With the faltering economy encouraging a return to home cooking, Slow Cookers (also known by their common but trademarked name of Crock Pots) are a helpful tool for anyone whose desire to cook at home is challenged by a lack of time and energy to do it. There's no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy All-Clad
or KitchenAid
slow cooker, unless you're really concerned about how bourgeois the Hamilton Beach model at left will look on your counter.  Slow cookers are very simple appliances, with very little performance variation among brands.  What does make a difference are some of the features.  Many slow cooker recipes call for browning meat or sauteing vegetables before you put them in the cooker.  The Rival Premium VersaWare Slow Cooker has a cooking vessel that is safe for use on the stove top, so you can saute right in it, without dirtying a frying pan.  It sounds like a huge advantage, but the cooking vessel is only rated for medium heat — not the high heat that you would want to sear a pork roast, for example.  I chose the Hamilton Beach Stay-or-Go 5-Quart Slow Cooker.  The temperature probe allows you to set the temperature for your roast, at which point the cooker changes to keep warm mode.  This is useful for some meats, like white meat poultry, which can dry out if overcooked.  And it has lock-down clips for the lid, which makes it perfect for a lesbian pot-luck dinner (according to my slow cooking guru, Erika).  Buy it for $41.95 at Amazon.com.