but have never done pressure canning and wanted to give it a try. When I purchased this canner the reviews and comments of others clarified that it would be important to send the pressure dial in for testing annually to the county office. I called presto today to order an extra part (another rack so I can do pint jars because this only comes with 1 rack and you need 2 if you want to do more than 7 pint jars at a time), and asked the question about where I could have the dial gauge tested. They said there is no where that does that in Canada. So, I just need to trust the pressure weight. Ok. But I am a beginning pressure canner and I am not sure I feel comfortable with that. It would have been nice to know this information before purchasing. If you are in the US, great, but if you are outside of the US you should know that there may not be somewhere to get your gauge tested regularly. That's why four stars instead of five.Excellent Pressure Canner. Doubles as a Large Stock Pot.We bought a second unit to expedite our Fall Harvest Pressure Canning.There's plenty of room for them on our Glass Top Stove, side by side.Easy to clean and simple to use.Buying meat/produce on sale and bulk canning on the weekends has saved us dearly.The Canned Food is delicious and fast to heat up. Whip up a wonderful meal on short notice.We eat very healthy now as it is very convenient and fast to re-heat our Canned meals. Far fasterthan "FAST FOOD" and unequaled quality/taste.We've improved our diet, lost some weight, learned a new skill and are healthier as a result.Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! ;)Thank you Presto/Amazon.caThis is a good product. Before buying THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WILL HEAT THE CANNER. The instructions clearly state you can only heat it with a burner putting out a maximum of 12,000 BTU. If you have a flat top stove (e.g. glass) a pot needs a very flat bottom. If you warp this canner by overheating it, it will not thereafter work well (if at all) on any electric stove. You CANNOT use this canner on a turkey deep fryer propane burner - it's way too hot.We use a small propane/butane stove that puts out 15,000 BTU max. This is a good product but you need to pay attention about using it. Also, keep in mind if you fill the canner with lots of jars, make sure they're nice and hot, since it's a big mass to heat up to pressure canning temperature.If you enjoy canning many receipes require a pressure canner. A pressure cooker won't do the job. I bought this unit 2 years ago and am still happy with my purchase. It's reliable and as a good capacity, you can fit 7 x 1L mason jars or 18 x 500 ml. Only down side is that it's hard to get the correct pressure and maintain it on a gaz stove. It's also very bulky so if you have a small kitchen sink like mine, you'll need a plan B. The cons are true of any other pressure canner and I've tried three, this one is the best quality for a reasonable price. Cheaper ones did not do well with heat and end up with a rounded bottom so useless, this one has been overused and is still flat so I do recommand this productI bought this for my son for his birthday as he had expressed interest in pressure canning fresh caught salmon as well as salmon he had smoked. He got it done immediately after receiving his gift and has raved about how easy it was and how awesome the finished product is. They went out and bought 20 lbs of green beans and made a bunch of variations of “dilly” beans, and other fruit “things”. He is more than pleased with the product.It was a big item and arrived in just a couple of days. Super service!