[dmforcier]

That looks like my pressure cooker. It's a least as old as I am. Same top weight but the fryer is less deep and doesn't have the pop-out safety plug. (How do they get away with that, unless the weight is quite light??)

My gasket is a little stiff now and you have to tap the top to get it to seal up when the steam comes up, but undoubtedly it has never seen temps over the mid 200s.

Tell him you want to see a picture of the gasket, and ask if that is the original weight and how much it weighs. Swapping on a pressure-cooker weight might seem like an easy, though very stupid, fix for a missing one. FYI mine is 4.5 oz.