Hamilton Beach 6-Quart Oval Stay Or Go Slow Cooker , Stainless Steel

I have wanted this Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker for ages but the price really does fluctuate and I never seemed to catch it when it was on it's "down" side. Finally the price came back down close to where it was when I should have clicked that "buy" button the first time so I decided to order it. I transport food, usually very spillable food, often and wanted something that would give me a more secure feeling while the food was sitting in the floor of my car.I've used this several times so far and am very impressed with the product.1. I used a glass 1-quart liquid measuring cup and found that the ceramic bowl did indeed hold a full 6 quarts. The problem with that is the liquid came absolutely up to the exact edge of the bowl rim. If you were to put a full 6 quarts into this bowl it would splash and splatter on the lid when the full cooking process takes place. Probably cooking 5 quarts would be more safe, clean and realistic.2. I really like the fact that this has a "warm", "low" and "high" setting. While the "warm" is not to be used during the cooking it is very nice to have that option to hold food until serving time.3. The oval shape makes the unit very easy to use. My other slow cookers are round and this oval shape made it very easy to fit the food into the bowl.4. The spoon which comes with the cooker will attach to the space designated for it on the lid. You simply have to turn the handle of the spoon sideways, place it below the plastic nibs and then turn the spoon over so that it is laying flat within the holder. It stayed there for me perfectly. My problem is that it is more a ladle than a spoon. It is round with a deep bowl and did not work well when I tried to scrape down the sides or bottom of the cooker. The spoon will either be put away in a drawer or used in to-go situations only depending on what food I'm serving. None of my other utility spoons would work in the handle.5. My cooker was on for 8 hours on "low" and the handles did not get hot to the touch. They are a little bit wide away from the cooker so that may be a factor if you are looking for a cover for this slow cooker.6. The gasket on the lid seems to be of good quality and the locks which snap down and hold the lid on are spring loaded and appear to be very secure. I purposely rocked the cooker back and forth to simulate the motion of a car and had no spillage at all. I then purposely tipped the full cooker almost sideways (over the sink) and again had no leakage. If the entire unit turned over, would the seal hold? That I don't know and I will continue to transport my unit in a plastic laundry basket just in case.7. The crock is glazed both inside and out which is different for me. My other crocks are only glazed on the inside. I had absolutely no problem with clean-up. I know that there are liners available if you want to be sure you don't have any cleaning problems, but I've never used one.All in all, I am very happy with this cooker. I am expecting to have many years of great cooking experiences with it.*****Update March 4, 2011***** I have been using this slow cooker since June of 2010, and thought an update might be a good idea. I really do like this appliance. This has turned into my favorite of the three slow cookers I own. The oval shape makes it so easy to arrange food in the bowl and I find I use the 'keep warm' setting much more often than I had expected. I can also say that I have still not had any spilling while I am transporting the full cooker in my car. I do not tempt fate though, I still put the cooker in a plastic laundry basket and wedge it into place with towels.

After reading reviews of multiple slow-cookers, I chose this one for its popularity, good reviews, and price. It's bigger than what I need, though - I'm cooking for two people right now - but the smaller ones were nearly as expensive and not as well-reviewed. Like other reviewers, I was concerned about the rubber taste and smell some people reported, but this did not happen to me. I've only used the cooker once - the day I got it - to make Mexican shredded pork for tacos. I initially used just over two pounds of pork in a tomato-and-chili sauce, but the cooker was only about 1/3 full, so I ran out and got another 2+ pounds to add. The dish turned out GREAT after cooking on high for the first hour, and on low for an additional 7+ hours. I think I could have cooked it even more. Anyway, although I was assuming I'd need to freeze some leftovers, all the pork was gone in 48 hours, so maybe this cooker isn't too big for our appetites. : This is the first time I've used a slow cooker, but it won't be the last!

I ended up buying this because I managed to break the tempered-glass lid on my Rival and the Rival company didn't have a replacement. I was kicking myself for days and then decided that it was time to stop whining and invest in another. I looked at everything on Rival's website, other websites and finally Amazon. I decided to buy this one (oval 6 quart) because I like simple things, not a ton of bells and whistles. I was very pleased when the slow cooker arrived a few days later (even with free shipping). As one reviewer noted, the cord is quite short, so you need to have space to park this Cadillac close to the outlet. The apparatus has 3 heat levels: warm, low and high. The pot itself is dark blue stoneware. The handles on the heating element are screwed in, not glued, which is fortunate for clumsies like me. Ditto the easy-on-arthritic-hands lid. The wonderful thing about the lid is that it has a flexible rubber gasket (piece of flexible rubber that is attached to the bottom rim of the lid) that seems to seal in heat and moisture much more efficiently than my old unit, which had no gasket and glued handles. I was disappointed that there weren't more recipes in the manual, but they did include a plastic serving spoon and these cute (preprinted and blank) pressboard labels you can insert into a bracket on the front of the unit so people can identify what is inside. The unit has two metal "arms" that swing up and clamp down the lid for safe transport. I have already made a pork stew (cooked on "low" only) and the pork was fork-tender, as were the veggies. I am not sure why HB put in the manual that one shouldn't put frozen food in the cooker - I just added some extra time for the frozen pork and it turned out wonderfully. Perhaps they did it as a CYA. Per suggestions in the manual, I actually ended up adding much less water than I used to use in my Rival model. It works out better and the flavor is more intense. I now have a chicken breast "thing" in the cooker, again cooking only on "low". The "thing" has cubed raw chicken breast, cubed unpeeled russet potatoes, fresh whole garlic cloves, zucchini, baby carrots and chopped celery with a bit of water. I put the veggies on the bottom and the cubed chicken on the top and sprinkled the meat with curry powder. I can only smell the food when I get very close to the lid, and it is starting to smell awfully good. I think I will start to add a lot more spices (except salt, which can really ruin an otherwise-carefully prepared meal) to complement the longer cooking time. I am not sure why some advocate searing meat before putting it into a slow-cooker. I haven't ever found that this helps, because the meat is cooked on such a low temperature and in a closed container, so the steam generated by liquid in the container helps gently cook the food as well. Searing or browning meat or veggies, however, helps when I make a stove-top stew with my cast iron pan.