Slow Cooker makes a mess

The solution is real easy and you won't need do any of the crazy stuff mentioned above. Buy some baking paper (brown (sort of waxed) paper that you can line baking trays. The often come ready cut in baking tray sizes, which are plenty big enough. Fine the area that will be in the center of our crock pot when the lid is on. Take a sharp knife and cut an X shape in the center. Have someone, although, it can be done alone, gently pull the paper taut, not tight, and put the lid on your crock pot (with the X in the center) and gently press it down. You'll feel the paper seal the lid to the pot much better. Then as the steam rises through the paper it will condense on the lip and drip down onto the paper and will be funneled back into the pot by the X you cut in the center of the paper. Your problem will solved, for the price of baking paper. Best of luck and best of slow cooking without the mess.

It's the nature of a slow cooker as far as I know. We usually put a rimmed baking sheet under the cooker if it's going to be on for an extended period of time to keep the water from ruining counters.

Depending on the size of your crockpot, you made need something larger than a toothpick between the lid and the rim of the crock. For a family size pot, I use a chopstick, which is less likely to fall into the food, as a toothpick might.

offset the lid so the seal isn't spitting bubbles and fluid all over. If the bubbles still keep coming, offset it some more. If you have to remove the lid altogether or need to rest it 90Deg to what it's supposed to, then that's fine. It won't hurt anything.

If the lid doesn't like staying offset, put a wooden spoon in the crock and then cover with the lid, the spoon will keep it from closing tight.

It's the tight seal that lets the bubbles live longer and grow, and finally what causes the lid to spit. Break the seal and the bubbles fall, and the lid won't spit anymore.

Ever cook rice? What do you do if it starts bubbling over? You take off the lid. Same principle.

Same problem here. Been using the same crock pot for years and never had this happen. All of the sudden, in the middle of making carnitas, with the crock pot only 3/4 of the way full, I got bubbling liquid around the outer edge of the lid, and it started pouring into the metal surround and all over the counter. Weird... The liquid wasn't even close to the top, but was still pouring out. Anyway... Stuck a few tooth picks between the pot and the lid to give the liquid room to flow back in. Still don't know WHY this happened out of nowhere.

Stick a toothpick between lid and cooker top. That'll leave room for the water to run back down into the cooker. The weight of the lid should hold it in place.