Community Chat

[KingstonsMom]

**Excerpts from long article linked below which contains graphic photos**

A nine-year-old girl from Colorado suffered third-degree burns after an Instant Pot pressure cooker exploded and sprayed scalding soup all over her face and body. 

Caroline Cooper, who is now 11, was also hit by a blast of hot steam after 'venting' the pot when it buzzed to indicate it had finished cooking the broth.

Caroline, her mother Mary and father Matt, live in the town of Highlands Ranch. They say the pot 'exploded' despite the youngster 'venting' the steam to release the pressure inside.

'I went into the kitchen to help my mom cook her soup because I love cooking with my mom. And when we vented it, I was opening it, and it just exploded,' Caroline told Fox31.

'I closed my eyes. I remember my mom was on the floor. My dad had come running down the stairs,' Caroline recalled. 

'I was yelling at my mom to get my shirt off because it was still burning me, so my dad picked me up and took me to the hospital right away because my mom was in shock.

The distressing incident left Caroline with third-degree burns across 16 percent of her body. 

'I had made the exact same soup before, cooking with the kids. Everybody is by the island around and Caroline wanted to come help me. The soup is done. It beeps it's done. We manually vent it and steam comes out telling you that it is un-pressurizing,' Mary said. 'The valve float drops, and we go to open it and put the kale in. We were just going to add kale. And it exploded. Completely exploded.'

The manufacturers claim that when pressurized it cannot be opened thanks to a metal safety valve which prevents the lid from being removed.   

However, the suit alleges that Instant Pot's primary 'safety' claim - that a pressurized pot cannot be opened by the consumer - is 'not true.'

Independent investigations including one by a television station found that that one-out-of-three pots tested could be opened while pressurized. 

It resulted in scalding liquid spewing all over a firefighter who was performing the test and who would have been burnt had he not been wearing special safety gear. 

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6965397/Family-files-lawsuit-against-company-Instant-Pot-pr...

[AuntG]

There is no way I'd want a pressure cooker. I remember some exploding beets from an old fashioned cooker when I was young.

[sidsmom]

My gut feeling is....if they were using an off brand like

Cook’s Essential (an unknown brand), there probably

wouldn’t have been an accident and lawsuit. 

Big pockets drive a lot of unfounded claims.

It’s impossible to open that lid while under pressure.

[happycat]

Oh my gosh. I have one that I have never used. Now, I don't know if I will use it. That poor little girl, so sad. Just awful.

I know that years ago, my aunt was canning something in hers, of course this was an older pressure cooker, anyhow, the lid blew off of it made a whiole in her ceiling!

[KingstonsMom]

---

@sidsmom wrote:

My gut feeling is....if they were using an off brand like

Cook’s Essential (an unknown brand), there probably

wouldn’t have been an accident and lawsuit. 

Big pockets drive a lot of unfounded claims.

It’s impossible to open that lid while under pressure.

---

@sidsmom 

Obviously not, according to independent studies, which are documented by video at the link.

IMO, for you to insinuate that the accident would not have occurred if it was an "unknown brand" is ludicrous!

Who would have their child burned to fabricate a lawsuit because the brand name has "Big pockets"???

[SouthernBee]

I use a thick dish rag when I touch and move the vent knob and I stand back from the unit and hold my head back. The pot is on the end of the counter top and I have a ceiling fan on in the combined room that pulls the steam in the opposite direction. Southern Bee

[millieshops]

@KingstonsMomI see nothing in the post that indicates she felt the parents deliberately had their child get burned so they could file a lawsuit -   just a feeling on her part that there wouldn't have been such a big suit against a smaller company without such big pockets because, after all, you can't get what isn't there.

As far as the explosion itself -  seems it could occur just not in my house. Even if I owned any kind of pressure cooker, I wouldn't open it myself as just as the beeper went off let alone allow a child to do it.  I even count to 10 before I open my microwave once it stops.

[Imaoldhippie]

@AuntG .............Im with you.  When I was young my aunt had a neighbor lady that had scars from her pressure cooker exploding and burning her.  I promised myself I would NEVER use a pressure cooker of any kind.

[nomless]

---

@KingstonsMom wrote:

---

@sidsmom wrote:

My gut feeling is....if they were using an off brand like

Cook’s Essential (an unknown brand), there probably

wouldn’t have been an accident and lawsuit. 

Big pockets drive a lot of unfounded claims.

It’s impossible to open that lid while under pressure.

---

@sidsmom 

Obviously not, according to independent studies, which are documented by video at the link.

IMO, for you to insinuate that the accident would not have occurred if it was an "unknown brand" is ludicrous!

Who would have their child burned to fabricate a lawsuit because the brand name has "Big pockets"???

---

That is NOT what she wrote. She dIdn't write that the accident wouldn't have happened with an unknown brand, but that a lawsuit might  not have been filed if it was an  unknown brand.

[ROMARY]

'I'm sticking with' my slow cooker.

(Only when I'm home, that is.

I'm one who doesn't leave anything 'ON' while I'm away. 

Washer, dryer, oven, etc.) 

Years ago I had an experience with a clothes dryer that continued to smolder after the OFF setting. 

I happened to walk by the dryer a couple of hours after using it.  The area felt hot, and the dryer was piping hot to the touch.

 Had to have a neighbor haul it outside.  Something about a faulty thermostat or switch or whatever. 

Not a good thought if it happened during the night/sleeping hours.

I unplug (and/or switch OFF power strips) EVERYTHING each night.