As intimidating as the thought of a pressure canner can be, it is just another tool in the kitchen which is safe as long as you use it properly.
We do not have one of the Hot Rod Fancy Ones which can easily run upwards of $500.
Like any piece of pressure equipment there is a safety valve which limits how much pressure builds up in the unit.
Our unit is supposed to be Vent, 1 (5 psi), 2 (10 psi) and 3 (15 psi).
Problem is, on setting 2 it starts venting at 8 psi based on the gauge instead of 10 psi. We simply needed to turn the switch to 3 to attain the required 10 psi we need for the current recipe we are doing.
At setting 3 on the pressure cooker we get venting at 12 psi and can turn down the heat on the burner to try and maintain 10 psi without constantly venting.
On our old glass top stove we can actually turn the burner down to 1 and maintain our minimum 10 psi requirement.
Almost every review I read on this unit was bad and listed gripes. It seems to work perfectly fine for our purposes and did not break the bank! (It did still dent the bank a bit though)