Presto01241 4-Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker

Didn't know what size to get but careful reading of instructions and what I make I determined this was the best size for me. Couldn't decide between a 4qt and a 6 qt. I wanted a 6 qt but Amazon forced you to buy Amazon Prime if you wanted the 6 qt and I didn't want that FORCED on me as I don't want Prime Membership right now and didn't want the hassle to quit later.But as it turned out the 4 qt is more than enough for one or two people or even if you have a small child. It's well and simply made and very cheap compared to others out there. Was not sure about the crude rocking cap but it works, is reliable and simple to see if the pressure is correct by it's gentle rocking.One decision to buy this was the gasket and other rubber seals are cheap to replace. The other one I looked at and really liked, the gasket and rubber replacements would cost me nearly $18 dollars a year to upkeep paying for another of their Pressure Cookers in only 3 YEARS!!The aluminum used is soft and scratches and stains easily and is not hardened i.e anodized. I wish it was but the cost would go higher too. But the manual gives a way to remove stains. Have not tried it as the light stains don't bother me. I also did NOT detect any aluminum taste with dishes that contain acidic ingredients. A well-known site tested for aluminum and said it leeches .0025 of aluminum, but said when you take an antacid, one tablet contains 250 mg of aluminum! Drinking from soda cans can give you 1 or 2 mg of it.If that still bothers you go get a stainless-steel one. But the shape changes compared to the aluminum one even though they have the same capacity. I think the SS model is flatter and not as tall.I bought it mostly to cook beans in it and it excels at that. I tried their bean recipe and it's good as any. Completely satisfied. I also use it to cook soups, stews and am still experimenting. I don't know which is better at the moment for doing the latter as I only had this for a few months. Whether traditional cooking, i.e. Crockpot (failed at beans unless you buy it canned) or traditional stove, coil or gas.I can't seem to get the full flavor nuances on the latter when using the Pressure Cooker, however, strangely, we did gobble up everything made by it. Cabbage in soup gets overcooked, though, as this is powerful and and has only one setting at 15 lbs. Perhaps delicate herbs and flavoring get smothered by the extreme pressure? Maybe not either, as I'm still experimenting in amounts and may take me a year or more to determine the truth, as I don't use fresh herbs and tend to customize my recipes on the fly.I might add, also, it has a strangely very comfortable handle.See you in one year. ;)

Works really easy for me. Cook some garbanzo beans in no time.

Fit:It works well.

This was my first pressure cooker and it convinced me that pressure cookers in general are very useful.Now I use it every day, often more than once. It saves cooking time and make cheap meats better tasting.My cooker has its bottom rounded and I don't know if it came that way or it became that way from heat and the pressure. Either way it shouldn't be rounded, thus minus one star.I was debating whether I should get aluminum or stainless steel for more money, while I was deciding the price of stainless steel went up quickly, so I decided to get aluminum.First time I tried it was pretty scary. Will it explode like the folk myth? It didn't happen and got comfortable pretty quickly. You don't need to be nervous.I used it so much that the original gasket didn't last very long, less than 6 month I would say. It stopped building up the pressure, which means the steam kept escaping forever. I tried different ways to stop the steal loss. Coating the gasket with cooking oil seemed to work but left oily tasting to the food being cooked, and messy. So I decided to get a new one at the local hardware store(about $10.-). Comparing the new and old one, the new silicone gasket is much softer and the lips of the gasket is wider, which means the old gasket lips are compressed and stiffened by the heat. Now I take the gasket out each time to relieve the compression hoping to prolong the life of the gasket. If you are reading this and about to get the new cooker for the first time, you may want to try this from the beginning.In the future, I'm planning to get a stainless steel cooker not because I'm not satisfied with the aluminum but for use with induction stove I'm planning to switch from gas stove currently in use. That's one decisive feature aluminum cooker can't match.About the capacity, 6 quarts seems like a perfect size for a beginner, at least for me, for preparing one or two servings. Even if you don't plan to prepare a big food for now, extra capacity won't hurt but you'll be glad having it when you need it.*update* (1-25-16)My pressure cooker is still in use daily and is going strongMy new replacement gasket is still working and working far longer than the original gasket it replaced.I now take the gasket out each time I put it in the cabinet(after being washed and dried) and wet the gasket with water before put it back in the lid before cooking. The gasket lost some pliability but it keeps the pressure as it should. It may last forever.