This is a wonderful over-sized pressure cooker. The programmed automatic settings work like a charm. For example, I often place an entire 5 pound bag of potatoes in the cooker, cover with water, press the Potato and Yams setting and have perfectly cooked whole potatoes suitable for cutting into potato salad in about 35 minutes. The stew and soup setting works beautifully. Just place your ingredients into the pot, press soup/stew and walk away. The automatic meat setting leaves the meat less tender than I like it so I seldom use it. For meat, including roasts and ribs I use the manual program, setting it on high for up to 90 minutes. The rice and grain setting gives you perfect rice every time.
This is a great size. Pressure cookers can be filled to no more than 2 inches from the top of the insert. This means that this 8 quart cooker really maxes out at about 6 - 6 1/2 quarts. Filling it more than that provides the risk of food bubbling up into your escape valves, which could possibly cause a failure of one or more of the safety features. This is true of every pressure cooker, not unique to this one. You can actually fit a 4 or 5 pound roast in this pot with room for vegetables and sauces. I cannot do that in my 6 quart cooker which really only cooks about 4 1/2 quarts of food and is much smaller in diameter than the pot on this one.
I must comment that this pot can be used with as little as one quart of food in it, it still cooks perfectly, does not need to be crammed full to work.
Pros: automatic settings for commonly cooked foods and rice ( I cook as little as 1 cup of raw rice using 1 1/2 cups of water), Can use manual settings if you prefer. Perfect size, (even large enough for canning pint and quart jars.). Switches to keep warm automatically when cycle is complete. Set and walk away for perfect results. Can be used as a steamer with a rack insert. Steams broccoli in 2 minutes. Can be used for single servings or family sized meals.
Cons: It has no browner setting. You must sear or brown your roasts, ground meat etc. if you wish before adding to the pot. While the window shows the countdown to the time remaining and indicates that the contents are under pressure by displaying a "P" on the panel when MANUAL settings are used, there is only a "P" displayed once the pot has come up to pressure when using the Auto settings, that is, there is no indication of the cook time remaining. (not a big deal, the pot accurately calculates the remaining time, just does not display it) I found that the keep warm setting works well for foods containing a lot of liquids but thick sauces, cooked dried beans etc. seem to stick to the bottom of the pot if left on "keep warm" too long. This happens with my smaller pot also. ( I just shut the pot off when done and allow it to remain closed. It keeps food hot for hours by itself, if unopened.)
I highly recommend this pressure cooker. I bought one for my daughter who loves it also.