Pressure cooker veteran here thumbs up on this one!I have owned 8 different pressure cookers over the years, including an earlier version of the Instant Pot as well as the now-ancient oval (90 degree insert inside, pull up, turn back and clip-lock) lid with weight back in Europe in the 70's.
This, so far, is the best pressure cooker I have yet seen.
It functions as a slow cooker, as an above-average quality rice cooker and -let's not forgeta really good pressure cooker.
Disclaimer: we do still use our trusted Zojirushi rice cooker when a lot of things are cooking at the same time (and as far as stand-alone rice cookers go, Zojirushi makes the best, btw.)
Back to the pressure cooker... Some of the software limitations of the previous Instant Pot were fixed (namely, having to push the button for each and every minute, with only a 60 minute maximum timer that was maddening). This control panel lets you click&hold and very quickly fly through the times, up until 120 minutes. It does fly through 0, so you can go up or down the shortest path to your desired time.
Pluses of this particular pressure cooker:
Much, much, MUCH more convenient to use than the "manual" type pressure cookers where you have to stand by until you hear the pressure has built up, then start the counter, then turn it off when it is done. This thing does everything on it's own. Put the food in, set the desired cooking time, press start. Leave for work, come home and it is done (with stand-by heat so as to avoid spoilage).
Quality, pretty thick stainless steel pot (stay away from coated pots, aluminum pots, etc. as they leach bad stuff into food)
Virtually silent, you also have almost no food smell coming into your home during cooking, thanks to the internal pressure sensor. Psst, psst, psst sound gone.
Extremely energy efficient (much more so than the stove-top models, as you are heating only the inside, not the surrounding area. Energy savings multiplier during the summer, as you don't have to cancel out the cooking heat with air conditioning the way you would with gas stove types that heat up the kitchen.
Very easy to clean since only the pot has to be cleaned, it fits in the dishwasher better than the stove-top type with handles.
Very good quality, overall.
Ladies and gentlemen this thing is officially awesome.
ps: also get "Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes"... This is the pressure cooker book to get.
Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes
If you search the title on the web, her website also has a ton of the cooking times listed for free.
"missvickie.com" (not a tie-in, I have no connection to them)
or search "site:missvickie.com " followed by whatever food you need the cooking time for.
Examples of Google Searches (the the lines below exactly as they are, including spacing):
site:missvickie.com rice
site:missvickie.com broccoli
site:missvickie.com ribs
I search for times of misc. food to cook on my smartphone like this, too. Very useful...
I really wanted something more adjustable, and in addition, more versatile. This pressure cooker is an electric appliance, using a power cord and sitting on the countertop rather than on the stove. Because you use an electric element to heat the unit, you can adjust from low and slow, like a crock pot up to a full pressure cooker to speed along a soup or stew.
Since I had gotten rid of my slow cooker, I realized I could replace not only the old pressure cooker, but get a new slow cooker. And my rice cooker is wearing out (the membrane control on the top is nearing the end of its life.) So this unit could replace all three. Theoretically, you can do low-acid canning (vegetables and meats) but I prefer to use a unit with a visible pressure dial and in addition, you can't do a huge batch of bottles with this unit so I'd say while you "could" do it, I wouldn't, if I were serious about low-acid canning, choose this as my appliance of choice.
My first dish was a chicken rice pilaf, adapted from an Indian recipe. The pilaf is designed for pressure cooking (common in Indian recipes) and it worked well despite the fact I had to adjust for the recipe specifying "whistles" which is how the older pressure cookers told you they'd reached proper pressure.
I like having this on the countertop rather than on the stove, and it's fast. I often have to cook dinner when I come home and I don't have time to really do a long cooked dish, and on the weekend, if I'm cooking in advance for the week ahead, this speeds up my work. Big thumbs up.
Buy Instant Pot IP-LUX60 6-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker Now
The teflon wore out on my slow cooker so I went looking for a replacement and discovered electric pressure cookers. Here are the reasons why I am so happy with my choice of the Instant Pot:1. I wanted a non teflon coated and found the Instant Pot is one of the very few electric pressure cookers or slow cookers offering a stainless steel interior pot.
2. The Instant Pot is as easy to use as my Sanyo rice cooker or any programmable slow cooker.
3. Vegetables and potatoes cook in half to a third of the time as boiling. The quick cooking time helps to preserve more of the taste of the veggies than boiling in my opintion
4. Congee came out great. Using sushi grade rice, I found the instructions for rice to water ratio to be right on. There was no burning nor sticking to the bottom of the pot.
5. Cooking tripe for menudo took a little over an hour. This is much shorter than the normal several hours of simmering.
6. Beef knee bones for soup stock took about 2 hours before most of the knee broke down to be soft. This is much shorter than the normal 6 to 8 hours it would take to simmer and soften the knee bones connective tissues.
7. Ox tails took 1 hour vs 3 to 6 hours by simmering. While making the ox tails I filled the pot to the maximum limit and a little over. There were no leaks while cooking, however I released the pressure valve while it was cooking to see what would happen!!! Some of the soup stock soon exited the valve. The instructions say to let the pot sit for awhile before venting but I wanted to try it. I was expecting a mess inside of the Instant Pot but the internal seal held and interior heating area outside of the stainless steel pot was clean and spotless. Kudos for the Instant Pot design but I had to thoroughly clean the lid and valve assembly.
8. Throughout all of the cooking, never once was there any burning or sticking at the bottom of the pot. I used a teflon safe scrubbing sponge to clean the pot. I would recommend you don't use steel wool or a harsh scurbber to clean the pot. Keeping a shiny, scratchless interior helps to keep the pot easy to clean and prevent food from sticking.
9. I browned the meat in a separate frying pan, then deglazed the pan and emptied the contents into the Instant Pot. I would not recommend browning meat in the Instant Pot stainless steel pot.
10. The quality of material and build appear to be excellent. The lid, interior parts, stainless steel pot seem sturdy so far. Nothing feels cheap in this unit.
11. When the unit initially heats up, there is a little steam that escapes through the emergency vent. It soon seals up and operates normally as the unit heats to operating temperature.
Overall I am very happy with the unit and have nothing negative to say about the Instant Pot.
Read Best Reviews of Instant Pot IP-LUX60 6-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker Here
: 0:54 MinsFor those that question whether reviewers are "real" you will see that I have done 100 reviews and have bought 90% of those items including this item.
I am not much of a chef, but I am a wannabe. I wanted to be able to cook beans without having an open flame for hours (I also tend to be forgetful and overcook and destroy food). I did a TON of research before I picked this one. I wanted the smallest option possible AND I wanted a STAINLESS STEAL Insert. Which is VERY rare, but much healthier.
I loved my pot for a couple of weeks. Making Quinoa in 8 minutes (plus pressure time), beans, sweet potatoes steamed, and even rice.
But then something went wrong. The steam kept releasing from the valve. I was kinda ticked. I called the 800# afterhours even, and the rep thought it was a faulty valve. She then sent me a new one, which stunk since I needed to wait a couple of weeks and I wasn't going to go back to 2-3 hour cooktop cooking.
New one came. Same thing!! I was again frustrated (made this a 1 star).
Called them, and they put their senior engineer on it. Even did Facetime to show them. ... Of course, it worked. Just like any mechanic looking at a broken car.
But then when I tried it on my own, it let off all the steam again and made a mess.
I sent them a video.
Turned out the valve was BACKWARDS. Technically my fault, but design 101 does say that you should make something so it impossible to put it on incorrectly. Like a key put in backwards should either also work or not even let you insert it.
So I made a video. A video showing you which way the valve needs to go. In case somebody else has the same problem.
I would dock the review by 1 star for the imperfect design, but the great customer service makes up for it. And yes I am real and I am from Virginia and have done 100+ reviews.
I recommend this product (I do wish they made it smaller, but then it couldn't be a steamer as easily, since it wouldn't be deep enough).
Frank
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I spent a lot of time reading Amazon reviews and looking at the features of electric pressure cookers, and finally decided on the InstantPot. It was somewhat more expensive than some of the others I looked at, but it seemed to have better features, and it actually has a website, where I could look at the manuals.It arrived just three days ago, and I'm really loving it. First I tried making rice, just to see how it would work. It was fine, and was faster than my current rice cooker (which I'm now getting rid of). Then I made Butter Chicken (Indian curry) and it turned out great. I sauted the onions and garlic and browned the chicken right in the pot. The next day I made pot roast, from Bob Warden's "Great Food Fast", which is a pressure cooker cookbook that's made for electric pressure cookers. It turned out great. I browned the roast in the pot itself, added a few spices and broth, and pushed the Meat/Stew button and adjusted the time to match the recipe (75 minutes). After the roast cooking time was done, I added the carrots and potatoes and cooked for just another 5 minutes. Then after removing the meat & vegetables, I made gravy in the pot. Everything was done just right, and it was delicious. Then I cooked a few artichokes, which only took 11 minutes, which I loved, because artichokes take so long and I'm always burning the pot dry.
I put it away this morning, then only a few hours later got it out again to make rice. I think it's going to spend most of the time on my counter.
My one complaint is the documentation, which is not very well organized and wasn't completely updated from the previous model. The "slow cook" feature has three different temperatures, according the the "Quick Reference" and the website, but the manual says it doesn't. Also it says you can't use the time delay feature on the 'slow cook' program. But I don't think I care. I'm not really sure why I would want to slow cook instead of pressure cook. I'd also like to know what the 3 different temperatures are for slow cooking (the temperature range listed is 190-210).
It also doesn't come with very many recipes, but the website has more (instantpot.com) and there are a number of good pressure cooking recipe books out there. The website also has some information that's not in the manual. One thing that wasn't clear to me was what, exactly, the "program" keys do. On the website they explain that there are programs in the microprocessor that do somewhat different things with the temperature and pressure, depending on the "program". It also changes the cooking time depending on how long it takes to come up to pressure, which is also how the "rice" program handles different amounts of rice. So all you have to do to cook white rice is push the "Rice" button. You'll have to change the time for other types of rice or grains, of course.
The stainless steel bowl is very shiny, feels very solid, and cleaned up easily. I've gotten really tired of "non-stick" pots, since the coating always ends up getting scratched or wears off. The lid locks into place easily. It can be hard to see the arrows on the lid and body that need to line up to put the lid on, but after doing it a couple of times you won't need them anyway. The rice measuring cup and scoops are kind of pointless. I would much rather have had a steaming basket to put on top of the steaming trivet.
One of the recipes on the website is for sous vide duck breasts, which sounds kind of interesting. The woman who provided that recipe also has instructions for making yogurt, by using the warm function for 15 minutes and leaving the pot sit, since it's well-insulated and will keep warm for quite a while. So I guess you can use the InstantPot for even more than 6 different functions :-)
Like other electric pressure cookers, this pot gets to a pressure of around 11psi. The InstantPot website says: "Instant Pot operates at 11.6psi. How fast food cooks depends on the temperature of cooking. The cooking temperature of 15psi pressure cookers is 121ºC (250ºF), whereas the operating temperature of a 11.6psi Instant Pot is 117°C (242°F). This is a difference of 3.4%. The cooking time difference is about 3.4~7%. This is how you can convert recipes for 15psi pressure cooker to Instant Pot."
I think I'm going to move the slow cooker out of the kitchen, in addition to the rice cooker. The only problem now is -what if I want to make more than one thing at the same time, like rice and a chicken dish? Maybe I'll contribute a recipe to the current recipe contest and see if I can win another one...
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