Pretty way to cook, but not as efficient as my OLD one was.
Written: Aug 22 '01 (Updated Aug 23 '01)
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Pros: Great oval shape holds bulky foods well. Looks pretty on the counter.
Cons: "Lo" isn't very low, overcooks the food if left very long. Only 3 month warranty.
The Bottom Line: I would put more money into a cooker with more heat settings instead of this cooker. Lo is really not low enough.
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| suzig's Full Review: West Bend 84423 Slow Cooker |
After nearly twenty years I retired my old West Bend slow cooker to get a Crockery Cooker by West Bend. I thought it would be better, and safer to use, since the knob had gotten loose on the old one, and it was just plain OLD.
Although the new Crockery Cooker does the job it says it will do...cook.....I am not liking it near as much as my old stand-by.
The older West Bend was a metal oblong pan with glass lid that sat on a griddle type heated base. I could cook anything imaginable in that cooker, leave it all day, and come home knowing it was not dried up.
I am not sure I can rest that easy with my new one. In fact I am a little worried to do just that unless I make it home for lunch to check on it. That was NOT what I had in mind to do when I bought it, let me tell you. I wanted to be able to put the food in at 7 A.M., and come home at 4 P.M. and all is right with the world.
It is 3 and half quart capacity with a removable crock and glass lid. That part I like. It has been easy to clean. The cord is VERY short, but I realize that is a safety factor to keep children from pulling it off the counter.
It has a polarized plug which is normal for appliances. An extension cord is not recommended to use.
Some suggestions were included with the manual:
Place foods into the room temperature pot, then place into the heating base before turning it on.
If you are adding frozen foods to the stoneware pot, add 1 cup of warm water or liquid to help equalize the temperature.
The pot can be filled with food the night before and refrigerated. When ready to cook, place cooking pot into heating base and cook at LO or HI setting. Do not preheat base before adding cooking pot.
Do not put stoneware pot in the freezer.
The stoneware pot can be used in a microwave oven. However, the lid may not, as it has a metal rim and screw in the knob.
Allow the stoneware pot to cool before cleaning.
Do not put cold water into hot stoneware cooking pot.
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Some of the recipes call for using LO, and some just HI, others say use LO, then switch to HI. I have found that LO is plenty hot to cook everything I have cooked in several hours. I have not needed to have food done so quickly that I needed to use HI the whole time.
I really wish there was a setting that was a "keep warm". Sometimes when I come home, I don't want to eat just then, so I would like to still keep it warm for a hour or so, but it doesn't need to cook any longer. The LO is really too hot to keep it from cooking further, since some foods tend to get mushy when cooked too long.
Don't get me wrong, I will still use this slow cooker, but only when I can check on it midway during the day. I should have bought one that could be programmed to change cooking temperatures. The extra money would have been worth it, now that I have considered it.
The 90 day warranty could be improved to at least 6 months. Most people know fairly soon whether they like an item, but sometimes a defect or problem doesn't show up right away.
I used my older West Bend for many years, it still works even. I may sneak it out of its hiding place every now and then for old time's sake. It is a trusty friend, rather dented and beat up looking, but it worked better in my estimation than my new West Bend Crockery Cooker. Now that I think about it, you get what you pay for, I paid about $35.00 for the old one that long ago, and I paid $19.99 for this new one at Walmart.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 19.99
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Epinions.com ID:
suzig
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Location: Illinois
Reviews written: 178
Trusted by: 110 members
About Me:
Middle school teacher who loves kids, travel, candlelight, and good conversation.
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