Instant Pot DUO50 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, 5 Quart/900W

We were looking for a replacement for our old rice cooker that was still going strong after a couple of decades - mainly to stop cooking in an aluminum container and move over to a stainless steel cooking surface. We looked at a few different options, starting with rice cookers with stainless steel cooking pots. However, we finally decided to buy the Instant Pot (i.e., a pressure cooker) after we saw all the accolades it had garnered on Amazon. We are very happy with the purchase and find that it works really well. It is a modern update to the traditional stove-top pressure cookers that are generally excellent in cooking rice, lentils, etc. The Instant Pot does the same thing, only using a more modern, "user friendly" interface. Unlike a traditional pressure cooker, there is minimal additional work or worry at the user end. For example, the unit will monitor the pressure building up and supposedly detects if the floating valve ("weight") has not been put on correctly. It has convenient "one touch" settings for things like rice - the cooker builds up pressure, cooks for a pre-estimated amount of time and turns off the heat when it is done cooking. It also has a "keep warm" function that will keep the contents warm after the cooking is done. The only surfaces that come into contact with the food are made of stainless steel, which is exactly what we were looking for in a cooker. One big plus is that the number of things to clean is not much more than a typical rice cooker, but significantly less than a traditional stove-top pressure cooker - only the inner pot and the lid (including the sealing gasket, etc.) need to be cleaned after every use. This is very convenient.The cooking speed is very good - comparable to a typical pressure cooker. We mainly use it for rice and, after a couple of iterations to dial in the proper water ratio, it has been doing a stellar job in producing consistent, good quality cooked rice. We have also tried the bain marie method to make rice - this works very well too.Beyond regular pressure cooking, it does seem to have tons of additional cooking methods. We haven't experimented much with these since our main focus was to have something non-aluminum that will cook rice.Definitely, a very good buy. We will see how it holds up with time...Update on 11/24/2015It has been more than nine months with the cooker and it has held up excellently. We have quick various kinds of rice (Indian, Thai Jasmine, etc.) and all of them have come out really well. We have also settled on the Bain Marie method (with the rice in a separate container with water rather than being in the inner pot directly) for cooking rice. This works very well too, even though it takes longer. We have also found that we can cook both rice and split pigeon-peas (toor dal) at the same time using the Bain Marie method with the rice and dal in separate containers.Absolutely zero complaints so far. I hope it holds up as well over the years, as it sure seems it will.Update on 4/27/2015It has been well more than a year and the cooker has been going strong with zero issues. It has been a workhorse and is used every day to cook rice and dal. We have pretty much settled on the bain marie method instead of using the inner container directly. The results are always predictable and consistent. The lid and inner pot are holding up quite nicely. I suspect the gasket may be something we need to replace at some point, but we haven't seen any need to do it so far.Update on 8/26/2016It has been more than two years now and the cooker is still doing a stellar job. There have been pretty much zero issues with it after being used twice a day over the past two years. On one occasion, we inadvertently poured water into the cooker without the inner pot (liner) in place before coming to our senses. We thought that the cooker may have been damaged due to water getting into its electronics, but, trying to salvage things, allowed it to dry for a day or so. I took out the bottom panel to wipe up the moisture that had gotten in. I was very impressed by the quality of build when I did this: the removable panel was well designed and the molding itself was of good quality - no quality or apparent molding defects; the electronics panel was very clean and there didn't seem to be any rough edges in terms of soldering or poor quality wiring inside (I had just taken apart my electric kettle a few days before this and the contrast between this and the Instant Pot was night and day). I am happy to report that, after drying out, the cooker continued to work flawlessly.We still haven't tried anything more fancy with it other than rice/daal. Well, maybe someday! Needless to add, I am very happy with this cooker and think that it will last a very long time, based on what we have seen so far.Update on 11/25/2016Recently, we placed the lid of the Instant Pot on a hot cooktop surface by mistake! The plastic in the raised area with the pressure release valve was melted quite substantially. We thought that the lid was a goner, but found that it works perfectly despite the substantial amount of deformation and visual ugliness from its remelting/solidification on the stovetop! I don't want to jinx it, but I will say that this thing is unbreakable :)

My friends were raving about the Instant Pot non-stop, so when I saw it on sale, I decided to finally try it. It is pretty great. I don't worship it like the savior of dinner (mostly because I am not creative enough to play with different recipes or create my own), but for certain circumstances, it is amazing.This is an electric pressure cooker (it scared me when I first heard this, because pressure cookers do NOT have a good reputation), and incredibly easy to use if you take the time to read the instructions (no, we didn't do that). You can saute onions and pre-brown meat right in the stainless steel insert, so there are no extra pots or pans to clean. Like a slow-cooker, you shove a bunch of ingredients in there, turn it on, and wait for the delicious aroma to fill your senses after a short time.Where does this shine? Cooking frozen meats fast. We had chicken from frozen to perfectly cooked (moist, not gummy, not dry) in a meal with rice, tomatoes, black beans, and corn in 20 minutes. The "cook" times for IP recipes are usually like, 8-10 minutes (add a bit more for frozen meats), BUT...this time crucially does NOT include the "pressurization" time. First, you need some minimum amount of liquid (1 cup, maybe?) to allow the IP to pressurize. And it needs to build up to this pressure with time. I think about 10-15 minutes or so? Then after it is fully pressurized, it "cooks" the specified amount of time. Because of the pressure, food cooks fast and the ingredients combine in delightful ways. Broccoli (frozen) will also disintegrate. Oops. When it's done, it will beep to let you know and the IP will move to a "keep warm" type state. It is it not pressurizing anymore. At this point, you have to follow the recipe - do you need to do an "instant release" of the pressure or a slow release? Since the IP is not pressurizing anymore, the pressure will slowly and naturally escape from the pot. This is the "slow-release" option. Figure about 5-10 minutes. Most of the recipes we've done have asked for quick or instant release. There's a lever at the top - you just simply flick it to move to to the "open" side and watch as a vent of steam spews out for a few minutes. Then you can open the lid of the IP to get the yummy food out.The keep warm function is pretty good. It keeps the food *hot* for quite a while. I also found the stainless steel insert incredibly easy to clean. It would sometimes look like it was stained or had food stuck on - but always washed off without a problem (we wash all our pots and pans by hand).We also made a rice pudding recipe that was amazing. So delicious. Speaking of rice though... we have a Zojirushi rice maker at home. One day, we forgot to prep the rice for dinner. The Zojirushi takes about 1-2 hours to cook rice, longer if it's brown rice. So we decided to use the instant pot. 10-15 minutes (plus pressurization time) is faster, right? Well, it worked. My husband ate it. I...did not. I am ethnically Chinese, so I am incredibly picky about my rice. The IP did not cook my rice as fully or fluffy as I would like. So, if you are not too picky about your rice, this will be a fine and fast way to cook it. If you are, stick with your rice cooker.