Your decision should be based on price, size, and features.

Nowadays electric pressure cookers are all very durable.

dcarch

We have a Cuisinart CPC 600 Series bought in 2009.
Never any problems with it, bought DD one also and she has never had problems. It is so quiet compared to the old stove top pressure pans. I believe it is 6.5 qts. DH was the gadget guy who thought it would be nice to have. First bought a Demi brand, an oval shape, nice to look at, on second use it crashed. They were reluctant on returns and refunding money, we did prevail after time, had a restocking fee and return postage to pay on their faulty merchandise. That was our experience.

We cook roasts, dried beans, green beans, rice, soups. DD cooks potatoes for mashing in 5 minutes. We don't use everyday, more in cool and cold weather. I would think if you were into canning the electric canning size would be nice...canning is a thing of my past.

Look them up on the internet and read the reviews, they tell you alot.

Shirl

Thank you both!

I was looking at several today and almost bought a small Cuisinart. My husband talked me out of it saying that I should look at others and do exactly as you suggested, shirl, check reviews.

I was checking them out last night online and was really surprised at the cost of some of them. Now if they did windows and mopped floors too.................

Thank you again.

Jenna

I got into pressure cooking when my mom gave me an electric pressure cooker. Did okay, and got me interested enough to the point where I bought regular stovetop PC's. I now find that I never use the electric one.

That's not to talk you out of your purchase, but that's how it worked out for me. YMMV.

If your stovetop PC is recent, it has as much safety stuff on it as a newly purchased electric PC. (Restating it somewhat differently, if you're worried about the stovetop PC, I don't see how an electric PC would engender fewer worries. But if your stovetop PC is an old antique jiggle top model, then you have some reason to be concerned.)

Advantage of electric PC: timer function can be used to precisely start and stop the cooking. Disadvantage: it's a one trick pony, and takes up counter or cabinet space.

Advantage of stovetop PC: the pot can be used for other things (i.e., the pot can be used as a regular pot, not as a pressure cooker). Disadvantage: you have to manually turn it off.

Here's a off the wall suggestion that you might consider: if your current PC is induction capable, consider buying an induction hot plate. Using your PC on that would have all the timing functions of an electric PC.

There was a recent thread here in which fellow Cooking Forum participant Lars discussed using his induction hot plate in just that fashion.

Here is a link that might be useful: induction hot plate link