Is it Worth Buying an Instant Pot Multi-Cooker?

Once you start researching electric pressure cookers you inevitably start looking at Instant Pot due to it's overwhelming popularity... but you will also start wondering something quite common.

Is Instant Pot Worth Buying? Is There A Better Value Out There?

The super short answer is that it's worth it for the sake of not needing so many other devices that the Instant Pot machine can replace but there are other options that do similar things for less money.

What makes Instant Pot so great anyways?

For starters this company has built up a reputation of quality over the years that many people are willing to pay a few bucks more for. Not only can you easily find people who have been using their Instant Pots for years you also see that the company is continually improving their product through releases of new models and upgraded versions of existing models.

Pretty cool; they are almost like a tech company releasing new models all the time. 🙂

The most recent additions to the line include the Instant Pot Max and the Instant Pot Smart, both are great new models but the question remains...

Is Instant Pot a Gimmick or is it Actually a Good Pressure Cooker?

What sets them apart for me however is that despite their reputation and propensity to improve their products all the time they are priced nowhere near the top of this market meaning there line of products are well priced in my opinion.

So do you need an Instant Pot? Well, it's up to you and your necessities.

Before I go into a long tirade over everything that makes Instant Pot a good value I want to present you with a list of articles on this site that are about very specific things having to do with Instant Pot. Feel free to browse the list or just jump to the bottom to continue reading.

Where Is Instant Pot Made?

The short answer to this question: Instant Pot is made in China by one of the premiere pressure cooker manufacturing plants. It was however designed by Canadians and although it is usually found in 110v it can also be found in electrical configurations for the European 220v market.

For the average person at home the quality of build will be just about as good as it gets but for those people who are really concerned about buying American made products then the Instant Pot simply isn't worth it. There are other pressure cookers are made in the USA such as the well regarded All American pressure cookers and canners but electric USA made models are harder to find.

Is Instant Pot Good for Things Other Than Pressure Cooking?

Probably the thing that makes people more likely to find Instant Pot worth buying than anything else though is that it really is very good at cooking things in a variety of ways without sacrificing the build quality. It really does brown food nicely for an electric cooker. It can make yogurt well. I can serve as a very well made slow cooker or rice cooker.

Regardless what type of cooking job you throw at it it really does great at replacing the dedicated single cooking type device in the kitchen. For this alone I think it's worth buying. Unless you really think you'll need to cook lots of things at the same time you can easily choose to buy one Instant Pot and skip over all the other devices it is supposed to replace.

Yes, it costs more than many of the electric alternatives but it is built to last and it costs way less than some of the premium brands like Breville.