I purchased this slow cooker to replace one that I had for many years. That one had a manual dial with Low, Medium, and High plus an auto-warm. I loved that one but it finally cracked and replacing the cook bowl was just as expensive as getting a new one, so I found this.This one has a more Digital dial with the same options. I admit I was skeptical because this is not a known brand (that I was aware of). It had all the same features, plus it was the 8 qt instead of the standard 6. I like to make a giant pot of soup and eat off it all week. I did that, and with this one, we had the soup 3 nights in a row, and I put away at least 2 more meals. It did the job and did it well.I love this slow cooker - extra large - which I knew would make it a little more difficult to clean (and it does) but it cleans up easily. Because it cooked so evenly I did not have any browning or sticking in any of the corners, not even after cooking it 4 days straight. One feature that it has the other didn't have is that I can set it for the exact number of hours I want it to start cooking - say High for 60 minutes, then it reverts to warm until I change the setting. I love this timer, and it increases in increments of 30. When I first started my soup, I put in some olive oil and onions, garlic, and diced sweet potatoes, to simmer and brown. In 30 minutes it was ready and did not burn the onions (that was my first test). I let it go another 30 minutes and still did not burn since it had shifted to warm after 30.My soup was a success and the cooker did what I needed. It's not super fancy and is exactly what I wanted. Nice purchase!