I'm not joking. These seem to be making the rounds ont he Bushcraft circuit these days. "Made in Afghanistan" I was curious and stated looking In looking I found these tidbits: The main importer - MenGrills is a small e-biz company located in Minnesota, a state known for the great outdoors. Our company was born with a mission to make it easy for people to enjoy the outdoors while cooking No indication of where they source the product they sell. The company - according to the SOS in MN (Business Filing Details) is: Principal Place of Business Address 11717 emery village dr north Champlin, Minnesota 55316 which comes back to a nice residential address So, quite the E business enterprise since 6/27/2020 . Not a chance I would do business with a garage-level business on a pressure vessel. Seems this product is popular in many areas of the world - outside of Afghanistan [URL unfurl="true"]https://metnetus.lt/product/afghan-kazan-5l/?lang=en[/URL] "Cast aluminum. A special aluminum alloy ensures the longevity of the pressure cooker and reduces weight for comfortable use in nature. For longevity, pressure cookers keep pace with Soviet pans. You can pass on a well-maintained pressure cooker to the next generation. also, the vendor METNETUS is located in Lithuania. So, again, seems a popular cooker in many places. Thought I would post this in case anyone thinks this is a good idea. an alternative would be Halulite 2.7 L Pressure Cooker - based in Spokane Ak and importing for China. These folks have been around since 1985.
Wild Coast Tents has them, supposed to be imported from Afghanistan. https://wildcoasttents.com/afghan-kazan
Too many moving parts, pins and levers to trust under pressure.. Aluminum most likely is recovered HUMMER pistons.
I can understand your caution, some people cant won't read/follow instructions. Before the advent of the microwave, mom used a pressure cooker often. Same people should not be playing with fire.
Aluminum can be very unreliable under tension. The shackles that hook on that big locking screw assembly look MUCH too scrawny. Maybe they're steel in disguise. If not, they're a disaster just waiting to happen. This is 150-year-old technology, at best, and it's much less reliable than an ordinary American pressure cooker from the 1950s. Both in design and execution. I can understand yuppie fads and the glory of steampunk, but a person would have to be seriously stupid to buy one of those for everyday use. If an ordinary household pressure cooker explodes it can kill or injure anyone in the room. That thing looks like it was designed to fail. I'd rather steam in Stainless Steel, anyway.
And if you multiply the surface area of the lid you might be surprised at the applied pressure to the latches!
It is probably a heinz 57 trash casting alloy made of scrap. Usually A356 is a normal casting alloy but I highly doubt that is what this is. Like any other metal some aluminum alloys have better mechanical properties than others. The strength difference between a 6xxx and a 7xxx series alloys is usually quite large. However, given that these are from afghanistan I would be more inclined to believe that they are a trash alloy of whatever scrap was on hand. That would make them inconsistent from batch to batch. Maybe I should buy a couple and spark them to test the theory...
So far, I've seen only one vid posted showing a guy supposedly jamming both PRV and then setting the jug on an open fire/no explosion Sadly, the video was in Russian (or some Slavic language) well past my limited skills to sort out - other than the initial load was a Kg of ice + 1 L of what I assume to be water. The GSI pressure cooker I pointed out earlier - this vid from Hiram Cook of "how long does ti take to boil" fame. Pressure cookers have a place in the modern kitchen. They can cook food quickly and with much less fuel use.. If of quality construction, well maintained and used as designed. OTOH, so can a wide mouth Thermos with no chance of detonation/burns. In a post-disaster situation, burns/scalds would be difficult to impossible to treat. With no pain mads, a horrible (IMO) way to go.... I don't know if this is the latest fad - the Bushcrafters version of a pet rock, but these videos have been pooping up in a big way over just the last month or so.... If anyone spots a 'test to failure' report or video, please post here.
Final thought from my POV While pressure cookers may be a thing, I believe people would be better served to learn how to cook over an open fire - it is a real skill that requires practice and development. The Townsend's series on old school cooking would be a good place to start, if you have never cooked over a open fire
All American (brand name) canners are cast aluminum.....never heard of one failing. Ours is a double stack model (943 if I recall right) that holds 20 quart jars at a time. This is a National brand (later became "Presto" brand) canner wife inherited from her mother. Only thing it's had in 60-70 year of use is the occasional lid gasket and we put a new pressure gauge on it when we got it. Heavy cast aluminum. Holds 7 quart jars. Handles are wood.....at some future point I'm gonna have to fabricate some new ones.
