I found a difference in the old and new ones. As someone already mentioned, the newer ones do cook faster so you could end up with a chewy meat, rather than tender. I prefer the old one (the crock is removable). A quick way to cook a roast (which I am doing tomorrow) is to place the roast in the crock pot with a can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 enveolpe of dry onion soup mix. This needs to be cooked on low with the lid on.