Hawkins 6.5 Litre Contura Black Pressure Cooker, Hard Anodised Inner Lid Cooker, Handi Cooker, Black (Cb65), 6.5 Liter

This little pal is so excellent. I have made so many dishes over the years with them. It’s an essential in any kitchen. I’m viewing this now because I think I need a bigger one, but I love the size of this one, as it allows me to make meals for myself. My kids don’t always like what I make, so I can make a one-off just for me.

Recieved today. This is my second one this week. I returned the first one due to seal leakage before reaching FOP. (Made in China, of course!!) I tested this one with water. Took @5minutes to arrive at FOP. But no leakage!!! I’m happy with that alone. I’ve heard some say the lid is confusing them. It did me too! UNTIL I READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!! As I always say, if you can’t figure it out, RTFD!!!!! If you look at the base opening and lid, you will see they are not round….oval shaped ever so slightly!!!! Now you understand the rest of the story! BTW: made in India ….and the cook book recipes are all Indian recipes. But I’m sure the internet is full of all types of recipes for pressure cookers. Good luck everyone. And God Bless!!

My second one, I have had the 3 litter for years but now it’ll be for camping and just got the 4 for home. What I love about them is the simplicity, easy to find parts and change them, works flawlessly and the looks of these are great, by the way the black is not really black, more like a dark gray which I prefer. A little hint, once you pour the liquid put it in high flame without the top gasket, once you see a steady stream of vapor then place the top valve, wait until it releases once then lower the heat, also don’t store it with the lid gasket on just place it loose inside or don’t lock the lid (again for storage) but in the event that you need to replace gaskets is easy to do and readily available. I find myself being able to control my cooking better on the stove top than the electric presetting ones. Brown rice 17 minutes after it comes to pressure, ribs falling off the bone etc. Highly recommend Hawkins.

Very Good.

My pressure cooker bought had some leakage which is a dangerous and risky, should be replaced.

I don't review much, for which I apologize, but I took a chance on a 3 liter anodized Hawkins stovetop pressure cooker despite a few worrying reviews and remarks in reviews, and after using this to cook family-of-four sized portions of dried giant white beans, chickpeas and french lentils I wanted to circle back and make a couple of points. The most important is the idea, expressed in a couple of reviews, that it is impossible to put the lid on and take the lid off without dunking the lid into your food preparation. Without calling anyone out by name, I strongly suspect that reviewers who had this experience didn't bother to read the instructions. At least the model of cooker I bought is ingeniously designed, with an oval shaped opening. When you hold the lid handle at 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the base handle it is very easy to insert the lid into the pot. I would say at most it needs to dip down three-quarters of an inch into the pot, which won't bring it anywhere near your food unless you have majorly overfilled it. The second "issue" which I read about in at least one review, is the idea that the lid will fall into the food when you go to open the pot. Really, both of these issues stem from the sensible but unusual design of this cooker, which is that the lid, rather than resting on top of the pot as it would in a normal saucepan, fits under the rim of the lid. What this means is that the pressure you build up while cooking doesn't force the lid off the pot; in fact it enhances the seal between the pot and the lid. Intuitively this seems to me a much safer way to cook under pressure. However, it does take a very little bit of getting use to; if you release the lid once you are done cooking, after the pressure has diminished, it will fall into the food if you let go of the handle. Because the lid IS inside the pot. However, all you have to do is keeping holding the handle as you turn it perpendicular to slide it out, using exactly the opposite of the motion you used to put the lid on. It isn't exactly brain surgery. I like to eat beans and grains, but in summer I find chickpeas can take two hours or more to cook on the stovetop even after a good overnight soaking, and having the burner on that long doesn't help with the summer temperatures! I'm now cooking them in this Hawkins cooker in less than fifteen minutes. I can't detect any loss of texture or any other difference in the finished result, and I'm very pleased I bought this for quick smaller pressure-cooker jobs. I have a giant pressure cooker for canning, but there is no way I can be bothered to get it out every time I want to make a little hummus. This is a worthy and useful addition to my kitchen arsenal that is going to continue to get a lot of use.

Excelente

I bought the smallest one, the 1.5L pressure cooker because it's only for me. When I received it I loved the compact size, I believe the base diameter is 6.5 inches. I thought it was perfect size. However, after about 2 weeks the steam regulator valve (steam release) would release steam and get stuck in the open position and all the built up steam would release and the pot became useless. I called customer service and they (there are many number listed on the warranty card and booklet) they are all just distributors. They really have nothing to do with after sales service. Finally I got through to the distributor that sold this particular one and the person that answered referred me to someone else who was not in his office. I asked about the warranty and the person just said they'll have to refer me to the manufacturer. I imagine if this equipment needs servicing it would have to be sent to the manufacturer with insured shipping of some kind and the hassle and cost would probably not be justified. This is a company in India, I'm not sure if there is a US headquarters or not. So for me this is a strike when customer service is not transparent and immediately available. Granted, it's a very sturdy piece of cookware and little can go wrong - except it did. After fiddling with it I realized the problem and it was easily remedied, at least in my case. Inside the weighted release valve, there are 2 small pins that allow the valve to snap into place, what allows these pins to have the spring action is a retainer clip, which is the black band around the weighted valve. If, for some reason this band loses tension or there is some defect in the pins (perhaps it was not rounded off or it is too short), or in my case the band was not flush against the pins, upon release of the steam the valve goes beyond the groove of the steam release vent and almost comes off and will not fall back to the "lock" position. What I did was just slide the retainer ring a little and this remedied the problem. However, I didn't know if further problems may arise so I decided to return it nevertheless. Strike one for iffy customer service. Strike two for quality control in manufacturing. (there were few other reviews with same issue, if I recall) However, I thought it really looked like a very solid well made cookware and I really liked it so I took a chance ordering the next size up 2L (again Amazon warehouse second). Boy did I luck out. It was less expensive than the 1.5 liter and it was basically brand new! I guess it was returned either unused or used once. Needless to say, I am very very happy. Although I loved the compact size of 1.5L after using both 2L is so much more convenient. The greatest advantage to having this larger size (beyond the obvious that you can cook larger quantities), the size of the opening is just so much more roomy. The 1.5L opening is small, not impossible to deal with but when I used the 2L the difference is very noticeable. The access is very roomy. Granted, the larger space inside adds a little more time to building up steam but the larger opening makes getting out the food easier, washing easier and even taking off the cover easier as there is more room to maneuver. I guess I lucked out twice. If anyone asks I'll say the upgrade is very much worth it for the small difference in price. I would also recommend the anodized it is so easy to clean even when you over cook and the food is burnt (oops, yup I did that) the burnt food just came right off with a scrubbing sponge. So to summarize, the unit is sturdy other than the apparent 3 weak links. One is the weighted valve, second is the gasket and the third is the safety release valve. All of which are sold here on Amazon as replacement parts. I guess if anything ever goes wrong, I'll see if one of those are the culprit and replace it on my own. So for this particular unit I give 3 stars for all the hassle I had to go through to understand all the problems with the unit. However, I would give the 2L 4.5 stars (there still is the customer service issue) and would recommend the anodized unit.