What we’d leave: Other reviewers have expressed concern that the lid on this machine didn’t feel like it locked tight. The lid does feel a bit loose if you’re shaking the machine back and forth; it doesn’t have that secure locking feeling that other lids have. However, in all of my tests (cooking beans, whole chickens, and rice), I never had any issue with the machine not properly coming to pressure. In my experience, the lid looseness is simply a feeling, not an actual problem.
If I were really nitpicking, I could also say that the lid’s easy-to-use design does mean that it’s bulkier than other stovetop machines. The button on top is bulky and makes the pot tall and harder to store.
This pressure cooker is heavier than other models, which helps it heat evenly, though it makes it cumbersome for users who may want easier maneuverability.
The best budget pressure cooker: Cosori
Cosori 6 Quart Pressure Cooker
What we love: This pressure cooker is about $20–$30 cheaper than the winning Instant Pot Rio at the time of writing, making it as cheap as our winning stovetop model. Despite the low price, it performed all of the cooking tests just as well as our winner, making chicken, beans, rice, and slow-cooked pork with aplomb. It’s easy to set up and use out of the box, and very easy to clean due to a nonstick coating on the pot.
What we’d leave: This machine’s construction feels much cheaper than that of the Instant Pot, and because of that I have concerns about its long-term durability. I’ve owned the Instant Pot Max for the past seven years and have had no issue with its operation over the years, even after near-weekly use. The nonstick coating on this pot makes it more likely to degrade over time, and since this is a PTFE coating, scratches to the coating could make dangerous chemicals leech into the food you’re cooking. Make sure you don’t use any metal utensils on this machine.
How we tested pressure cookers
Pressure cookers are a great way to make beans because they save a significant amount of time; you should be able to cook beans without soaking them overnight, as you’d have to if you made them in a regular old pot, and the whole cook time should be 15–20 minutes at high pressure. I cooked two cups of dried, unsoaked white beans in each of the electric and stovetop pressure cookers, looking for evenly-cooked beans that were tender all the way through, without being mushy or falling apart.
I placed a whole chicken, covered in water, in each pressure cooker and cooked it at high pressure for 15 minutes. I wanted a pressure cooker that would produce fall-off-the-bone tender chicken—not chicken that soft and stringy because it was overcooked. I operated every pressure cooker for 15 minutes at high pressure, which, according to a variety of online recipes, should produce a tender chicken.
Pressure cookers—even stovetop cookers without specific rice cooker settings—are great for making fluffy, well-textured grains in a fraction of the time of regular stovetop or rice cooker methods. We made short-grain sushi in each machine to look for just that: Well-cooked rice, fast.
I caramelized onions to see how evenly they heated and whether they were capable of achieving a nice Maillard reaction. For the stovetop pressure cookers, that meant testing the pots with the pressurized lids off, on the stovetop. We looked for even caramelization and for cold spots on the pans, and to ensure that they had solidly constructed stainless-steel bottoms that would conduct heat effectively. For the electric pressure cookers, we operated the “sear” function on the machine while caramelizing onions, again looking for even browning and watching for cold spots, or for machines that didn’t heat high enough to get an effective sear.
All of the electric pressure cookers I tried were also multi-cookers, meaning they have settings for slow cooking, rice cooking, and a variety of other tasks. While my main concern for the purposes of this review was that each machine could properly cook under pressure, I also tested the slow cooking abilities to make sure that these multi-cookers performed their two central functions well. In a final round of testing for the electric pressure cookers that cooked chicken, beans, and rice well in the first rounds of testing, I made this slow-cooker pork recipe. Again, I looked for incredibly tender, fall-apart meat, but not pork that was overcooked and therefore dry and stringy.
What to look for in a pressure cooker
I wanted tender, evenly-cooked beans and meat that fell off the bone without being overcooked. I wanted steamed rice that was fluffy without being gluey or mushy. And I wanted an even level of browning on onions. I found that pretty much every pressure cooker was able to adequately perform these tasks, so determining the best models really came down to user-friendly design features.
I monitored how long it took each cooker to come up to pressure. Again, I found that there weren’t significant differences among models here. But, it’s worth noting that stovetop pressure cookers come to pressure faster than electric models. Stovetop models took an average of 12 minutes to come to pressure while cooking beans, and 20 minutes to come to pressure making chicken. Electric models took an average of 20 minutes to come to pressure making beans and 30 minutes to come to pressure making chicken. This is because stovetop pressure cookers have a more direct heat source, whereas electric pressure cookers use heating elements that limit the amount of direct heat and limit the speed of heat transfer. Stovetop pressure cookers also tend to operate at higher pressure—15 psi for stovetop vs. 12 psi for electric—so they can cook food faster.
Safety Features and User Friendliness
Pressure cookers can be intimidating to home cooks, who might be afraid of explosions. Rest assured, every machine on the market today is incredibly safe to use thanks to plenty of built-in fail-safe features. However, not every machine is equally easy to operate. In stovetop models, the difficulty generally comes in the form of difficult to lock-and-seal lids. On electric pressure cookers, you’ll find machines that have difficult-to-use interfaces or unclear pressure settings. The machines we chose as winners stood out because they were easy to set up and operate even for users who aren’t familiar with pressure cooking. They also had simple and safe pressure-locking and releasing mechanisms.
Pressure cookers can be difficult to clean because their pressure gauges and steam release valves mean they have lots of nooks and crannies. Moisture and gunk can get stuck in the crevices of these machines, and it’s not a given that they will be dishwasher safe. We looked for machines that came apart easily for cleaning, or that had dishwasher-safe elements to cut down on cleaning time.
We wanted a machine that cost as little as possible, while still offering superior design and high-quality materials—and, of course, great pressure cooking ability.
Other pressure cookers we tested and liked
Fissler Stovetop Pressure Cooker
Fissler Vitavit Pressure Cooker
Several design features take this above the rest of the stovetop pressure cooker competition: The pressure gauge is clever. It’s a metal piece that rises and falls out of the top of the lid, which we did see on other machines. But, the Fissler’s gauge is marked with stripes of green (correct amount of pressure), yellow (close to the right pressure), and red (pressure too high or low). It’s easy to monitor and make sure you’ve got the heat right where you want it. The Fissler has a great lid locking mechanism that’s clear and easy to use. It comes with helpful instructions and recipes that I ended up referencing when I set up other stovetop pressure cookers, and has a great pressure release button that’s fun to use, though some people may find that it emits steam too close to their hands. Finally, it’s made of high-quality materials, with a heavy bottom that’s great for searing and caramelizing. However, at $300, the Fissler is more expensive even than all of the electric models—and it still requires finessing and constant monitoring to use.
Our Place Dream Cooker
The inner pot on this machine is coated with the signature Millenial-coded, direct-to-consumer ceramic nonstick material. It also comes in the dusty, powder-coated shades of that cookware contingent. I was skeptical that this machine would work well, given that it seemed mostly to innovate in the area of aesthetics. In the end, though, I was impressed with the Dream Cooker.
This machine passed all of our cooking tests with flying colors (including the extra slow cooking test). It was easy to set up out of the box and get going. And the ceramic nonstick coating works very well. The pot on this machine was much easier to clean than its counterparts. If you love the look of this machine, rest assured that it will also serve you very well in all of your pressure and slow cooking endeavors. Three things keep it from a top spot: The Wonder Cooker’s interface is pleasingly minimal, but not always the clearest to read. Sometimes I got confused about whether or not it was, in fact, preheating. We have found that ceramic nonstick coatings don’t last forever, so I have concerns about this machine’s durability. And at $200 it’s twice the price of our winning Instant Pot model.
Instant Pot Pro
This model offers a few upgrades on our winning Instant Pot Rio: Its inner cooking pot can be used on the stovetop and in the oven, and it has coated handles that jet out on the side, meaning you can immediately remove the pot without using oven mitts. It has more cooking functions than the Rio does, including sous vide capability. You can also operate the custom pressure setting at both high and low pressure, and it gives you the ability to save your own preset cooking times. It has a high-end LCD screen, and can be connected to and operated via your iPhone.
The upgraded inner pot almost makes this machine worth the extra money—I absolutely loved the stay-cool handles and that I could use the pot on the stove. However, I found the interface confusing at times—the screen would indicate it was still preheating when it was actually pressure cooking. It’s also supposed to have a quieter steam release than the Rio, but I actually found it to be louder. And once, I burned beans because I lost too much liquid during the cooking process. This was almost certainly user error, but it speaks to this machine being more difficult and less intuitive to navigate than its less-expensive counterpart.
Pressure cookers we don’t recommend
The Breville Fast and Slow is a sleek multi-cooking machine that has, as its name indicates, the ability to both pressure cook and slow cook, as well as steam and saute. It’s incredibly easy to set up out of the box with one of the most intuitive interfaces I encountered in my testing—within minutes you can have it running, even as a total beginner who has never used a multi cooker before. The machine has helpful preset cooking functions like beans, rice, poultry, dessert, etc. But I had two issues with it. First, it has a higher price point than many of the top performing electric cookers we tested. Second, it didn’t always seal correctly when I shut the lid, even if I pressed down and twisted the sealing mechanism at the top, ostensibly locking it into place. After numerous tries, I finally discovered that I needed to really finesse the lid to be sure that the machine was sealed before I started it (you won’t get an alert that it isn’t sealed until after it has preheated, which wastes a lot of time). I found users reference this problem online and had many instances myself, finding out 15 minutes into the cooking process that the machine wasn’t sealed right. Once you learn to triple check the lid, this machine is great, but given its high price point, we think you should opt for an Instant Pot that doesn’t have this problem.
This machine involved the most setup of anything we tried. You have to screw on both the main handle and helper handle, which isn’t a big deal but did require that I dig a screw driver out of the bottom of my completely disorganized tool drawer. Everything about this machine feels analogue—the pressure gauge is simply a weight that sits on top of the machine, and there’s no button to release the pressure. Rather, you run it under cold water to accelerate the process, or leave it on the stove with the heat turned off and simply let it slowly release. If you don’t mind a very simple machine, and are an experienced pressure cooker who won’t be intimidated by such a bare-bones machine, this is a workable option. It performed well, and sells for a reasonable $100.
This machine also needed to be manually depressurized and was very loud while it worked. Its metal materials also felt of lower quality than the competition—it was lightweight and the pot was discolored and marked with streaks that were difficult to clean off even after the first use.
Should you get an electric pressure cooker or a stovetop pressure cooker?
Both stovetop and electric pressure cookers offer tender braises, well-flavored soups and stews, and well-cooked beans and grains at a fraction of the time of other methods. We recommend both stovetop and electric pressure cookers, and think the right model is a matter of consumer choice.
Here are the pros and cons of each type of machine.
Stovetop pressure cookers pros and cons
Pros:
- Faster to come to pressure, plus higher pressure cooking: (15 psi vs. 12 psi for most electric models). This means that, in addition to coming to pressure faster, they also cook faster than their electric pressure cooker counterparts.
- Cheaper: In general this is true, but it doesn’t hold true for all of the models we tested. However, our winning T-Fal model is $80 at the time of writing, making it about $30 cheaper than our winning electric pressure cooker, the Instant Pot Rio, which retails for $110 at the time of writing.
Cons:
- Require constant monitoring: You can’t get a stovetop electric pressure cooker going and then run out to do a few errands. That’s not just because it wouldn’t be safe, but also because many of these machines have visual pressure indicators that need to be monitored, requiring that you increase or decrease the heat on your stove to maintain proper pressure levels.
- Require more knowledge and expertise: You won’t get any preset cooking times on stovetop models and will likely have to experiment with your machine a bit to fine-tune the right cooking times, heat levels, etc. The lids and pressure-release systems also tend to be more complicated, though if you select our winning T-Fal model, we don’t think this will be much of a concern.
Electric multicookers pros and cons
Pros:
- Offer hands-off, set-it-and-forget-it cooking.
- Easier to set up and operate without trial and error.
- Offer more versatility: Many multicookers offer rice cooking, steaming, slow cooking, sous vide, and other cooking functions.
Cons:
- Come to pressure more slowly than stovetop models.
- Operate at lower pressure than stovetop models.
- Often more expensive than stovetop models.
