Geneva Professional Quality Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker

I have talked about my pressure cookers previously.  A few days ago I was in Liquidation World (now owned by Big Lots Canada) doing a bit of household shopping.  Liquidation stores are the perfect place to get great bargains on kitchen equipment if you know what you are looking for.  These types of stores buy out the remaining stock of stores going out of business for whatever reason but some of the stock carried is brand name items (eg. Serta mattress, Cuisinart, Chicago Cutlery) not because those companies are going out of t business but because the store that was selling them went out of business.  I have been wanting a larger, stainless steel pressure cooker for quite some time.  Liquidation World had Geneva professional quality stainless steep pressure cookers on sale for $35, a 50% savings from their regular price which is about 50% off of what the retail price would have been when the store that liquidated was selling it.  So I ended up with a larger, stainless steel pressure cooker at a retail value of about $140 for $35.

Pictured is the new Geneva pressure cooker (far left), Jasi (middle) and Fagor (far right).  The sizes are 7 L (7 quart), 6 L (6 quart) and 4 L (4 quart) respectively.  The Geneva (made in China) and Fagor (made in Spain) are both stainless steel, second generation (regulator in handle) while the Jasi (made in China) is an aluminum first generation (rocker regulator) pressure cooker.  The Geneva is professional quality; the Fagor is commercial quality and the Jasi is standard.  None of these pressure cookers are large enough to use for home canning and the pressure is not variable, but rather 15 PSI.  The Geneva pressure cooker has a triple core base, automatic pressure control, overpressure plug, emergency release valve, auto lock handle and self sealing gasket.

I did a bit of researching on Geneva when I got home.  The news was not good and I did consider returning the pressure cooker.  [edited March 10, 2012]  According to internet search results the company making Geneva pressure cooker folded in late 2010 so parts are going to be hard to find.  Please see the comment that the company is still in business and parts are available.  Normally I would not buy a pressure cooker without being able to get parts but in today's global economy companies going under is becoming the norm.  What happens is sometimes another company will come in and take over one or more of those products and sometimes another company is formed to provide generic parts for the products of defunct companies.  The worst case scenario, if I could not find a replacement gasket a few years down the road, the pressure cooker would have more than paid for itself in cooking cost savings and I would still have a nice pot for regular cooking.  However, I compared the gaskets between the three pressure cookers.  The Geneva and Fagor gaskets are identical except for colour so I could easily use a Fagor gasket in the Geneva.  There is an O ring on the safety open-preventing valve that if need be could be replaced with a generic O ring.  Other than that with proper maintenance the Geneva should give me several years of reliable pressure cooking.  I think it was a frugal purchase all the way around but then I know pressure cookers. 

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