The best multicookers are versatile appliances, letting you pressure-cook, sear, braise, and even ferment foods successfully. Our favorite is the Instant Pot Pro 8Qt. It excels at nearly every task we expect of a multicooker and is incredibly easy and safe to use. Our only quibble? It can’t slow-cook well. If you want a multicooker that can, we recommend our Best Buy, the Cosori 6.0-Quart Pressure Cooker. It’s a stellar performer at a great price; it just has a slightly smaller capacity and a few minor design drawbacks that make it a little harder to use than our top choice.
You may not know what a multicooker is, but you’ve probably heard of the Instant Pot, the most well-known example of this type of product. As the name “multicooker” implies, these machines promise to combine many different functions under a single mighty design, claiming to let you pressure-cook, slow-cook, sear, steam, ferment, cook rice, and even cook foods sous vide. Even though we’ve found that most machines don’t perform all of these functions well, the best are still impressively versatile and can potentially replace a host of other appliances.
What Does a Multicooker Do Best?
In many ways, it’s best to think of multicookers as rebranded electric pressure cookers. Pressure-cooking is arguably the multicooker’s most valuable function, and the one we’ve historically valued over all others in the models we test. A poll of our readers revealed that 93 percent of more than 200 respondents use their multicooker primarily for pressure cooking. Since it’s a core use, we chose to really home in on each model’s pressure-cooking ability.
A pressure cooker is essentially a tightly sealed pot that traps steam as the food inside it heats. This trapped steam creates pressure that, as it builds, causes the temperature inside the pot to climb higher than it would in a nonpressurized pot. The higher heat and pressure allow food to cook faster than it would otherwise.
Multicookers are versatile appliances. You can cook rice (and beans), stews, soups, and braises; roast chicken; and even make pasta in one.
Multicookers are versatile appliances. You can cook rice (and beans), stews, soups, and braises; roast chicken; and even make pasta in one.
Multicookers are versatile appliances. You can cook rice (and beans), stews, soups, and braises; roast chicken; and even make pasta in one.
Multicookers are versatile appliances. You can cook rice (and beans), stews, soups, and braises; roast chicken; and even make pasta in one.
Multicookers are versatile appliances. You can cook rice (and beans), stews, soups, and braises; roast chicken; and even make pasta in one.
Using a pressure cooker may be intimidating for many (we’ve all heard stories about old stovetop pressure cookers that have exploded), but electric multicookers are exceptionally safe. Most are equipped with warnings that flash when liquid levels are getting low or when they’re not sealed properly. Plus, most have safety valves for releasing the pressure.
In our testing, we’ve found that most electric pressure cookers don’t achieve temperatures and pressure levels that are quite as high as those of stovetop pressure cookers, but they still cook food faster than other cooking methods. Better still, we’ve found that it’s relatively rare for any multicooker to let us down when pressure-cooking. And models that excelled at pressure-cooking usually also made great rice and beans, too, since the Rice and Beans settings on most models are simply shortcuts for pressure-cooking.
Our Editors' Favorite Multicooker Recipes
Get some use out of that multicooker and take the guesswork out of dinner.The failure rate is much higher when it comes to slow-cooking and remains our biggest disappointment when evaluating multicookers. After all, who wants to wait 8 hours only to find out that your food isn’t anywhere near done? Unfortunately, this problem is quite common with most of the models we’ve tested, with only a few multicookers we’ve tested able to actually work well as slow cookers. To dig deeper into the results, we loaded each model with the same volume of room-temperature water and used a wireless tracker to monitor the water temperature inside each model when on its low setting. We learned two things. One, machines that struggled to slow-cook never got as hot as they needed to cook food efficiently. We also learned that the temperatures of some of the machines fluctuated throughout cooking. Both of these factors resulted in some machines taking up to 2 hours longer than higher-performing models to fully cook beef stew and beans.
While we wish more multicookers were capable of slow-cooking well, we don’t think this deficiency is fatal with most models, since we prefer to pressure-cook in them anyway.
What Size Multicooker Should You Get?
We think that models with a capacity of 8 quarts are the best size for most home cooks, since they allow you to easily cook meals big and small. If you want to save a little money or have less storage or countertop space, however, a smaller 6-quart model can be a good choice; our Best Buy is a great 6-quart option.
Should You Get a Multicooker or a Slow Cooker?
It really depends. While our top choice isn’t great at slow-cooking, our Best Buy, the Cosori 6.0-Quart Pressure Cooker is a fantastic option: not only does it cost about the same as our favorite slow cooker, the Hamilton Beach 33866 Portable 6-Quart Set & Forget Digital Programmable Slow Cooker, but it can both slow-cook and pressure-cook well, giving you additional bang for your buck. That said, if you don’t think you’ll ever use the multicooker’s pressure-cook or other functions, you might be happier sticking with a slow cooker, which is generally a much simpler machine to use because it performs only one task. For a full rundown, check out our article on the differences between a slow cooker and a multicooker.
Should You Get a Multicooker or a Stovetop Pressure Cooker?
Again, it depends. Multicookers are more versatile, excelling at pressure-cooking but also giving you a few more cooking functions in a single appliance. Most can maintain lower temperatures for long periods, a function that lets you ferment foods like yogurt or simply keep your food warm before serving. And some can slow-cook well too. Multicookers are generally a bit easier and less intimidating to use than stovetop pressure cookers, with failsafe designs in place to prevent the machines from building up too much pressure or overheating. That said, stovetop pressure cookers are capable of achieving slightly higher pressure, so they cook food a touch more quickly. They can be heated directly on your stovetop, which allows you to more precisely control the heat they receive when you sear or sauté in them. And they can be used as extra cooking vessels when you’re not pressure-cooking in them. Ultimately, the choice depends on your priorities—there’s no wrong choice.
What to Look for
- Clear, Simple Digital Controls: The best multicookers had simple digital interfaces that made it quick and easy to select the functions we wanted without going through too many steps. They also had large displays that clearly showed the progress of our food—how much time was left, what function we’d selected, etc.
- Good Pressure-Cooking: This is nonnegotiable in our book, as pressure-cooking is the most useful function a multicooker performs. Happily, almost all the models we tested performed well at pressure-cooking, making this practically a non-issue.
- Good Sautéing and Searing: Our favorite models let us sear and sauté ingredients directly in the multicooker pot itself, so you don’t have to dirty extra pots and pans to brown foods for maximum flavor.
- Variable, Easily Modified Heat Settings: We liked multicookers that gave us the ability to customize our heat levels during different functions. The best gave us lots of versatility, allowing us to choose between different slow-cook and pressure-cook heat levels, but also to modify the heat levels used to sauté and sear foods or set specific temperatures to make yogurt or ferment other foods.
- Stainless-Steel Pots with Large Cooking Surfaces: We prefer multicookers with pots made from plain stainless steel, as we’ve found them to be much more durable than those with nonstick coatings. All the multicookers we tested had pots with cooking surfaces that were narrower than those of Dutch ovens with similar capacities, measuring about 7 to 8 inches in diameter instead of 8 to 9. That said, we preferred models that had cooking surfaces toward the broader end of the spectrum, as these gave us more room to sauté ingredients or spread food out in a single layer.
Multicookers with larger cooking surfaces let us sear or braise more food in a single layer at a time.
- Pots with Large Handles: We preferred models that had pots with large handles, as these were easier to lift and remove from the multicooker without burning ourselves. While smaller handles weren’t a deal breaker, they required us to use extra caution when maneuvering our finished dishes out of the multicooker.
- Easy Pressure Release: The best models made it especially easy to vent steam safely after pressure-cooking, with switches or valves that kept our hands out of harm’s way.
- Discrete, Tight-Fitting Lids: We preferred models with lids that could be completely removed from the base for easy cleaning. We also liked those that were easy to attach to the base and had tight seals that prevented steam from escaping, ensuring good pressure-cooking.
What to Avoid
- Confusing, Overly Complex, or Small Digital Controls: Machines with these types of controls were a pain to use, which made it less likely that we’d ever want to drag our multicooker out in the first place.
- Models Without a Sauté Function: While they’re now rare, models that lack a sauté function are much less versatile and forced us to brown or soften ingredients in a separate pot or pan.
- Poor or Limited Heat Settings: We got frustrated with multicookers that didn’t let us adjust heat levels easily. When we used the sauté function, we disliked models that charred onions instead of lightly softening them or that failed to put a good sear on meat when we made beef stew.
- Lids That Fit Poorly: Some models had lids that were hard to attach to the base, or didn’t seal tightly, which allowed steam to trickle out and failed to maintain pressure.
We prefer multicookers with detachable lids (left), as they were much easier to clean than those with hinged lids.
- Hinged Lids: We also disliked models with lids that were attached by a hinge to the base. These were usually harder to clean and often got in the way when we were trying to sauté foods or see into the pot.
The Tests
- Make pressure-cooked Easy Beef Stew from Multicooker Perfection
- Make slow-cooked Easy Beef Stew from Multicooker Perfection
- Make pressure-cooked Boston Baked Beans from Multicooker Perfection
- Make slow-cooked Boston Baked Beans from Multicooker Perfection
- Cook white rice
- Track the temperature of water in each machine while pressure cooking on low, pressure cooking on high, and slow cooking on low, to understand how quickly and efficiently each cooks
- When making stew, use sauté or sear/brown functions to see how well each machine could brown meat and sauté chopped onions
- Clean the multicookers’ pots, lids, and exteriors according to the manufacturers’ directions after each cooking test
- Test other functions as possible
How We Rated
- Ease of Use: We rated the machines on how good their controls were: how easy it was to navigate menus and select functions and track progress. We also rated the machines on how easy they were to use more generally: how safely and comfortably we were able to lift the pot inserts and vent steam, for example.
- Slow Cooking: We evaluated the machines’ ability to slow-cook foods on different settings.
- Pressure Cooking: We evaluated the multicookers’ ability to pressure-cook foods on different settings.
- Searing/Sautéing: We rated the multicookers on how successfully we were able to sear and sauté foods in them.
