Mine are West Bend and Fagor, but a quick search of Amazon reviews brings up your question and one reviewer stated they got this response from Hamilton Beach -

"An email back from the Hamilton Beach customer service said that the hole in the lid is intentional and designed to prevent a vacume from occuring between the glass lid and the ceramin pot insert, and affirmed that the cooker is calibrated (their word) for the hole in the lid."

The review was all positive for function after question had been answered, and that woman did say the hole wasn't shown on the box pic, the manual, or the HB website ;0)

Hope that helps...

Editing to add....I have a stove top chicken fryer style deep skillet with glass lid that has that same type lined hole, tiny, and I always wondered why but never enough to ask anyone.

I had the same thing with my Hamilton Beach lid.

My handle broke off the lid of one of my slow cookers, and I'm hoping to find some kind of handle that will do the job. My s.c. is old and it's not made anymore. To try to find the lid would cost more than the unit itself.

I have never had a vacuum seal develop on a slow cooker lid; IME the lids don't fit tightly enough to form a seal in the first place.

Jasdip, I too needed a handle for my lid so when I was at a barn sale, I bought a lid, not to fit but had the handle I could remove and replace the broken one with. I paid a dollar for it. Might watch for one that will fit.

Sue

All of the ones I have do have a hole it also allows a release of steam. My aroma cooker has a vent in the top as well as a small plastic catch bowl built in the side to catch the water from the lid when you open it. You can remove it to empty and wash it.

I found a second pot and lid for my Hamilton beach slow cooker base at the goodwill store. So now I have a choice lol. The one from goodwill was like brand new!

Every year at our family Xmas party we do a bad Santa game and every year there are 1 or 2 slow cookers in the mix. I know it's one of DH's sisters! Well, I'm using one I got 2 years ago, and have last years unopened in the box. So, I have 4 slow cookers! Will donate one before Xmas.

I received one as a gift a substantial while ago, that I first used yesterday.

Put in small-squared carrots first, then well cut-up chicken thighs, then small-pieced potatoes, then onions, cooked for about ten hours, carrots and potatoes still hard, turned off when I went to bed, turned on again 6 hours later, ran for 4 hours, turned off when I hauled veggies to church-operated food bank prior to coming here. Carrot pieces still hard, potato ones beginning to soften, onion still quite resistant to my tongue pushing against my toothless gums and the roof of my mouth - didn't try the chicken.

When finally it gets edible ... how much of the original food value will still remain, do you figure?

The plastic lid sits in water, of course, and I had no trouble picking it off, after the system had cooled down, so one would expect there being a partial vacuum above the food that'd cooled. Didn't notice any hole or crack to offer pressure relief.

ole joyfuelled ... who was glad that he had some pre-cooked in the fridge

OJ, please test your slow cooker. Here is a link.

https://www.menus4moms.com/does-your-crockpot-work/

Something sure isn't right, OJ. Mind you, those fake carrots that are formed in little 'baby carrots' never cook soft in a slow cooker. Did you use them?

My HB slow cooker has a hole in the lid for the thermometer.

That food should definitely be thrown out OJ it was much too long with no refrigerator and not high enough temperature. You did add some water to the pot right? It should not be trusted. What did you mean by the plastic lid sits in the water?

Raven, I think he means that the plastic lid doesn't seal airtight as water collects ion the rim of the insert.

MIMI, that's right!!! I remember that!! The hole is to put your thermometer through.

There's no way it's to break the seal. Slow cookers aren't airtight. They just sit on top of the ceramic insert and there's wiggle room.

My rice cookers are definitely to allow steam to escape and reduce pressure. They started doing this when they went to the glass lids not many metal lids with them. Maybe they were afraid of the pressure building up on the glass? Mine do not have thermometers.

No thermometer with mine!

The thermometers don't come with it. The hole is described as a way to take the temperature of the food without lifting the lid.

That's one more thing many people don't understand about slow cookers. Every time you remove the lid you add at least 20 min to an hour to the cook time. They're hideously slow at recovering heat. OJ, did you have it on high or low? How cold was the room it was in? I assume you didn't preheat it? You definitely had that food in the danger zone far too long. It was a petri dish at that point. Back when I had a Crock-Pot the big frustration was being way too cool on low, way too hot on high. When I'd make chili it wouldn't even be edibly hot when it was on low and it'd boil when on high which is the major reason I threw them out and bought electric roasters. Vastly superior. Slow cookers are the washboard of cookware, the crank phone, the 600 baud modem. In other words, obsolete. Toss it OJ. You don't need the headache or the risk.

I don't know what slow cookers you had cynic, but that's not how most of them work. I never had my food drop in temp so quickly and drastically that it added time, let alone an hour.

In fact, most complain that LOW is too high, and they are far from obsolete. There's a reason they've been in kitchen for decades.

This is what I like best about the Hamilton Beach slow cookers with the heating base it has a knob to turn it to different temperature settings . No just high or low . I got the one that I still use when I first got married and had a Tupperware party , that was my hostess gift . Best thing I ever got from a Tupperware party !

Hmm...my HB came with the thermometer. I never use it however.

The carrots were full-sized ones.

I kept eating from the pot until the weekend ... and it took almost that long for the veggies to get soft enough to gum.

Longer story in another thread - that refers to my pot.

o j