I like this Nesco 4816-14 Roaster (6 quart). I like to slow cook foods over many hours but I also like to make them flavorful which also makes them quite aromatic. A slow cooker in our house overwhelms me with strong aromas for hours and hours. It smells good for about the first 20 minutes but then I crave relief! I wanted to move the process to our separate unheated garage but a standard slow cooker didn't have enough power to maintain a 250º temperature when it was cold outside. So, I took a chance on this roaster. Sure enough, the instructions indicated that it is capable of doing just what I wanted to do by specifically mentioning in the instruction booklet that it is suitable for use in a garage. I've only used it twice so far but it worked great. One day had temps in the 20's but the Nesco roaster maintained a 250º temp in our closed garage. Now, I can go crazy with onions and spices and let it cook away for hours with total disregard for any persistent strong aromas. To me, the food tastes better when I haven't been forced to smell it all day or night.

Nesco claims it has that "circle of heat." I presume they are the only ones? I don't know. But, it certainly seems like a great idea that will keep me loyal to the Nesco brand. It means that the heating elements aren't on the bottom so as to cause burning of the food. Nesco says their heating elements encircle the cooking area from the side so there's less chance of burning.

The cookwell is black porcelain. It cleans easily if you soak it and this one perfectly sits diagonally submerged in our standard sized kitchen sink. Nesco warns that, as porcelain cookware is known to do, it will discolor a bit where liquids and such touch the material. Even on the first use, the cookwell developed a cloudy "ring" at the liquid level and there were immediately some cloudy spots where drips of liquid had contacted the cookwell. They say it's only cosmetic. I guess that is so. It still cleaned up easily after soaking. I have to admit, I've got some black porcelain roaster pans for my gas oven that have also discolored in the same way. They've been fine for years so I'm not worried about the Nesco cookwell.

I would purchase an upgraded model, however, if it was offered in stainless steel with a stainless steel cookwell. I like stainless. If I'm in a hurry, I don't have to wait for a soak. Stainless steel lets me immediately go to work with scrapers and a stainless steel scrubbing pad and get the job done quickly. You can't use anything but plastic scrubbers on porcelain, so, porcelain requires that soak time.

There is a stainless steel roaster with a stainless steel cookwell in the Nesco product line but it is 18 quarts. That's too much for many of the small meals and roasts that I prepare. A bigger roaster requires a lot more broth and other ingredients to accomodate the larger size of the roaster no matter what quantity of food you may wish to cook. I do more "moist" cooking with liquids over a long period of time than purely "roasting" with dry heat.

This Nesco 4816-14 Roaster (6 quart) uses about 600 watts. That means my electric garage door opener won't blow a fuse while the roaster is operating. Nice.

(I keep repeating the model number because Amazon and blogs that plagiarize these reviews will sometimes jumble reviews for one product into another product's reviews. I'm trying to help keep this review identifiable.)

Had a nesco back in the nineties. Wanted a roaster that was more than a crock pot. Liked belting able to set various temperatures for cooking There is also a warm setting

I was looking for at least an 18 quart roaster for a large turkey and a large slab of corned beef that I have. I chose the Nesco roaster because of the long-standing name and the many positive reviews. The first one that I got had a defective foot and it wobbled. It looked like the foot had been put on an angle. I returned that one to Amazon for replacement. The second one was better, but had a mark on the back that I couldn't remove. Oh well, perfection isn't something that comes will most new appliances. So I tried it.

My first use was a large slab of corned beef. I have cooked many corned beef dishes from the store, but this was one we got from a local farmer and it was larger than I could fit in any of my Dutch ovens. For the size, I figured 5-6 hours on slow cook high. I had no idea how long it would take to get the water to a boil. I put the corned beef into the roaster and not quite covered it with water. The water was not cold, but not boiling either. It took well over 2 hours to get the water to 200 degrees. This was my first disappointment because it pushed our dinner back a couple of hours. It did seem to hold the temperature well once it got there - even when I added the vegetables later. I had it set at 250 degrees to maintain a slow simmer. The meal came out well, but the corned beef was more stringy than others I have cooked in the past. At this point, I don't know if it was the cooker or the corned beef.

After the meal was done, there was the clean-up. I am a stickler about getting things clean with no marks from cooking. With only a water based dish, the porcelain surface was not easy to clean. It took multiple tries with scrubbies to get off the marks from the water .I was going to return the cooker until I took a closer look at other cooker of this size. Most don't even have a light to indicate the cooker is to temperature. Most of them also seem to have the same porcelain coating. At least this one has that has a light that indicates it is on and has reached the set temperature. I also bought the stainless cookwell, and hopefully this one is easier to clean. I opted to keep this roaster oven be cause of the indicator light that others don't have and, from feedback on other units, it isn't worse than any others. It is also possible that is didn't quite measure up to the Ninja 3-in-1 cooking system that I have. Unfortunately, that one doesn't come in larger capacities. It's very possible that my disappointment in this oven is because I used one with more bells and whistles first. Also, the amount of water added to cook the corned beef was quite a lot. Even so, I don't think it would have taken over 2 hours to heat to boiling on the stove top.

My next project with this roaster is to roast a large turkey. I will update this review after I do that. It may be much more effective for its roasting abilities.

Update:
I did purchase the stainless steel cookwell, and it made a world of difference in the cleanup. The stainless steel is so much easier to clean than the porcelain. I did roast a 17 pound turkey in this cooker following the instructions I found on a web site to roast at a higher temperature to brown and then turn the temperature down for the remainder of the cooking and not open the cover to check. I used a probe thermometer to monitor the temperature so I didn't have to open the cooker. When it was done, the turkey tasted excellent and moist, but it was not at all browned. Maybe some of the newer self-basting lids on other oven cooker work better for browning.

This was a replacement. After a good 20 some yrs ours fell completely apart.

It's a small version of big Nesco. We use it like a crock pot for those days you need food cooked quicker than a crockpot.

It's also great for turkeys & hams. Frees up your oven for ThxGiving & Xmas.

A nice bridal shower/wedding gift.

Absolutely love this cooker!!