Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had SUCH high hopes for this slow cooker, especially the brown-on-stove feature. As others have noted, it looks great, is lightweight, and the cooking insert non-stick coating appears extremely durable. But, my main use for my slow cooker is making soup stocks and bone broths, which require long & SLOW cooking to extract the good stuff while not clouding the broth with fat which happens if the temp approaches boiling. I set my new cooker up with bones, water, etc. on LOW and headed out on a shopping trip. When I returned 5 hours later & peeked in the glass lid, I was appalled; it wasn't a total "rolling" boil, but it was definitely NOT simmering as I expect of a slow cooker set on low heat. I immediately punched the "warm" button to try to get things back under control, but 20 minutes later it was STILL bubbling pretty frantically, at which point I threw in the towel and unplugged the unit. Although it's possible I got a lemon with a bad thermostat, I'm not willing to take the chance. It's going back to Amazon & I'll try the Cuisinart MSC-600 that browns in the unit rather than stove-top. Reviewer comments on it suggest it is definitely capable of achieving not-boiling temperatures for an extended cooking period. Unfortunately, it costs over twice as much as this Crock-Pot, but if it performs for me it'll be worth it. It also has a 3-year warranty as opposed to the standard 1-year Crock Pot warranty which promotes optimism as well. I truly hope my experience with this Crock Pot is atypical because, aside from the temperature-control issue, it really seems to be a sturdy, well-thought-out product.