Precise Heat 30-Quart "Waterless" Stockpot with Steamer Basket

Bought two of these to use for cooking and boiling homebrewed beer. Got to use them for the first time last weekend and they worked wonderfully. The large capacity let me boil five gallons of wort without having to worry about boil overs. After searching for stainless steel stockpots for a while I found these to be the most reasonably priced for the size I wanted.

After looking for a pot to replace my mothers favorite "soup" pot, I decided to give this one a try. After recieving it I opened the box to check the contents (it was a gift for her for xmas). The pot seems decent enough on the outside, however the details on the inside are alarming. The handles are attached with 2 rivvots each, the handle of the steamer basket appears to be made of the same kind of materials a wire coathanger is made of. Although it is heavy in weight, I do not see how its possible they sell this pot for $489.00. It was on sale for $101.96. I bought it thinking it was a $500 pot that was discounted, however it has the construction and feel of a $50.00 pot thats been marked up to look like a discount. As another reviewer noted, it does not heat evenly on the bottom as "precise heat" would indicate. If you are doing anything more than heating water, you will find it has hot spots, and does not distribute heat across the bottom as a pot of this price should. Before you purchase this pot for cooking anything other than liquid (beer), as the other reviews seem to indicate, look around at other options. I wish I had. This pot will be coming back to Amazon. I will be getting my mother a slightly smaller pot that is better constructed and heats evenly. I wish amazon would stop listing items that a person could find at a swapmeet, or online catalog. We have all seen the watches that have a retail cost of $125 only to be on sale for $9.95. Save your money and find another pot, as this one is not good for anything other than loose liquids.

This is a fine pot for boiling 5 gallons of liquid without any boil over. While I personally find the whistle annoying, it can be stopped by flipping a lever on handle of the lid.Things you should know or consider:- The pot and lid together (without basket) weigh about 7.9 pounds.- The steamer basket weighs about 1.38 pounds.- If you were to fill the pot with plain water, the combined weight (without the steamer basket) would be over 70 pounds.The good:- It is a large pot. Good for those times when you really need to boil 5 gallons of liquid without making a big mess on your stove.- It looks good. Nice and shiny on the outside.The bad:- It is a large pot. As it is almost certainly too large for your dishwasher, you'll be scrubbing this by hand (without steel wool or other metal scrubbers, of course).- The handles are riveted (pictures will be added) without reinforcement plates inside. If you fill this with 5+ gallons of liquid, the sides will flex (bend quite a bit but return to normal, or close enough to not tell visually) under the weight if you hold it by the outer edge of the handles. With more than 42 pounds inside it, there is no way to avoid this without proper reinforcement. As it would be really inconvenient and dangerous to drop this when it is full of extremely hot liquid, you will want to use some gloves to hold the pot by its sides under the handles so as not to cause too much strain on the metal surrounding the rivets.- Only the outside has the shiny chrome surface. The inside has a dull metal texture and has spin marks, small circular grooves, from the production machinery. This makes it a little harder to clean than it would be if the inside was smooth as well.- There is no metallic disc insert embedded in the bottom of the pan. The unit on your stove will heat a nice ring in the middle without spreading too much heat near the edges. I found that the inside of mine became a little discolored in this ring after the first use, but that will not alter the functionality of the pot.Although "the bad" list looks large, it would be common for most pots of this size unless you want to spend more than 2-3 times the price. With proper care and careful lifting this pot should last for many years.

I really like my pot. Thank you.

The greatest pot for large canning recipes!!

Great large stainless steel kettle for home brewing. Large enough to boil all 5 gallons. heavy pot and great quality