Slow Cooker?

[Marilyn]

I haven't had a good slow cooker in years, so hubby got me one for Christmas. It's a Calphalon with 4 heat settings and an automatic setting with a timer. For a roast, you can set it on Automatic and it is supposed to cook on high, 212 F, for 2 hours then switch to low, 192 F, for the remainder of the time you have dialed in. Then it switches to warm for up to four hours to hold the food. This sounded great, so yesterday, I set it up with a shoulder roast, cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, a cup of water and a cup of white wine, and went off to work a little before 8 a.m. with it set on automatic for 7 hours (2 hours on high, and 5 on low, then holding on warm). Hubby came home at a little afer 1:30 p.m. and checked on it. The liquid in the cooker was boiling and had almost boiled away. It should have been on low, well below boiling. He added more water and called me. The roast was done, so I told him to switch it to Warm to hold it until we got home from work. (According to the manual that came with the unit, I could have set a roast up this way with the timer set up to 10 hours, but did not need to do it nearly this long, so I don't think I had it set wrong.)

When we got home, all was well, the roast was hot and very tender, but he shouldn't have had to switch it to warm. This should have worked automatically. I cleaned up the slow cooker after supper and put water in it, turned it to low and it got to 180 F. Then I turned it to high, and it got just over 200 F on my digital thermometer. Tomorrow while I'm off, I'm going to experiment setting it on automatic with water in it, and check the temp periodically to see what is happening.

Does anyone else have a slow cooker that works on automatic like this? If this one doesn't work right on automatic, I'm thinking of returning it, and buying another brand. The Calphalon is a very nice looking cooker and the features are great if they work right. Just wondering what you all have.

[Janet]

I hope you can figure out what's wrong or get a different one. Not sure but it could have been a real fire hazard had your husband not checked on it. I would be afraid to try again. I've never had an 'automatic' one so can't help you there. I have just a simple West Bend. I've used it so many times it's about time to get a new one. It does have high, low and warmer, but just not automatic. After all this time...I've never needed it. Good luck.

[DianaB]

I have a Crock Pot but not one that changes automatically. I would set it to cook while I was home and plan on checking it often to see that it's working right. It sounds like a really nice one.

I remember that Crock Pots came out about the time I got married and I got 2 or 3 as wedding gifts. I had never seen one used before and the first time I used one I was up several times in the night checking on it. If it wasn't going to work I didn't want my roast to go bad!!!! I was so surprised at how nice and tender everything turned out!!! I've used one ever since!

[Marilyn]

I hadn't thought about it being a fire hazard. Will definitely let it run on automatic while I'm home next time. It does seem to work well on Low, and when it's set on Low for a specific time period, it switches to Warm for up to 4 hours after the time it is set on Low is completed. That may just be the best way to use it rather than dealing with the automatic setting shifting from High to Low to Warm. All that switching may just not be necessary. It is a very nice and large, 7 qt., crock pot, so hate to take it back if it will do the job as is.

We did have a smaller Rival just plain old crock pot, but I loaned it to Melissa and don't know where it is. She was living in our RV at the time, so it may still be in the RV which is in storage. It's not too far from here, but just haven't gotten around to running over there and checking. This new one is much larger and oval, so roasts and whole chickens will fit in it much better.

Thanks for your thoughts on this!!

[judy]

Marilyn,

Check out this from Consumers Reports. I hope it helps.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/a...slow%20cookers

[Janet]

I really like checking things out with Consumer Reports....I need to renew my subscription.