Sensio Faces Lawsuit After Recalled Bella Pressure Cooker Explodes, Causing Serious Burn Injuries

A California man says he suffered serious burns from a Sensio Bella Pressure Cooker, which was recalled late last year following reports of similar injuries that occurred when the lid exploded off while hot contents were still pressurized, causing hot contents to forcefully spray onto consumers.

Damien Sheppard filed the complaint (PDF) on February 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Sensio, Inc, indicating that the pressure cooker’s “safety” features failed to prevent the lid from being unlocked and removed, making it unreasonably dangerous and defective.

The lawsuit comes less than a year after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a Sensio Bella pressure cooker recall in August 2023, affecting nearly 900,000 units, including the unit owned by Sheppard.

At the time of the recall, there were at least 63 reports of explosions when the Bella pressure cooker lids were removed by consumers who had no way of knowing the hot contents were still cooking under pressure.

However, the problem is not limited to Sensio pressure cookers. Sheppard’s claim joins a number of similar pressure cooker lawsuits filed in recent months against manufacturers of other popular devices, including Instant Pot, Crock Pot, Ninja Foodie and others, each raising similar allegations that the modern electronic devices are prone to explode when the lid is removed, even after it appears all steam has been released from the pot.

Sheppard indicates he suffered serious and substantial burns from his Bella pressure cooker in December 2023, after rotating and opening the pressure cooker lid while the contents were still pressurized. This caused the scalding hot contents to be sprayed onto his body.

“The incident occurred as a result of the failure of the Pressure Cooker’s supposed ‘safety’ features, which purport to keep the consumer safe while using the Pressure Cooker,” Sheppard’s lawsuit states. “In addition, the incident occurred as the result of Defendant’s failure to redesign the Pressure Cooker, despite the existence of economical, safer alternative designs.”

Sheppard presents claims of strict liability, negligence, negligent design defect, negligent failure to war, breach of warranty, and seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.