It’s a close race between these two models, so it will definitely boil down to your priorities. You can control it with your phone via the Instant Pot app. The app also has pre-programmed recipes and alerts to make cooking even easier. The cooker has an LCD and status icons so you can easily check on your meal. The pot connects to Alexa and Google Assistant for voice control too. When depressed, a continuous stream of steam will be released through the steam release valve until the float valve drops into the lid.
The Instant Pot Duo is extremely efficient as it speeds up your cooking by up to 70% (compared to stove-top cooking) and it offers a solid range of smart cooking programs – 13 one-touch smart programs. As such, the pot can be used to cook soups , beef stew, bean chili, and more. In addition, it is equipped with several other cooking functions like slow cook, instant pot duo nova steam, yogurt making, rice making, pressure cook, and Keep Warm module. Instant Pots are multifunctional pressure cookers with enhanced features and multiple settings to make an even better meal. The best Instant Pots not only offer faster cooking times but other handy features like preprogrammed settings, LCDs, smartphone apps, and customizable parameters.
While you can still get a Duo Nova Instant Pot in 3-, 6-, and 8-quart sizes, the 10-quart has been discontinued. As its product line has grown and evolved, Instant Brands has retired some of its older models. As promised, I will try and define a category of best users for each of these two Instant Pot models .
The pressure multi cookers all pressure cook, slow cook and saute’. They all also have a “manual” program, this is important because it means you can tap in your own pressure cooking time and pressure, . All of the Instant Pots with pressure function come with a stainless-steel cooking surface and, most importantly, the same safety features.
This model includes over 10 safety features so you can set it without worrying. Plus, cleanup is easy as the cooking pot can go in the dishwasher. PrSE indicates that pressure has accumulated during a non-pressure cooking program.
Despite the pot not having a non-stick coating there was no sticking during the sauté stage. We slow cooked our beef chili for six hours on the ‘more’ setting and the result was a delicious meaty chili with soft beef. The Instant Pot beeps to alert you that cooking has finished and the temperature of the chili at the end of cooking was 176 F/ 80 C. The chili wasn’t thickened to our liking but by switching back to saute it was easy to reduce it to the perfect consistency. During slow cooking the handles and sides all stayed cool, the lid reached 113 F/ 45 C which isn’t too warm to touch. The descriptions given make no mention of the pressures achieved.
Some of the larger florets had a good texture but the smaller ones were overcooked. It’s pretty simple to figure out the settings and get cooking shortly after removing it from the box and the preset programs are a good starting point for common foods and meals. There’s no recipe book or cooking charts included though, so you’ll have to head to the website or app for these. We found plenty of slow cook and pressure cook recipes but it can be tricky to find exact guidance for more simple tasks like steaming and cooking rice.