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Are Pressure Cookers Safe?

Written by AskTheLawyers.com™

Are Pressure Cookers Safe?

Written by AskTheLawyers.com™

AskTheLawyers™

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Product shown may not be the model described in the article.

Are pressure cookers safe? The answer depends on the model. According to recent claims, defects are allowing people to open pressure cookers while the contents inside are both very hot and highly pressurized. In fact, anything pressurized and then popped open—accidentally or intentionally—could cause some serious damage.

What Does the Law Say About Dangerous Products?

Reasonably speaking, you don’t expect a pressure cooker to kill you. This assumption that the product is safe plays a crucial role in a potential lawsuit if the pressure cooker does cause an injury. If the product’s actually not meant to hurt you in any way, chances are pretty good the manufacturer or seller (or both) of said product would be held liable for accidents happening.

But it depends on the situation. It’s possible that user error contributed to the injury, but what if there was a defect in the product? Knowing what caused the defect and when would be the questions to ask, and it requires an investigation from an attorney to determine what happened.

Are Pressure Cookers Dangerous?

Many people have reported injuries linked to modern pressure cookers. Some claim that the danger is in the seal or the lid. If that seal is defective, you run the risk of the cooker popping and spraying scalding stew in all directions. We’re talking about third-degree burns, perhaps worse; but thankfully what could happen doesn’t even come close to an “explosion.” However, in the right conditions and with enough pressure, a cooker could cause potentially fatal injuries.

In one case, a mother and daughter were making a stew in the pressure cooker. This model claimed to do two things:

  1. Tell you if the contents were under pressure via a digital screen
  2. If the contents were under pressure, the cooker was supposed to lock and prevent anyone from opening it

According to this family’s claim, the digital readout said that the contents were safe to open, and the lock was not engaged. When the lid was opened, boiling stew exploded out of the cooker, causing severe burn injuries.

Still, Knowing That There Can Be Real Dangers to a Pressure Cooker Gets One Thinking:

All it takes is just one little defect to cause even a minor accident. Maybe even a little damage to the house could warrant the need for a products liability lawsuit; but what an attorney would have to prove is that there is, in fact, a defect somewhere in the product.

If, however, you were using the product and perhaps left it on a bit longer, and something shorted in the cooker, literally anything could possibly happen. That pressure cooker may be comparable to a ticking time bomb, and like anyone accidentally leaving an oven on or a microwave running by accident, evaluating the products and finding out that certain safety measures were not put in place could make a products liability lawsuit worth looking into.

Find Answers to Your Questions By Consulting an Attorney

The professionals have worked on cases like this by the dozens; so if you do have any doubts, the best thing you could ever do is just talk to a lawyer. They can investigate and determine if you have a valid claim.

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