I have to admit, in late 2022, it almost seems redundant to refer to anything remotely affordable as cheaply made, but here we are. This is cheaply made. It’s a beautiful, stunning blue… but it’s cheaply made all the same. Let’s start with the base that houses the heating element. It is flimsy. Like, laughably so. I’ve yet to move this thing from my counter to storage, but I imagine I’ll have to handle it like a newborn to avoid any unsightly dings to the lovely blue exterior. (Did I mention I love the blue?) I’m reasonably certain I could dent this thing with a strong flick of my finger or just by cradling it too firmly while relocating it. As many others have stated, the low setting is too hot. Which is… the opposite of how a slow cooker should work? I haven’t used the hot setting but I can only imagine how quickly it would burn things. The stoneware dish is… fine. It’s fine. After just a few uses it looks like lines are already starting to split into whatever it’s painted with. But I don’t have to look at it, so it doesn’t bother me as much but like… ugh, fine. And now the lid. Oh boy the lid. I might not even be writing this review if it weren’t for this lid. The listing says dish-washer safe. I say bull… I say nothing I can repeat in an Amazon review. The issue here isn’t even the dishwasher. I didn’t put it in the dishwasher. Washing the thing AT ALL is the problem. I have a hard rule. If you create a product that needs to be cleaned with water, and you have created a product where water can get in… but not get back out… you have failed. And when water entered the little lid dome, it would not come back out. It became its own self-contained biome, complete with a weather system of water that would just… vaporize then liquidize again. No washable device should retain water. Water stagnates. If this happens, you have failed at making something washable, which is like… the most important thing next to making a device that works in the first place. “Well,” I thought to myself, “this isn’t TOO much of an issue. The lid probably wasn’t screwed on tight enough. I’ll loosen it a bit, let the water out so it doesn’t stagnate in there, wipe it down, and then I’ll tighten it back up. Maybe I’ll add some sealant to the plastic part of the lid.” And I’m sure this would have worked… if the screw wasn’t made from the softest metal science can produce. You know those Japanese game shows where people have to guess which things are real and which are made out of chocolate? I’m 50% sure this screw is chocolate. I haven’t tried eating it yet. Or maybe the metal was just wrecked from the low heat option cooking way too hot. But that screw stripped the very first time I tried to unscrew it, and it just peeled apart from then on out before collapsing like a dead stat. I’ve yet to figure out how I’m going to fix this handle so that it keeps water out and stops from twirling the lid around when I pick it up. I’m sure I’ll figure out something. But… I shouldn’t have to. You failed at making a lid. There were only three pats, and you messed up two of them. The glass part seems pretty solid. So, because I consider myself a fair person, I am giving it three stars. +1 star for not burning down the house and killing my family, +1 star for doing what it’s built to do with moderate success, + 3 stars for just being so… very… immaculately blue… and -2 stars for all the nonsense I’ve already had to put up with.
