Pressure cookers, once a staple for many American households in the 1950s, have experienced a resurgence in popularity. Busy lifestyles and demanding schedules often leave little time to cook. As more and more people are looking to improve their health and save on the high costs of eating out, pressure cookers like Instant Pots offer a way to make healthy meals at home quickly.
However, with convenience often comes risk - and that’s true for pressure cookers, too. Every year, thousands of people across the nation suffer catastrophic pressure cooker burn injuries. While some pressure cooker burns can happen when the product is misused, many result from defects related to the product’s gaskets, seals, ventilation systems, or lids.
If you’ve suffered pressure cooker burn injuries, it’s important to explore your legal rights and options. You may be entitled to compensation - especially if your pressure cooker malfunctioned because it was defective. The experienced burn injury attorneys at Singleton Schreiber can offer the depth of experience, resources, and knowledge you’ll need to assert your consumer rights and maximize your financial recovery.
How Do Pressure Cookers Cause Burn Injuries?
Pressure cookers are small household appliances that cook food quickly by trapping steam in a covered pot. As the steam builds up, an increase in pressure raises the boiling point of liquids inside (up to 250 degrees, far above the normal boiling point of 212 degrees, as well as the temperature at which the food will cook. Cooking under high pressure at higher temperatures leads to faster-cooked meals.
Depending on the food, pressure cookers can cook meals three to ten times faster than traditional methods.
The buildup of steam and pressure is critical to the success of a pressure cooker. So, pressure cookers have to be designed to heat properly and contain the steam without yielding to the mounting pressure inside.
Pressure cookers can cause serious burn injuries when there’s a problem with a heating element, sealing element, or venting element.
Some of the most common causes of pressure cooker burn injuries include:
Faulty Seals and Ventilation
The water vapor needs to be contained within the pressure cooker and have a way to dissipate safely. While every pressure cooker will have a slightly different design, they all include a series of gaskets and seals to maintain this delicate balance. If these gaskets or seals crack, bend, leak, or break in some other way because they’re defective, it can cause the incredibly hot steam to escape the pot.
If your face or hands happen to be over or around the pressure cooker when this happens, contact between your skin and the water vapor can cause severe scalding burns.
Faulty Pressure Release Valves
Once the pressure cooker has finished cooking, the water vapor needs a path to escape the cooking chamber. Built-in pressure release valves often allow for a natural vapor release - which opens at a specified time after cooking, allowing for a slow, controlled release of the steam - or for automatic vapor release, which allows the user to release the steam rapidly once cooking has commenced.
If the pressure release valve doesn’t function properly, it can cause a sudden release of steam, potentially exposing the user to severe second or third-degree burns if they’re nearby.
Defective Heating Elements
Pressure cookers must control the speed and temperature at which the steam inside the chamber rises. Uneven heating caused by defects in the heating element can create unstable conditions that increase the risk that the pressure cooker explodes during use.
Malfunctioning Lid Locks
One important safety feature of any pressure cooker is an automatic lid lock to prevent the user from opening the device once it’s begun to heat up. If the lid lock fails, a user can suffer excruciating burn injuries if they’re able to open the pressure cooker as it heats up or before it has had the opportunity to depressurize thoroughly.
What Types of Burn Injuries Can Pressure Cookers Cause?
Scalding burn injuries, which are caused by exposure to boiling water or steam, are the most commonly reported burn injuries among pressure cooker users - particularly to the face, upper arm, upper torso, forearm, and neck.
The extent of your scald burn injuries will be largely dependent on your proximity to the pressure cooker when it malfunctioned, the temperature at which the water vapor had been heated, and other factors like your age and overall health.
Like other types of burns, scalding burns are classified based on severity:
- First-degree: damages the outer layer of the skin, characterized by redness and swelling
- Second-degree: damages the inner layer of the skin called the dermis, characterized by blisters and long-lasting pain
- Third-degree: penetrates all layers of the skin and can begin to damage subcutaneous tissue, including tendons, muscle, and/or bone; often appears white or charred and can be characterized by a distinct lack of pain due to nerve damage
Depending on the extent of your scald burn injuries, you might be advised to run the burn under cool water, apply a bandage, keep the wound moisturized, and take over-the-counter pain medications, as necessary - especially if you’ve suffered first-degree or relatively-moderate second-degree burns. If your injuries are more severe, you might require IV fluids, surgery, skin grafts, or more intensive medical care.
It’s always important to seek prompt medical attention if you’ve suffered burn injuries while using an Instant Pot, Breville’s Fast Slow Pro Cooker, T-Fal’s Clipso Pressure Cooker, an IMUSA Stovetop Aluminum Pressure Cooker, or another popular pressure cooker. Getting timely treatment can mitigate your pressure cooker burn injuries and create valuable evidence if you decide to take legal action against the manufacturer to recover compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other resulting damages.
Singleton Schreiber Can Help You Seek Maximum Compensation For Your Pressure Cooker Burn Injuries
Focus on recovering from your excruciatingly painful pressure cooker burn injuries. Call Singleton Schreiber, and trust our award-winning personal injury lawyer to take your fight to the company that put a defective pressure cooker in your kitchen.
As a client, you’ll work closely with local attorneys and benefit from our law firm’s national resources. We’ve helped clients secure more than $2.5 billion in settlement agreements and jury awards. Now, we’re ready to help you demand justice for your Instant Pot burn injuries, too.
Contact our law office today to arrange a time for a free consultation to discuss the details of your product liability case. Members of our team are always happy to answer your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
