Customer Reviews

Magefesa Mageplus Stainless Steel 6.5 Quart Super Fast Pressure Cooker

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I write this review with some reservation, as this is not a positive review, althouh this is a very nice pressure cooker.

I have an aging orphan jiggler type pressure cooker with an aging and unavailable gasket so I thought I would shop for a new one. This pressure cooker seemed to offer everything in a quality pressure cooker and at a reasonable price. Basically the quality of a Kuhn Rikon for much less.

As far as quality is concerned this pressure cooker will not disappoint. It is constructed of very good quality stainless steel and the "fit and finish" is excellent. Everything seems to be heavy duty from the encapsulated disk on the bottom to the plastic (?) handles on top. Even the stainless steel steaming basket is very nice quality. I did a test run with some water and it worked like a dream. I have no problems with my jiggler, but by comparison, using the jiggler is like driving a nice Chevy where this cooker was like driving a Lexus. More technology, quieter and more precise. Very nice.

So why not 5 stars? First, my unit arrived missing the internal "padding" in the box. Further, the cover had all sorts of sticky stains on it. I initially thought it was used (but the inside was clean). Perhaps it was a demo. Second the instructions were in Spanish. This is a pressure cooker after all, instructions are important. [...] In addition, it seems to be very difficult to get replacement parts including the all important "gasket." Even Magefesa's USA site did not list the gasket as a replacement part for this particular model. Pressure cookers can last for many decades, gaskets will last from less than a year to years. However, "years" is less than "decades." A pressure cooker without a gasket becomes a pot.

Here is my big concern. Amazon and all other web sites list this as a three pressure, pressure cooker and state that the top pressure is 15 PSI. In reality it is a two pressure, pressure cooker. Now, in itself, this is no biggie as I only use 15 PSI anyway. However, the bottom of the pot is stamped with .8 bar which is less than 12 PSI and both the Spanish and English instructions list the top pressure as 80 kgs/cm2 (.8 bar) confirming that the top pressure is less than 12 PSI. Why is this important? All US cookbooks use the US standard of 15 PSI so you will need to adjust all of your times (extend them). PC experts like Vickie Smith will tell you that this will give you unpredictable results. You will also loose some of your energy and time savings. You will need to add at least 20% to you cooking times compared to a 15 PSI cooker. So 12 minutes becomes 15 and 50 minutes becomes a hour. Now think about a recipe that has several depressures and repressures....it starts to get confusing. This is sort of like having an underpowered microwave. You are always adding time, but how much is enough and how much to too much.

I wrote Magefesause a couple of time but never got a response. I did call Magefesa USA customer service and they said the triple pressures "must be a misprint." Why it is on this site, Walmart's, Kohl's, Best Buy and others is then a mystery. As far as the more important pressure question she said that this cooker cooked at a max of 1 Bar (about 15 PSI) but could not explain why the pot and the manuals list the lower 0.8 bar (80 kgs/cm2). I do like the PC but I'm going to return this one and buy the less discounted one off the Magefesa site in the hopes that I just got an older model. Sadly, if that cooker is also stamped .8 bar, I'll return that one too. Too much confusion when I can get a Presto, Fagor or Kuhn Rikon and know that I'm at the right pressure.

Hello,

I have used the old Presto rattle top pressure cooker and the American (Wisconsin Aluminum) pressure cooker for years. Both are aluminum and use the rattle top device on top of the pressure cooker to control pressure. I have researched pressure cookers for a while now and decided on the Magefesa Mageplus pressure cooker, I have the 8 and 4 liter pots. According to Cook's Illustrated the Rikon Kuhn and Fagor are the best. The German WMF Is right up there and the Presto stainless does well too. But after checking on the Magefesa I learned that Cooks Illustrated test used the Magefesa XL or Practika pressure cooker for testing. It did well but not as good as this one would have. This one is their top of the line pressure cooker. The XL or Practika is in the middle and uses a different type of pressure control. This Mageplus pressure cooker uses a similar pressure control to the Kuhn Rikon and WMF cookers. After using these I can not imagine a pressure cooker being any easier and safer to use. The large pressure indicator (a button with lines) moves up and down with pressure. It is very easy to see and adjust burner temperature as needed to control pressure. If you walk away or forget, there are other safety devices to keep everything safe, 5 total.

From what I have seen, it is easy to clean, well made and should last a very long time, time will tell.

For those of you who are a little scared of pressure cookers. If you will pull up a chair and watch the first 2 or 3 times you use any pressure cooker you will see how they work with YOUR stove. You need to learn how the pressure cooker acts on your stove. Once that is done you will feel confident and try new things with your pressure cooker.

Good luck.

Something I failed to mention is this .8 bar or 12 PSI is a touch below 240 degrees that 15 PSI would generate. This is a good thing as far as vitamins go. The slightly lower cooking temperature does not kill vitamins that would be destroyed at 15 PSI.

I don't know anyone who's ever used a pressure cooker but anything that'll make me hot, cooked food fast is right up my alley. I felt guilty running the slow cooker for 20 HOURS just to make pork roast so looked around and found pressure cookers, then did the research and found this Magefesa one of the best. And it's Spanish too so I'm happy. It cooks artichokes in 5 mins! How cool is that? I don't get home from work until 11pm and one night I actually made beef stew (which I wanted badly) in 20 mins. and it only took that long because I kept forgetting to add things and had to keep cooling it down and then restarting the heat thing; it was delicious, stew meat was tender even. I made barbecued ribs this past weekend in about 15 mins. which include running them under the broiler to brown (so they sort of looked like they'd been done on a barbecue which we don't have). And it's stainless, my favorite stuff to cook in. Construction is perfect, vents and valves work beautifully. So far, haven't burned anything so the pot cleans up real fast.

The instruction manual that came with it was in Spanish and I wish I had learned at least how to read Spanish but I never have. But I'm resourceful so went online to the Magefesa website and printout out the manual in English--doesn't have the recipes the Spanish one has in the back but at least I know what to do and what not to do with my cooker. The safety features work really well (scare the cats when they blast). I think this is the best invention since fire. The only improvement I can imagine is one of these that provided magic food so we wouldn't have to shop first, or clean and prepare the food; we'd just have to tell the pot what we felt like eating and it would magically produce it.

I, too, gave a lot of thought, research, and consideration to purchasing a quality pressure cooker. While, I can't give this item a review for the way it performs in a kitchen as I have never owned a Magefesa Mageplus, I can call to attention what a previous poster pointed out in that the "high pressure" setting is indicated at just under 12 psi rather than the standard 15 psi, upon which most all pressure cooker recipes are based. I called customer service and this deal breaker was confirmed for each of the Mageplus sizes. Sure, you might be able to reach 15 psi in this cooker but it would be a stab in the dark as to when that point is reached. Otherwise, using a pressure cooker at only 12 psi thus requiring a longer cooking time seems counterproducive to owning a nice pressure cooker in the first place.

Despite some of the negative reviews here, of which at least a couple are false, I consider this to be a very fine product. The manual is in English and other languages as well. High pressure is 15psi and medium pressure is 8psi. It's a simple device and it is easy to correct any problems (if any arise), because the handle disassembles. This Magefesa is an excellent alternative to other pricier high-end pressure cookers.

This is my serious pressure cooker that I bought. We are vegetarians and it is important for us to cook beans nicely. Not to mention the time that we save by using a pressure cooker. I am happy with the purchase. I downloaded and printed the bruchure in English from their website. Just need to figure out the cleaning the lid and being patient with that in the beginning. Otherwise, it is doing its job very nicely and I think it is worth it to buy a nice pressure cooker that spending the same amount for having multiple ones that do not the job as nice.

This is my first pressure cooker and I loved it for all about a week.

For the first few uses it worked just fine until the little red safety valve in the handle got jammed and wouldn't go down -- even once all the pressure had been released and the pot was cooled -- locking the pot closed.

Now it won't go back up and won't allow the pot to gain pressure, making the entire effort of using a pressure cooker useless. I've no idea why the valve isn't working as it did those first two uses, but I do know that it's not working now and I feel rather helpless.

I suppose all I can do now is look into the warranty and hope this is covered.

I have no idea if the product works as described. I don't think I should operate it without the operating and safety information found in the user manual.

The user manual is in Spanish only. This is sort of a deal breaker for me; I'm not going to have my family learn a foreign language just to use a pot. I wish they would have put that in the item description.