By far the best slow cooker and love the fact that it is non-toxic.

I was really excited about this slow cooker but the clay vessel broke, inside the cooker, the second time I used it.

There are so many discrepancy's with this unit that I thought I had purchased a knock-off. Multiple calls to mfgr. confirmed they are aware of the problems. Unit advertised at 6.5 quart. It only holds 5 quarts. Liter & cup markings stamped inside pot are in wrong place. So the 1 cup marking is actually 5 cups, and all the other increment markings are off by 4 cups. The included measuring cup is marked in increments up to 1 cup. - It only holds 3/4 cup.There are multiple chips in the lid that are glazed over. Underside of lid is not glazed. Parts are missing. Instruction manual refers to minimum and maximum fluid level markings inside pot. They are not there. Manual also refers to large silicone ring in the lid. It is missing. The manual itself is full of grammar errors & spelling errors. The venting holes in the lid are referred to in multiple places in the manual and identified by 4 different names -steam valve, silicone vent gasket, steam vent and venting valves. This is only one example of very confusing instructions. Manual has detailed instructions for taking care of mold. Why would a glazed pot have mold. Silicone valves in lid are clear and fall out easily. They are hard to see and if you loose one the pot won't work. Two in my unit had fallen out during shipping and continue to fall out here if I tip the lid vertical. I had several phone conversations with the mfgr. They are aware of the issues and say that they must sell the units they have on hand. And that they are in "process" of making revisions to the pot and instructions and capacity claims. No one I spoke to was able to tell me why there are 4 steam vent holes in the lid and additional steam vent holes in the upper rim of the pot. I specifically asked where the reports for the lead testing for this unit were and was directed to the website. There is one report for the "clay" pot dated 2011. This stoneware pot is made of different clay material and is glazed. There are no testing results for this pot (white clay) or the glaze on this unit on the website. So in the end, per customer service at Vita Clay this unit is not a knockoff. They only offered "I am sorry, we are doing our best to correct things"

Love my Vitaclay pot. A quality product that is easy to use. Cooks meals faster and healther.

I'm starting to really love this! I've made several batches of bone broth in it now and it's amazing. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to adapt my old bone broth habits to it, but I did, and I like it much better than the standard slow cooker. Here's what I do for bone broth:
1. Place two pounds of bones (4 good-sized beef, lamb, or bison bones) in the pot. (I don't do chicken so can't comment on that)
2. Add 2 stalks of celery, 1 medium onion, and a few cloves of garlic (the veggies can be whole or just halved - when you cook something this long you don't have to worry about extracting all the goodness even if you leave the chunks very large, and these veggies are not going to be consumed as in a soup or stew - they will have imparted all their goodness to the broth, and you'll be discarding the fibrous parts only.
3. Fill with water - to cover everything by at least a couple of inches
4. Add 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
notes: --I add salt when it's finished, I don't cook the broth with salt. That way each person can salt to taste when we reheat to drink.
-- make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature when you put them in the pot. Don't put in frozen bones or very cold water as I often did with my other slow cooker. The clay will crack if it experiences quick temperature changes.
5. Turn on the cooker to "slow" and press + until you get to the maximum - which is 9 hours.

DON'T forget this isn't going to simmer very slowly like a regular slow cooker. It's going to BOIL, so you can't just go away all day and leave it cooking. If you are leaving for work in the morning, change # 5 above to "Turn on the cooker to "slow" and press + until you get to 2 hours." It will "cook" for 2 hours and then automatically hold the broth on "warm" (which is close to "slow cooking" that you are used to) for 9 hours, and presumably you will be home by then.

Okay, assuming you are home and you've set it to max cook (9 hours), just be sure you set some kind of timer to look in at it once in a while to see if you need to add water. If you do, be sure you add HOT water (I heat mine in a kettle and add it boiling) to get back to everything being covered by a couple of inches of water.

I then keep putting it on "slow" until I go to bed, and then overnight on "warm" (it reverts to "warm" automatically) and repeat the next day. considering the broth done the evening of the second day, after it's completed two 9 hour cooking periods and the rest on "warm". You CAN consider the broth done after just the 9 hour cooking day. It WILL be "done".

THIS BROTH IS AMAZING. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.
Enjoy!