People are shifting to conscious and clean eating to live a healthy life. This section of people wants to cook their food and invest in a modern-day, advanced pressure cooker. From a health standpoint, this is a great move. But they also need to be careful about their safety, as electric pressure cookers are known to explode and cause severe injuries.
In September 2023, AboutLawsuits.com reported on Salena Rivera, a Colorado woman who filed a lawsuit against Crock-Pot Multi-Cooker after suffering from severe burns because of its design defects. While using the pressure cooker, she opened the lid, thinking that the cooking was done and the internal steam had been released. The cooker exploded, making her suffer from burn injuries on her abdomen, breasts, and chest.
Salena’s pressure cooker lawsuit revealed that the severe burns led to physical impairment and permanent disfigurement. She thought that the safety features of the Crock-Pot would not cause any harm, but the accident proved otherwise.
In this article, we will discuss the safety features you need to check in a pressure cooker to avert such explosions.
The Crucial Safety Features of a Pressure Cooker
No one wants to witness a pressure cooker explosion like Salena and get injured. TorHoerman Law states that it often leads to severe injuries, followed by a lawsuit to seek compensation for all the damages. It usually comprises medical expenses to treat burns and other injuries.
If you face an explosion, you have to explain the link between your injuries and the product’s design defect. While it’s impossible to predict a pressure cooker explosion, taking precautions never hurts anyone. It only lessens the chances of an accident and ensures your safety.
Here are the necessary safety features that you must consider in modern-day pressure cookers:
Locking Device
Most advanced pressure cookers come with a locking device at the top of their lid. It only opens when the pressure within the cooker is minimized to an optimum level that is safe for you to take off the lid. As the pressure develops inside the cooker, the lock will respond to it. The interlocking lids are robust and enable you to carry the pressure cooker by the handle. Here, there is no chance of the pressure cooker suddenly opening up.
Pressure Release Valves
These are the pressure regulators that effectively maintain the pressure inside a cooker. The moment there is excess pressure in the cooker, the valves bring it down by opening up. You will also come across the jiggle-top valves. Even though the design might be a tad bit different, the objective is the same. It is to make sure there is adequate pressure control within the cooker.
There are also spring-loaded valves engineered to be apt for operations that are beyond the boiling point of water. The leading brands typically come with spring-loaded pressure valves in their cookers. The design is very simple yet effective. The valves ensure that there is effective pressure release without reducing the temperature within the cooker.
These valves pop up and enable the steam to be released as the pressure within the cooker maximizes. It indicates that the heat supply to the pressure cooker might be reduced.
Gasket Release Aperture
Other than the pressure valves, the gasket release aperture is also a crucial safety feature to consider. It is situated beneath the lid. The moment the pressure moves to an increased limit, the gasket gets pushed upwards, and the pressure gets released through the aperture. It makes sure that the temperature and the pressure are properly maintained within the cooker.
Pop-Up Indicators
It is one more safety feature that indicates the pressure valves within the cooker with ample precision. The indicators comprise a weight attached at the stem top. The stem might have readings and markings on it. There are a few indicators that come with red rings around them.
The indicator and its stem are inserted inside the pressure cooker, and the weight rests atop the lid. Every time pressure builds up, the indicator pops up. There’s also a readable value that the indicator shows to let you know about the precise pressure within the container. For the red rings, the first one indicates reduced pressure. The second red ring alerts you that the pressure inside the cooker is at its highest value.
Conclusion
In conclusion, pressure cooker explosions can cause lacerations, severe burns, traumatic brain injuries, and extreme bruises. It can take time to recover from these injuries and require constant medical attention. Hence, it is always best to ensure that the pressure cooker doesn’t have any design defects. It is necessary to consider the safety features mentioned above to ensure your pressure cooker has no design defects, which will help to avoid explosions.
