Customer Reviews

Nesco American Harvest PC-6-25-30TPR 6-Quart Multifunction Digital Pressure Cooker

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

UPDATE AT BOTTOM: Wow, is this a neat appliance. As a pressure cooker, it cooks food as nicely, and as quickly as my old, stainless stove-top model, but with several bonuses. Cleanup is much easier with the Nesco. It browns your meat without any sticking, so you can just toss your other ingredients right in after browning, and switch it to cook. No extra pan to wash. The nonstick pot, also, is much lighter, and washes out instantly vs the heavy ol'stove model that required soaking. Best of all, though, is how quiet it is! No babysitting the constant CH!CH!CH!CH! on the stove anymore. Set it, and it cooks in complete silence without another moment's thought, and no adjustments necessary. You could leave the house (it also has a timer to start cooking later if you wish). The Nesco is a slow cooker, as well. I have been so annoyed with how hot all the new slow cookers are. I've bought several brands trying to fnd a true "slow cooker". They all cook at nuclear heat, and every review of every new slow cooker says the same thing. The Nesco cooks nice and slow just like the old fashioned crock pots did. I love this cooker. The manual blows, though. How strange that the cooker is so well thought, but the quality control for the manual fell flat. It is contradictory, incomplete, and explains the buttons and timer wrong. The recipes are not appealing. Who cares. You'll love the Nesco cooker. It will replace your crock-pot and your stove-top pressure cooker. I've not tried it yet on steaming, but it might just replace the rice cooker and veg. steamer, too. Think of all the room in your cupboards, now.

Jan 2001: OK, my original cooker still works and I still like it, but I'm ticked!!! off!!! at Metal Ware customer service. We got one of these for my brother for Christmas, and it would not even power on. Customer service at Metal Ware Corp requires us to pay to get it shipped for repairs. 15 lbs and a BRAND NEW ITEM and I have to pay this ridiculous shipping fee on top of the very expensive purchase price. I no longer have warm fuzzies for the cooker since customer service is BAD.

Pressure cookers... when most people hear those words the first thing they recall is the urban legend on how one exploded spewing its boiling hot contents on walls, ceilings and nearby bystanders.

I have a different memory. Born in the days before the ubiquitous microwave, we used our pressure cooker on (at least) a weekly basis. My mother had an old Presto 4 qt model. From it came the most delicious soups, stews and that 60's cosmopolitan treat, chop suey . The Presto would hiss and spit and make its identifiable, swish-swish noise as it did its cooking magic. You see, the pressure cooker could cook in minutes what would normally take hours.

Several years back I bought a stove-top pressure cooker with the same type of rocking regulator and the same swish-swish sound. I have used that unit many times, but I have to admit that cooking with it has become a bit of a pain. As I aged I couldn't really hear if it was under the right pressure if I left the room so I was relegated to sitting in the kitchen until the pot had done it deed. Not horrible, but a bit inconvenient.

Enter the Nesco electric pressure cooker. It is a very sturdy pot with a washable/removable liner. It fits together like a precision machine and has a number of accessories including a measuring cup, rack and a spoon/spatula. Although it has a recipe/instruction book it is a bit on the thin side.

Using the unit is a snap. You dump the ingredients into the removable liner. Put the liner in the pot. Put the cover on the pot. Set the timer and...just walk away. The Nesco does the rest. No worries about too much or not enough heat. In fact the unit is mostly silent (just a little hiss). When it is all done cooking it shuts itself off. Amazing! Tonight I made chicken soup (no, not from a can). I put in some chicken parts, celery, carrots, green beans and an onion. I added some simple seasonings and liquid and set the timer for 12 minutes. That's it, and it tasted a lot better than even the most expensive store bought stuff.

The Nesco will let you brown your meat directly in the pot and it will also double as a slow cooker and steamer. It is so simple that even my pressure cooker phobic wife has asked me to show her how it works. Now that's an endorsement! Definitely a must buy if you want quick, nutritious and easy meals that taste a ton better then something "zapped." Don't forget, you control the quality of the ingredients and the amount of salt.

BTW, you can get excellent pressure cooker cookbooks at most book stores, including Amazon (no I don't work for them).

This is a well built, sturdy pressure cooker. It can also be used as a crock pot. It has a delay timer and very well written instructions. I recommend getting a good pressure cooker cook book. Pressure cooking takes a little getting use to.

do not recommend this item. Ist one arrived in pieces 2nd one would not work kept coming up with E4 on electronic screen. I called NESCO and they said it was a manufactures error code and would have to be returned. They said they did not know what it meant because the product is still too new. Maybe after they work out the bugs it would be better. Amazon has been great with the returns.

I have many good things to say about this product and the experience I had with Abes of Maine. Great product and awesome customer service.

Once I decided I wanted an electric pressure cooker, I took time to do some research. The manual stovetop models reach 15psi on the high side, and all the recipes I have seen have been written for 15psi - except for delicate items. So finding an electric pc that was engineered to reach 15psi was critical. I didn't want the burden of recalculating cooking times for recipes just because someone didn't design my electric pressure cooker for 15psi.

I'm glad I spent the time, because research revealed many electric pressure cookers are NOT designed to reach 15psi. Some reach only 9psi and some are regulated to 11psi. Then I found the Nesco model. Before making my purchase on Amazon, I contacted Nesco directly and they advised the cooker did indeed reach 15psi on the high side (5psi on the low side.)

Having used this unit I have to say this cooker is amazing, and as safe as any crockpot. Of course there are guidelines to follow - how full to fill the pot and how much liquid to use, etc.

The first meal was cube steak and gravy - Make a seasoned flour with all-purpose flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, & onion powder. Dredge the cube steak in the seasoned flour. Browned both sides of the steak in a little oil in the cooker using the "Brown" function. Drained the oil and added a can of Campbell's French Onion Soup and about a half can of water. Locked down the lid, set the cooker on HIGH with the timer set to 20 minutes and my, oh my! Talk about tender and falling apart! Such a big result for such little effort!

I peeled & rough diced some potatoes, put them in about 2 cups of water on High for 7 minutes. Done. Mashed them with a little warm milk and butter. Added a side of cole slaw and called it dinner. (There was not a MORSEL left!) I spent more time doing the prep than cooking. Total pressure cooking time for cube steak and gravy with mashed potatoes was just 27 minutes, and the flavor was as good as any restaurant. No hot kitchen and very, very little electricity used.

Desert was vanilla custard: 2 cups low-fat milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Well blended. Put in oven proof ramekins, covered tops firmly with foil on the steaming rack. Put in a cup of water and cooked on High for 6 minutes. In the fridge to chill. Serve w/whipped cream. Wonderful!

Yes indeed, I am HAPPY. My cooking life is so much easier. Operation is simple and safe. Lock down the lid, flip the regulator to "Seal" set the time and walk away. Once the cooker comes up to pressure, I have to look at the display to make sure the minutes are counting down because it's so quiet. Easiest pot I have ever cleaned. Nothing sticks. So simple. I will be(and have been)using this cooker almost everyday.

I received the newer model, which is PC6-25. If you go to the Nesco website you can see new the unit. Several improvements were made over the old model, PC-6-25-30TPR. The top is stainless steel and the cord is removeable, which I REALLY like for storage purposes. I was concerned the cord length might be pretty short, but was relieved to find it is about 60 inches (5 ft.) long. And VERY sturdy. Ask your supplier if they have the new model number in stock.

I did purchase the 3 year SquareTrade Warranty at 19.99. It also covers accidents and handling mis-haps. So, regardless of what happens, it's covered for 3 years. (Wonder what a new one will cost this time next year - or two years from now? It really doesn't matter. If it breaks, gets dropped, has an electrical failure, whatever - it's covered. It's a little extra right now, but the warranty is one way I like to control future cost - and it takes care of any buyer's remorse should you get a lemon!

UPDATE 11-20-10: Still LOVE it! Ordered "Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes" and it's goes great with this cooker since the cooker is 15 psi!

This pressure cooker is great. I haven't used it as a slow cooker yet, but plan to do so. Browning the meat in the same pot is wonderful and clean-up is a snap. I've make two soups and a pot roast and couldn't be more pleased. It's easy to cook the meat for the soup first and then add the vegetables later so they don't over cook. The quiet operation is great and going into the "warm" mode after the pressure cooking time has elapsed makes it easy to use while doing other things around the house. I highly recommend it.

I had a Nesco 6 qt electric pressure cooker for a year and a half before it exploded boiling water over my entire kitchen and me. Even though I inspected the sealing gasket before each use, it failed. Being thankful that no one was hurt, I figured I'd just buy a new gasket from Nesco. Wrong.

Nesco no longer supports my cooker and doesn't sell the gaskets anymore. Apparently their supplier went out of business. No problem. I figured Nesco wouldn't leave a loyal customer with a useless cooker. Wrong again!

My expensive pressure cooker was used for only a year and a half and it is now unusable. Nesco offered no alternatives--no parts, no discount on a new machine, nothing. And their customer service department was extremely unhelpful.

I would strongly suggest that anyone willing to pay this much money for a pressure cooker look to a different company. I will NEVER BUY FROM NESCO again.

Very satisfied! We use it all the time. You won't be disappointed.

I should have bought this long time ago to save energy and money on making beef stew. easy to operate and use. though the de-steaming after pressure scares my son every time I turn the valve.

I received this product in February of 2008 and have loved it. It cooked perfectly. I used the browning feature "Great", the slow cook feature "Perfect" and the pressure cook method "Awsome" for 13 months.

I went to use it last week and the electronic panel was completely dead. The folks at NESCO were nice enough but bottom line my one year warranty was up by a month and no extension is forthcoming. Unfortunately, I disregarded reviews regarding the electonics failing to my detriment.

As much as I loved this unit I will not buy another one to have the electronics fail at 13 months. It is a little too expensive to replace every 13 months.