Tristar Power Pressure Cooker XL Lawsuit Filed After Lid Exploded Off, Spewing Hot Contents

A family from Texas has filed a product liability lawsuit after their Tristar Power Pressure Cooker XL exploded and spewed hot, burning gumbo on them, despite a number of purported safety features the manufacturer claimed were supposed to prevent such accidents from occurring.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Laticia Thonsgaard and Jake Thonsgaard on June 22, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, naming the pressure cooker manufacturer Tristar Products, Inc. as the defendant.

According to the lawsuit, Laticia Thonsgaard received a Tristar Power Pressure Cooker XL in 2017, as a Christmas present from her mother. In 2019, Thonsgaard’s mother used the pressure cooker to make gumbo. When the meal was done, the family followed instructions provided by the manufacturer to release steam and depressurize the pot, which should have made it safe to remove the lid. However, instead, when Jake Thonsgaard went to remove the lid, it exploded off and the hot contents were sprayed on him and Laticia, resulting in severe burns which required medical treatment.

The lid exploded from the pressure cooker despite the device emitting a sound indicating the food was cooked, the pressure release valve being activated and plaintiffs waiting several minutes after the hissing sounds of pressure being released had stopped, according to the product liability complaint.

“Unbeknownst to the Plaintiffs at the time of their use of Defendant’s Pressure Cooker, Defendant had previously received (and was contemporaneously receiving) numerous reports of serious personal injury (chiefly serious burns) and property damage resulting from similar incidences of Defendants’ Pressure Cooker lids exploding from the units while under pressure,” the lawsuit states. “Despite its knowledge of its defects, Defendant failed to recall, halt, hold, or otherwise alter the sales of its Pressure Cookers but instead continued to push Jinguang (the manufacturer) to produce more units and did nothing to warn consumers of the danger.”

Electric pressure cookers have become increasingly popular in U.S. households over the past decade, since the introduction of Instant Pot and other new products that tout safety features which purportedly avoid many of the risks associated with older stove-top pressure cookers.

The case joins a growing number of similar pressure cooker burn lawsuits filed in recent months, each raising similar allegations about unreasonably dangerous designs and defective safety features on Instant Pots and other modern pressure cookers, including products sold under the Crock-Pot, Ninja Foodi, Instant Pot and other popular brand names.

The most common pressure cooker injuries involve burns, which can range from first to third degree and typically cover a large percentage of a person’s body. These types of burn injuries can leave patients prone to infections and sometimes requiring amputations. However, other injuries linked to pressure cookers have included eye injuries, broken bones and other complications that resulted from electrocutions, spills or explosions.

As more of these electric pressure cookers have been introduced in recent years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued several pressure cooker recalls over problems where lids were able to be opened while contents are under pressure, allowing hot contents to be expelled and causing a scald or burn injury to individuals in the immediate area.

Most recently, a massive Crock-Pot recall was issued in November 2020, impacting nearly 1 million 6-Quart Express Crock Multi-Cookers with lid locking defects, after at least 99 burn injuries were reported.