Carey Smart Electric Pressure Canner Reviews: Our Verdict

The short version

If you want the verdict before the detail, here's where the Carey lands after reading through owner threads and the canning community's long-running argument about electric canners. It's an easy machine to live with that carries one unresolved question you should decide on before you buy.

What's good:

• Genuinely hands-off: set a pressure and a time on the panel and walk away, with no gauge to read or weight to watch.
• Countertop footprint that fits a small kitchen and runs without tying up a stovetop or heating the whole room.
• Adjustable pressure setting, so you can dial it for your altitude instead of being locked to one PSI like a multicooker.
• Doubles as a water bath canner, a browner, and a slow cooker, so it earns its counter space between canning days.

What's not:

• Independent extension labs have not confirmed it holds safe temperature and pressure, and the main canning community does not endorse electric canners yet.
• The electronics are the entire safety system; there is no gauge or weight to verify, and owners report units running dry or two identical machines behaving differently.
• Smaller batch than a 23-quart stovetop canner, so bulk-season runs still send you back to a big pot.
• The valve and control layout confuse some owners, and a mislined dial can start a cycle before you expect it.

Who it's for

This one splits buyers cleanly, and the split is not really about the machine. It's about how you feel trusting an electronic display you can't independently check. Sort yourself before you spend.

Buy it for:

• Starting pressure canning without learning to read a dial gauge or wrangle a heavy pot on the stove.
• Small-batch canning, like putting up dinner leftovers or a few jars of broth, in a kitchen short on space.
• Wanting one appliance that also water baths, browns, and slow cooks between canning sessions.

Skip it if:

• You want the method the whole hobby agrees is proven; a stovetop Presto 01781 is the community default for a reason.
• You put up big harvests; a 23-quart stovetop or the larger Presto Precise digital handles volume the Carey cannot.
• You won't be comfortable trusting a display you cannot verify with a gauge; that discomfort will not fade with use.

The specs that matter

The numbers on this one only make sense once you know what they cost you and what they buy you. Here's the short translation.

About 9.5 quarts of capacity: that's roughly four quart jars or a modest stack of pints per load, which is fine for dinner leftovers and small runs but nowhere near a 23-quart stovetop canner. If you preserve a real harvest, this is a supplement to a big pot, not a replacement for one.

Adjustable pressure, not one locked setting: you can set it lower or higher rather than being stuck at a fixed PSI the way a canning-mode multicooker is, which is what lets owners account for altitude. That flexibility is a real point in its favor, and it's the feature owners bring up when they compare it to an Instant Pot.

A digital panel that runs the whole cycle: the electronics set the pressure, hold it, and time it, so there is no gauge to read and no weight to rock. That is the entire appeal and the entire risk in one sentence, because the panel is also the only thing telling you the cycle ran correctly.

How well it preserves

Start with what actually happens in owners' kitchens. People who bought a Carey or its Nesco twin to can low-acid food mostly report exactly what they hoped for: jars that seal and come out right, batch after batch.

I have a Nesco canner, and I love it. I have mainly used mine to can tomato juice and green beans. It has sealed all of my jars.

Plenty of owners are enthusiastic after years of use, and whatever you make of the ongoing safety debate, the on-the-ground satisfaction is real:

I have been using my nesco electric pressure canner 4 years ago and it has been amazing. The reason I bought it was because I was watching lots of videos and gathering information from RoseRed Homestead on Youtube. I find that she is reliable because she is a food scientist, has been canning for many years, and goes through and breaks down all of her scientific tests and findings on all of the electric pressure canners on the market.

Here's the honest counterweight, and it's the reason this axis doesn't score higher. No independent lab has confirmed that any electric pressure canner reaches and holds the temperature and pressure that low-acid canning needs, and there is no gauge for you to check it yourself. That's not a fringe worry; it's the settled position of the largest canning community online.

No electric pressure canner has ever been confirmed by independent testing to reach sufficient temperature and pressure to ensure the safety of the food canned. Several of the companies say they have tested their own but independent places like extension offices have not been able to confirm those tests. There’s also no way for you to ensure that an electric canner is maintaining appropriate pressure. Regular pressure canners have a gauge for you to verify.

The skepticism lands specifically on this machine, too, not just electric canners in the abstract. One frequently cited point is that the handful of extension tests run so far have not gone the maker's way:

The usda has not approved any pressure canners, electric or stove top. What it has done is develop recipes that can be safely canned using specific types of pressure canners. Those are of a specific size and only stovetop types, not electric. An extension has officially tested three electric appliances so far, all have failed, including the Nesco/Carey. Any YouTube blogger tests with kitchen probes are unreliable.

It's not all one direction. The maker says it is actively pursuing the certifications that would settle the question, which is more than the multicooker crowd can claim:

I contacted the company that makes Nesco/Carey electric pressure canners, asking if they are applying for USDA, etc certifications. They replied. They are in the process currently. Some of the tests take a year or more and they are in the middle of those tests right now. I am excited for the results.

So where does that leave the score? The Carey does the core job its owners ask of it, and unlike a general-purpose multicooker it is genuinely built for canning pressure. But you are taking the result partly on trust, with no way to verify a cycle the way a stovetop gauge lets you. That gap is real, and it's why performance sits in the middle rather than the top.

Built to last

Durability here isn't really about dents or a worn gasket. It's about the electronics, because on this machine the electronics are both the brain and the only safety check. When they misbehave, you often can't tell from the outside, and that raises the stakes of any glitch.

After using the Nesco to sterilize the grains, I am realizing I would never feel confident using it as a pressure canner. My first test run ran dry. The 2nd one with an accident bump of the display did who knows what.

Unit-to-unit consistency comes up as well, which is unsettling on a device you're trusting to hold pressure precisely. One owner running two of the same model watched them behave differently:

Ok so I have 2 Nesco 9.5 Quart Electric canner. One of them is spewing way more water out of the Weighted Valve during canning than the other. It still seems to be working but I didn't know if anyone knew how to troubleshoot this issue or had had the same problems...?

None of this means every Carey is a lemon; many owners run theirs for years without drama. But there is no dial gauge to warn you when something drifts, few parts you can service at home, and no way to calibrate the machine yourself. A stovetop pot that gets dinged still shows you a rocking weight or a moving needle. When an electronic canner's board goes wrong, the display can keep looking confident while the cycle underneath it isn't. That asymmetry is why durability is a soft axis here even though the box itself is sturdy enough.

Living with it

This is where the Carey wins people over, and it's the reason owners forgive the rest. The day-to-day experience is genuinely easy: set a pressure and a time, walk away, and let it run without standing over a stove and reading a gauge. For a beginner intimidated by a big pot, that alone is the whole selling point.

The only one I know of -- and actually have one on order from Amazon right now -- is the Nesco (previously branded as the Carey). It's small and won't be efficient for large-scale canning, but we want it for small-batch stuff (e.g. make a batch of chili for dinner and can the leftovers). We still plan on using our bigger Presto canners for high-volume runs.

It also pulls double duty, which softens the small batch size. Owners lean on the water bath and browning functions between pressure-canning days, so it doesn't just sit in a cupboard eleven months a year:

I use the waterbath function all the time on my Nesco. Make sure the valve is on exhaust and start the timer when there's steady steam coming out. The browning function is great for heating water/jars.

The honest gripe is the controls. The valve orientation and the dial layout trip some owners up, and a mislined valve can start a countdown before you're ready, which is exactly the kind of surprise you don't want on a pressure appliance. One owner found the fiddliness enough to reach back for the stove:

It lines up oddly if I use the "Exhaust" on the left, so I have to remember to rotate the whole dial to the other side where it says "Exhaust" because that lines up correctly. You know what I did on the stove? Lifted the lid, saw the boil, and set the timer. Actually this is easier than fiddling with the Nesco and I don't have to worry about what the heck is going on.

Taken together, though, ease of use is clearly the machine's strongest suit. Learn the valve quirk once and the set-and-forget convenience is real, on a footprint that fits where a 23-quart canner never would.

How it compares

Four units come up whenever people cross-shop the Carey. Here's how it stacks up against each.

Versus the Nesco NPC-9: this is the one to understand first, because they're the same machine. Same maker, Metal Ware, same guts, same panel, just two brand names on the front. There is no performance reason to prefer one over the other, so let price decide and buy whichever is cheaper the day you order.

Versus the Presto 01781 23-Quart stovetop: this is the method the canning community actually trusts. It's bigger, it uses a dial gauge you can read and verify, and it takes full loads of meat, beans, and broth. You give up the hands-off convenience and you need a burner and some babysitting, but you gain the proven, checkable process the Carey can't offer.

Versus the Presto Precise 23-Quart digital: the closest thing to a bigger Carey. It automates the cycle the same set-and-walk-away way while holding roughly double the jars, so it's the move if you like the electric idea but need real volume. The same independent-verification caveat rides along with it.

Versus the T-fal 22-Quart stovetop: the budget path back to a proven method. It's a plain aluminum stovetop canner with a weighted gauge and no electronics to glitch, so it's the cheaper answer for anyone the electric-trust question keeps up at night. You trade convenience for peace of mind and a lower price.

Using it well

If you do buy one, a few habits make it safer and less frustrating. Check your altitude first and set the pressure accordingly, since the adjustable dial is the whole reason to pick this over a fixed-PSI multicooker. Follow a tested recipe for whatever you're canning rather than winging times, keep the water at the level the manual specifies, and watch the valve orientation closely, because owners find it easy to line up exhaust and airtight wrong. Stay near it for your first few runs until you trust how it reads, instead of treating it as fully unattended from day one.

And if part of why you're eyeing an electric canner is that your stovetop is glass-top or induction, it's worth knowing which stovetop canners actually work on those surfaces before you rule them out. Our guide to the best pressure canner for glass-top and induction stoves walks through the options and the traps, so you can weigh the electric route against a stovetop one that fits your kitchen.

The bottom line

For the right buyer, a beginner or a small-kitchen canner who wants hands-off small batches and one appliance that multitasks, the Carey is genuinely appealing, and owners who bought it for that job tend to love it. Ease of use is its real strength, the adjustable pressure is a smart touch, and being the cheaper twin of the Nesco makes it an easy price call. As an approachable entry into pressure canning, it does what it sets out to do.

Just go in clear-eyed on the two soft spots. It's a smaller batch than a stovetop workhorse, and the entire method rests on electronics that independent labs have not yet confirmed and that you can't spot-check with a gauge. If that trade sits fine with you, and you stick to tested recipes and set the pressure for your altitude, it's a reasonable and friendly way to start. If you want the process the hobby fully trusts, a stovetop canner is still the safer bet. That tension is exactly why it scores well on ease of use and more modestly on the axes that ride on proof and longevity.