Manttra 5L stainless steel pressure cooker

I got this used so dont know new price. Its made in India and not highest quality stainless cooker out there, but the metal part of it is ok and heavy enough. The plastic handles are el cheapo which I will get back to.

This cooker has the traditional jiggler style pressure regulator and no gauge of course. Few except very ancient pressure cookers with the manual steam bleed systems came with gauge, in last few decades only big pressure canners came with a real gauge.

Well to make matters worse, the original jiggler weight had got lost so seller found a Presto weight off very modern Presto that fit. At least it seemed to fit pretty well. The gasket is pretty heavy duty and seals easily. Looked and genuine replacement is like $6 so pretty economical. You can also get a generic silicone gasket that also works fine (I tried one, it was like $3) though I doubt it would last as long as it was thinner, softer material.

So I fire it up and the weight doesnt jiggle, spin, jitter, nor whistle. I am not totally sure but think original Manttra jiggler whistled when it reached pressure. So I watch closely and see whisps of steam escaping. But drives me bit crazy no knowing if its at pressure.

So get to looking on ebay. There is a replacement Manttra jiggler weight, but its expensive, like $14...just weight, not the stem it sits on, about as much as I gave for whole cooker, and not sure it specific one for this model. So buy a complete set including stem weight and nut for a late Presto.



It is modern kind that has a nut on bottom and clamps into hole. The older pressure cookers had a threaded hole and stem screwed into the threads. And I really, really like having an actual pressure gauge. So bought a brass bulkhead 1/8" NPT fitting and a 30# pressure gauge that would screw into the fitting.



When I got everything, the hole is bit big for the Presto vent stem, so used a generic rubber grommet out of boxed assortment that I have. It fit the existing hole in lid and the Presto vent stem fit tightly into the center of the grommet. When nut tightened down everything sealed fine. Then drilled 5/8 hole for the brass bulkhead fitting, installed it, and screwed gauge into fitting using bit teflon tape.

Pressure cooker wouldnt get over 5# pressure and looked like bit steam getting out around the bulkhead fitting. So made a rubber washer out of bit of old inner tube and reinstalled bulkhead fitting using the rubber washer. That solved problem. Pressure cooker quickly gets to 15# as shown by the gauge and the Presto weight starts rocking back and forth.

Now somehow during one of my tests, the lid wedged itself on bit awkward and I broke one of the handles on the lid getting lid off. So as I say, cheapo plastic and poor designed upper handle. I dont know why, as it now opens easily enough with just the one handle and remains of the broken one. But suppose eventually I need to make a wooden replacement handle. Even if I could get another plastic one, its pretty low quality. The pre-WWII pressure cookers about all used wood handles and they held up fine.

Oh, like said wanted to try one of those generic silicone pressure cooker gaskets available on ebay and on amazon. After measuring determined I needed the 22.5cm x 25cm model. It is kinda light duty but did seal the cooker. It is nice the generic ones are available and sold by size, not brand and model. Being silicone, should store indefinitely for future use. Though as I also said the genuine OEM Manttra gasket is pretty cheap price and lot heavier duty.