My old faithful crockpot of 20+ years finally cooked its last meal and I starting checking reviews to find a replacement. Cook's Illustrated does great reviews and thats how I came to purchase this model. It's exactly what they described. Very even heating, must be watched on high settings as it does boil, low setting is better and doesn't need monitoring...large capacity with an oval insert making it possible to cook an entire chicken without cramming the bird in upright...overall a good deal and I would recommend it.