Rival 38501-C 5-Quart Slow Cooker

Pros: Easy to use, easy to clean, cooks great food!
Cons: short power cord - outside gets hot

About 2 years ago I purchased the Rival 38501 Smart Pot 5-quart Slow Cooker, and have had nothing but a good experience with it. I bought this model, mainly because I liked some of the features it has. It is fairly attractive on the counter, ...

Pros: Cooks evenly, keep warm setting is nice
Cons: Cooks pretty hot on the high setting, could use a better temperature control

We received this crock-pot as a wedding gift a few years ago now. I like cooking soups in stews in it and have used it several times with good results. The set comes with the cooker, the ceramic pot and the glass lid. The design is shallow and wide ...

Pros: No worries about food safety; heats fast.
Cons: Burned almost everything I cooked.

Unfortunately, I read the reviews of this slow cooker after having purchased it at a charity auction, but nonetheless, I decided to give it a good try. After 3 months of burning food in it for my family, I'm taking it to the thrift shop and buying a ...

Pros: White color looks nice on counter. Removeable interior crock. Controls easy to use.
Cons: Too hot! Low setting is not low. Burns and scorches food, food spot welded on.

I have used this about a dozen times. Some things have come out good, some have burned. I don't feel as though I could trust this crockpot to cook something all day while I am at work. Stats: Stoneware interior is removeable for washing. I see this ...

Pros: Self-timing. Removable, dishwasherable crock.
Cons: Need to add extra liquid to everything.

Ages ago when I was first married I received a traditional Crock Pot for our wedding. I always found it hard to clean and swore the next one I got would have a removable crock that could go in the dishwasher. I don't recall when or where I got this ...

Pros: NONE!!!
Cons: Burns everything, dangerous heat, lid rattling. WORST product I have reviewed yet!!

OK, so I thought I was crazy, not being able to make a decent meal with my crockpot. People were making fun of me, "HOW CAN YOU BURN ANYTHING IN A CROCKPOT"?? Now, I look at the reviews on this thing and see that I AM NOT ALONE. I always wondered why ...

Pros: Appearance, removable crock
Cons: Poor fitting lid, evaporates and splatters liquids, BURNS FOOD.

I received this for Christmas as a gift. I liked the appearance and the fact that it was a larger capacity than my 20+ year old one. I need to use my crock pot at least once a week and must depend on leaving it unattended even on high setting. This has ...

Pros: Price (I got it on special) and looks
Cons: Burns food, boils, cooks too fast (candy thermometer test showed food at 215 degrees)

I bought my Rival crock pot because I had one in the early 80's, used it for years and I loved it. It finally gave out so I decided to purchase a new one. I felt the Rival name still sold the same high quality merchandise. It was purchased Jan, 2007 and used for the first time today, Feb 10. I had it on low for 8 hours. It burned my food and had to be shut off after 6 hours. Should have turned it off at 4 or 5 hours. I went to Rival's website to check their products and see what was what. They don't have any slow cookers in their product line at all. I don't consider that a good sign for new purchasers of Rival slow cookers.

Pros: Removable crock
Cons: Just a bad product. Don't waste your Money or Time

My wife and I purchased this crock pot after owning a smaller unit (with a non-removable crock) for over 17 years. This pot seemed like it was good because of it's larger size and removable crock. We unpacked it and filled it 3/4 with water to test it. After just 20 minutes the outside of the unit was too hot to touch and the inside of the crock was only slightly warm... the smell of "New cooking appliance" was so strong it burned our eyes. There is NO WAY I can trust this pot to be plugged in unattended for any length of time (something a crock pot is *designed* to do). We are taking it back tomorrow for a refund (my all time pet peve).

I won't buy another Rival- they could not have been built by the same people who made our old Rival Crockpot (whose only fault was being too small)

Pros: Very user friendly.
Cons: Burns everything. Can't be left alone.

I received this crock pot as a gift. I have only used it a few times and every single time it has burned my meals to a crisp. I contacted the customer service department at Rival, who genuinely tried to be helpful to me in replacing my crock pot, and offered to replace my crock pot for the cost of shipping only. Since I live in Canada, it would have cost me at least $50 to send mine back and pay to have the new one delivered. Although Rival's customer service is excellent, I will not purchase another crock pot from them as I feel there is a safety issue with this one and they all should have been recalled.

Pros: oval shape, heavy lid
Cons: limited time/temp combinations, burns food

This pot burns everything!!! It cooks at a high temperature even on low setting. You are so limited with the time/temp combinations. You can only cook on low 8 or 10 hours but food is done in 4 to 6 hours. Therefore you cannot leave this pot unattended all day while at work. It cooked so hot on low setting that I was afraid to try the high setting. I was very disappointed with this pot and have returned it for a different brand. The chicken and ribs I cooked in this pot were so dry and tasteless. The sauce burnt on the side of the pot and it would not come clean. Would not recommend this pot.

Pros: 5 qt model is a good size making dishes to have leftovers
Cons: Lid doesn't seal. Condensation puddles on counter. Boils/burns food on low setting.

My cooking experience with this Crock Pot was EXACTLY the same as the review by rediba on Nov. 10. The lid doesn't fit tightly. Water condenses and runs down onto the counter. Used it twice, including one recipe from the manual that came with it, that would be assumed to work in this model. It brought food to boiling in 3 hours on low temperature in a recipe that was for 10 hours, and would have ruined it if I had not been home. It continued to boil on the warm setting. Very sad. Will be buying a different brand of slow cooker and look forward to many yummy meals.

Email response from Rival customer service was polite, but, said their recipes are for 3-4 qt models. Why include those with a 5 qt? They did tell me to take it back where I bought it. Not a word acknowledging the problems identified, though.

Pros: This is a nice clean looking unit, perfect size for what we need
Cons: It doesn't slow cook anything, it cooks faster than the oven and burns more

Our 20yr old crock pot was getting hot on the outside so we decided to replace it. We originally bought the 5445BCN model without a timer, it boiled/burned everything. We replaced it with the 38501 Model, which did the same thing. We took it back & exchanged for the same model which also does the same thing. It gets so hot on the outside it will melt anything near it. The temperature feature seems to be irrelevant - things cooked on warm boil and burn. Yesterday I 'cooked' scalloped potatoes for 1/2 hour on high, 1/2 hour on low and 4 hours on warm and they burned to the sides & bottom -they never stopped boiling regardless of the temperature being reduced

Pros: none
Cons: read before buying any RIVAL brands

Please read this link before buying. This is my second post and an attempt to save some of you from buying this brand ever again

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml05/05236.html

This is my original post:
Author's Review
I've owned five crock pots with no problems other than the pot or lid cracked over time.
This is the only one I've ever wanted to throw in the can.
The LID does not work properly. Anything with water based substances create a condensation effect that's unexplainable. You can come home to lake crock pot and your plugged in appliance can 'walk' all over the counter. Very scary.
Even worse.. this is the only item I've purchased where the inside of the crock doesn't clean up. Even with scouring pads, it takes an entire day to soak anything off of this.
This is the worst 40.00 ever spent and I will never buy a nice looking crock pot, again. I will go for function next time. Even my 9.00 crock pots with plastic lids from 1970 were better than this. Horrible product.

Pros: My friends and I say "Great meals!"
Cons: Like blenders, coffee makers, stoves and ovens, DANGEROUS in the hands of lousy cooks!

I've been using this over a year. I live in a hotel without a kitchen, here in Las Vegas. I've cooked many dozens of meals, from roasts and stews to chilies and soups, for myself and other tenants without ANY of the negative effects other posters have indicated. I am a Slot Technician with 10 hour shifts. Load it up and turn it on 6-hour High when I leave and come back at the end of my shift to a perfectly cooked and kept warm meal...always. The pot does have a drainhole underneath the outer pot. If your overfill the pot then it may overflow and leak to the underneath and create a slippery counter surface. I never fill with more than eight cups of water. No overflows ever. I never run dry...No burns ever. Yes, 205-215 degrees...perfect. Like H.A.L. said, "The errors are obviously human".