What is the Best Electric Pressure Cooker?

Rating: 4.7 Reviewed by Susan

Hands down, the best electric pressure cooker on the market today is the Instant Pot IP-DUO60. It out sells every one of its competitors, has an extremely high average rating from thousands of owners, and has an online community of enthusiastic users who can help you with most any question (not to mention recipe ideas!).

This is 6 quart model with a stainless steel cooking pot, 14 built-in “smart” programs, and 10 separate mechanisms designed to ensure safe operation. For all the details you can click here to read our comprehensive Instant Pot Review, but in this article we’ll take a look at how it stacks up to its competitors.

Let’s begin with a quick rundown on models by other manufacturers.

Power Pressure Cooker XL

Unless you always fast-forward through commercials, chances are that you’ve seen this model on TV. It has spawned tremendous amount of interest, but likely only because of its massive marketing campaign. This is one we would eliminate right off the bat, and here’s why.

It has a 60 day warranty. 60 days! Who does that? What makes it even worse is that if you do receive a defective unit, or if your unit breaks down during the 2 months that it’s under warranty, you pay the shipping cost to return it plus you have to send a check or money order to cover return shipping.

If you need one more reason to move on to the next model, it averages only 3.6 stars, and the most common complaints in all those low ratings are about broken units and very poor customer service.

Read our complete review of the Power Pressure Cooker XL here.

Elite Platinum Pressure Cooker

The only advantage this model has over the Instant Pot is size. The Instant Pot is 6 quarts, and the Elite is 8 quarts. To clarify, you can buy an 8 quart Instant Pot (see it here on Amazon), but it costs around $60 more than this Elite model.

One other difference is that the Elite comes with a non-stick inner cooking pot. Some people consider that a plus because it can be easier to clean. More and more though, people like to avoid it due to health concerns about coating materials at high heat.

The controls on this model are somewhat simpler to understand because it does not offer a tremendous number of features. It will not function as a slow cooker, and you do not have precise control over temperature and pressure settings. Your only options are the built-in presets.

Consumers who rate this model very low most often complain that it broke down prematurely. A common problem seems to be a bad fuse, which should be easy to replace. However, in our review on this site you’ll see a comment from one owner that says a lot about customer service. All he needed was a fuse, but the company rep was not only unhelpful but rude too.

Read our complete review of the Elite Platinum Pressure Cooker here.

Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker

Cuisinart makes some awesome kitchen appliances, but this may not be one of them. It does have its good points – controls are simple and easy to learn; it produces good results as a pressure cooker; it costs less than other brands.

Again, it’s easier to operate because it doesn’t do as much. It has no slow-cooking mode.

If you prefer a stainless steel cooking pot do not buy this model. It comes with a non-stick cooking pot, and there is no stainless steel model made to fit it.

What brings this unit’s ratings down are problems with the unit abruptly shutting itself off before cooking finishes. This can happen with any pressure cooker because they have so many built in safety features. However, the sensors in the Cuisinart seem to be hypersensitive, and these unwanted shutdowns happen far more often than with other brands.

Finally, the other bad news is that the vast majority of those who’ve dealt with customer service have had a very bad experience. You do get a 3 year warranty, but you’ll have to pay for shipping your broken unit back to Cuisinart. Also, some owners even claimed that they had a hard time convincing the company to honor their warranty.

Read our complete review of the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker here.

Secura and Fagor

There are two others possibly worth considering. There isn’t enough feedback available on either of these to make a fair assessment, but you will find a brief summary of each on the page with our comparison charts (links to these below).

One is the Secura 6-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, which offers a 6 quart capacity and multiple functions. One limitation is that when using it as a slow cooker your only option is a single, preset temperature.

This unit may be a good buy, but one possible drawback is that the manufacturer’s website is a little scant on information. I recommend you check out the company before you buy, because if something does go wrong you want to know you have a reasonably straightforward way to get in touch with them.

The other is the Fagor Pressure Cooker, which is the bigger 8 quart size. It also comes with a non-stick pot, but you can get a stainless steel cooking pot for about $35 more. This model has lots of features, and though there are very few reports on it, those who like it are pleased with its performance and the results they get.

Fagor has earned a very good reputation for its non-electric pressure cookers, but only time will tell if that is also true of this electric model. The price is close to the same as the 8 quart sized Instant Pot, and it may be every bit as good (assuming you’re okay with the non-stick coated pot). At this point, the main difference is that we’ve heard from about 100 owners of the Fagor, and their average rating is 4.3. Compare that to well over 7,500 owners of the Instant Pot, and their average rating is 4.7.

See brief summary reviews of both the Secura and the Fagor here.

Instant Pot IP-DU060

It’s easy to sum up the worst things you can say about the Instant Pot:

• You may experience a small learning curve. It’s not that the controls are difficult to operate but that the Instant Pot offers so many choices in what you can do. You’ll have to read the instructions, and you might even have to consult the Facebook community to get an answer, but it’s a small price to pay for all the versatility you get.
• The instruction manual needs work. A lot of people consider the instruction manual to be quite lacking, especially for such an exceptional appliance. Despite that, I’ve yet to find a single person who regretted their purchase simply because they didn’t like the owner’s manual.
• The sealing ring may absorb strong cooking odors. This never affects the taste of your food, only the aroma you smell during cooking. Apparently this is not an issue for the majority of people. If you’re in the other camp, there’s a real easy solution. Just spend another 10 bucks or so for an extra sealing ring. Switching rings is fast and dead simple. That way you don’t have to smell last night’s crawfish gumbo while drinking coffee and cooking your morning oatmeal. (Here’s a complete explanation on this issue & the solution.)

Otherwise it’s all good. So far there is no indication of a high fail-rate on these units, but when there is a problem this company appears to be very diligent. They actively monitor reviews on sites like Amazon to find complaints and respond. Of the people who have had reason to contact customer service, the vast majority have only good things to say.

The Instant Pot gives you:

• Large size 6 quart cooking capacity
• Stainless steel inner cooking pot (no worries about chemicals in non-stick coatings)
• An array of fully programmable features, including numerous pre-sets
• 24 Hour Delay Timer with option for automatically switching to Keep-Warm mode
• Multiple built-in safety features (it is Ul and ULC Certified)
• An online community with thousands of active members
• 1 year limited warranty

Summary: What is the Best Electric Pressure Cooker?

On balance, there simply is not another brand that offers all the advantages of the Instant Pot without some significant drawback. You can also put considerable stock in that 4.7 star rating because it’s an average from over 7,500 people – if the unit had serious flaws, they surely would have come to light by now. Before you buy you really should read our complete review on the Instant Pot, and maybe check out all our other reviews as well. It’s rare that we claim any specific model as number one for every single person, but in this case it’s hard to find any reason why the Instant Pot shouldn’t be deemed the best electric pressure cooker around.

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Other Instant Pot Models

The number one bestseller referred to above:
Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W

The Instant Pot in an 8 Quart size:
Instant Pot IP-DUO80 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker, 8Qt/1200W

The Instant Pot “IP-Smart Bluetooth” Model:
This model does not rate as high. Some people report issues with the Bluetooth-Enabled aspect, and others feel that it is just total overkill.
Instant Pot IP-Smart Bluetooth-Enabled Multifunctional Pressure Cooker, Stainless Steel