Safety Regulators Tell Owners to Stop Using Tristar Pressure Cookers After 24 Burn Reports

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has told owners of a widely sold electric pressure cooker to stop using it immediately, saying the appliance's lid can pop open while the pot is still pressurized and spray scalding food across a kitchen. The agency's notice, posted October 15, covers roughly 393,000 Power Quick Pot six-quart cookers, and it exists only because the product's importer declined to carry out an actual recall.

What the safety agency says is happening

In its stop-use warning, the CPSC says the Power Quick Pot's lid "can open while pressurized, causing hot contents to be expelled unexpectedly." The agency has logged 24 reports of the cookers venting that way, each resulting in a serious burn injury. The affected model, Y6D-36, is a stainless-steel six-quart electric cooker with a black pressure lid, button controls and a digital display, with "Power Quick Pot" printed on the front and the model number on a label on the back.

The units were imported by Tristar Products Inc. of Altamonte Springs, Florida, and manufactured in China. They were sold from roughly July 2018 to November 2023 at Walmart.com, Amazon.com, eBay and other retailers nationwide, at prices between $44 and $160. Because Tristar "has refused to recall these products or offer consumers a remedy," the CPSC could not announce a formal recall and instead issued the public warning on its own authority, a step the agency reserves for cases in which a company will not cooperate.

Electric pressure cookers rely on a sealed lid to build internal steam pressure well above normal atmospheric levels, which is what lets them cook food quickly. A functioning lock is supposed to prevent the lid from being opened, or from popping open on its own, until internal pressure has dropped back to a safe level. When that lock fails or is defeated while the pot is still pressurized, the contents — often well above the boiling point of water — can be ejected forcefully enough to cause second- and third-degree burns in an instant, frequently to a user's hands, arms, torso or face.

The CPSC's description of the Power Quick Pot hazard does not specify what, mechanically, is causing the lid to release early, nor whether the problem traces to the locking mechanism, a pressure-release valve or a design flaw in the lid itself. The agency's notice is limited to describing the outcome — the lid opening under pressure — rather than a root-cause engineering explanation, which is typical of CPSC warnings issued without a company's cooperation, since the agency has less access to internal design and testing records than it would during a negotiated recall.

A hazard regulators have flagged before

This is not the first time this year that the CPSC has had to resort to a bare warning over a pressure cooker lid that can open under pressure. In February, the agency issued a nearly identical notice for roughly 43,500 Gourmia six-quart digital pressure cookers, after receiving five reports of hot contents being expelled under pressure, four of them resulting in severe burns. That importer, too, declined to agree to a recall. Federal law generally does not let the CPSC order a company to recall a product on its own; when a firm will not do so voluntarily, the agency's main recourse is a lengthy administrative or court proceeding, which is why it increasingly relies on public stop-use notices in the interim.

Tristar's Power Quick Pot line has drawn scrutiny before. In 2023, a Georgia couple, Andrew and Kaylle Jewell, sued Tristar after the lid of their Model Y6D-36 cooker — the same model now covered by the CPSC warning — blew off while they were preparing dinner, spraying hot food over both of them in front of their children. Attorneys for the couple, in a press release announcing the suit, said Tristar knew about defects in the product but failed to warn consumers or fix the problem. Other lawsuits over Tristar pressure cookers, alleging similar lid failures, have been filed in federal courts in Texas and Nebraska in recent years.

"CPSC urges consumers to stop using the pressure cookers immediately and dispose of them."

Who owns one, and what to do

The cookers were sold broadly enough, and for long enough, that a large number may still be in household kitchens despite the 2023 end of sales. Anyone who owns a six-quart electric pressure cooker should check the following before the next use:

• Look for "Power Quick Pot" printed on the front of the unit.
• Check the label on the back for model number Y6D-36.
• Confirm it is the six-quart stainless-steel version with a black pressure lid, button controls and a digital display.

The CPSC's instructions for anyone with a matching unit are blunt: stop using the cooker, and do not sell it, donate it or give it away. As Techlicious noted in its coverage of the warning, owners should also not simply set the appliance out at the curb, since someone else could pick it up and use it; local governments generally handle small appliances as e-waste rather than regular trash, so disposal should go through a municipal or county drop-off program rather than the weekly trash pickup.

Consumers who were burned by the cooker, or who have had a lid release unexpectedly without injury, are being asked to document it. The CPSC directs people to file a report at SaferProducts.gov, the agency's public incident-reporting database, or to call its hotline at 800-638-2772. Those reports feed the same injury count — currently 24 — that the agency cites in justifying the warning, and additional reports could affect any future enforcement action against Tristar.

No recall, and no clear remedy

Because Tristar has not agreed to a recall, consumers who still own one of the cookers currently have no manufacturer-run program for a refund, replacement or repair. The CPSC's warning amounts to a public-safety notice rather than a resolved case: it tells people what the agency believes is dangerous, without the refund or replacement mechanism a cooperative recall would normally include. The agency's options to compel stronger action involve either continued negotiation with Tristar or referral for legal proceedings, both of which can take months. In the meantime, the litigation already underway against Tristar over the same model offers the only path some injured owners currently have for compensation, separate from anything the CPSC itself can order.

The agency has not indicated a timeline for further action and did not say how it would monitor compliance with a warning it cannot enforce the way it would a recall. For now, the instruction to consumers stands as issued: stop using the Power Quick Pot, and get it out of the house.