Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
- Feb 14, 2004
- 48,704
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I mean, searing your face off
So, no machine is perfect. I have read several reports of EPC failures (electronic pressure cookers). This one was pretty awful:
Colorado family files lawsuit after Instant Pot safety features fail
A Colorado family is suing Instant Pot after their daughter, Caroline (pictured), nine, was left with third-degree burns after one of the electric pressure cookers exploded.
This quote in particular:
'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 sound was horrible. A true explosion. The lid flew somewhere — I don't even know where — and every bit, every bit of the soup came out of the pot and was in our kitchen. On the ceiling, on the floor. All the walls were covered,' she said.
Two things:
1. You never know 100% for sure how any machine will work in practice, no matter how well-designed
2. You never know if you're getting 100% of the truth in a news story
In this case:
1. She said she has used the Instant Pot before
2. And had made that particular soup before
3. She manually vented it, so that the steam came out
4. The float valve dropped, which indicates that the pressure is released
5. Then the soup exploded & the lid flew off
This is a tricky one because:
1. It sounds like the user is extremely familiar with the machine, both with the process & terminology
2. But, I don't know how the soup could have exploded if the float valve dropped, because the valve can't drop if the pressure isn't released
Maybe the machine was over-filled. Maybe a bit of food got stuck in the float valve & it only partially dropped...the tests in the article above did indicate that it was possible, sometimes, to twist off the lid while pressurized, despite all of the safety features. I've tried to wiggle mine off while pressurized before & it wouldn't budge. I just don't know how the lid would have exploded off if the pressure was vented. The float valve is literally a little hole in the lid that only drops once the pressure is released, because it's held up by pressure...so why would the machine have exploded if the valve dropped? I don't imagine you'd encounter an explosion at room pressure, even if the liquid was boiling in there.
The valve is held in place by the pressure, so if it dropped & the lid was able to be rotated, then it should have been room pressure. Possibly something got stuck in it, possibly the machine was over-filled, possibly the safety mechanism failed & allowed for lid rotation on a partially-dropped float valve. I'd really like to see an analysis on this, because there are millions of electronic pressure cookers out in the world today. This article has a bit more information on the news team test that tried to open the pots under pressure:
Instant Pot pressure cooker scalds girl
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. –Lawsuit claims some Instant Pots can be opened while still pressurized. FOX31 tested that claim and found it to be true. TRAGEDY IN THE KITCHEN Matt and Mary Cooper’s …
They didn't elaborate on their testing procedure (using foamy foods? over-filling? normal operation or purposely setting the machine up for failure?). I think common sense would be to not try to twist off the lid when it's under pressure, but in the case from the link, they said the float valve had dropped & that they had made the exact same soup before, so they apparently did everything properly. I'd like to know exactly what circumstances led to that behavior, for safety reasons! I feel really bad for the girl & her family.


