I use mine quite often. It's really good to get tough meat fork tender. Most come with a cook book and there are recipes on line. They can explode if the heat is left to high. Now most of them have a metal steam weight that jiggles when it gets up to pressure. So you can hear if it gets too hot. (It will jiggles constantly) where it is suppose to jiggle for a few seconds then stop then start again. If you read your instructions on how your specific brand works, you will be fine.