An Indiana man recently filed a new Instant Pot lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. He claims that while using the Instant Pot Duo Nova Pressure Cooker, he was seriously injured. He seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
Plaintiff Claims Defendant Misled Consumers Into Believing the Cooker Was Safe
According to his complaint, the plaintiff was using his Instant Pot on January 17, 2021, when he was able to rotate and open the lid while the cooker was still under pressure. The scalding hot contents were forcefully ejected from the cooker onto the plaintiff.
He claims that the incident occurred because the pressure cooker’s supposed “built-in safety features” failed to operate as advertised. He notes that manufacturer Instant Brands, Inc., regularly touts the safety of its pressure cookers, repeatedly boasting about the “proven safety features.”
Specifically, Instant Brands claims in the owner’s manual that its pressure cookers include a “pressure locking lid” which “locks into place once the cooker has pressurized.” This same message is used in the defendant’s infomercials and on social media websites like YouTube.
In one of the company’s YouTube videos entitled “Getting to Know Your New Instant Pot IP-DUO,” for example, the narrator notes that the user doesn’t need to be afraid of the cooker, as it has “10 safety features built in” allowing consumers to use the Instant Pot with confidence, “knowing that it is not going to explode.”
In a similar video, spokesperson Laura Pazzaglia, founder of the website “Hip Pressure Cooking,” also boasts about the 10 safety features, stating that “once the lid is locked, and the contents are under pressure, there’s no way to open the pressure cooker.”
The plaintiff states he used the pressure cooker as instructed, but that it was defectively and negligently designed and manufactured and failed to properly function to prevent the lid from being opened while the unit remained pressurized.
Possible Defects In Pressure Cookers
Instant Brands is one of several companies defending lawsuits concerning its pressure cookers. Others include TriStar, Sunbeam (Crock Pot), NoWave, Wolfgang Puck Enterprises, Sensio (Bella), and more.
Plaintiffs claim these cookers have design flaws in their safety features, which are supposed to prevent the lid from being opened when the cookers are under pressure. When these safety features fail, the results are tragic, leading to serious burns and disfigurement as well as other lasting injuries.
Possibly defective components in pressure cookers include:
- Safety locks on the lid: These are supposed to prevent the lid from becoming pressurized unless the lid is properly secured and locked into place.
- Pressure valves: These safely depressurize the pot, but they can fail, particularly as they age.
- Faulty gaskets: These enable the pressure cooker to form an airtight seal while the lid is closed. If they’re defective, the lid may blast open.
Exclusively focused on representing plaintiffs, especially in mass tort litigation, Eric Chaffin prides himself on providing unsurpassed professional legal services in pursuit of the specific goals of his clients and their families. Both his work and his cases have been featured in the national press, including on ABC’s Good Morning America.
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