Is the Instant Pot Duo electric pressure cooker still worth it?

How the Instant Pot Duo actually pressure cooks

Here's what I'd want to know first: the seven functions aren't seven separate machines crammed into one shell, they're one heating element and one locking lid, run by different time and temperature programs. Pressure cooking works because the sealed lid traps steam, which pushes water's boiling point well past normal, so a stew that takes two hours on the stove finishes in twenty five minutes under pressure. That's the whole trick behind the speed people talk about. But the bit the listing buries is the sauté function, because it means you can brown onions and meat in the same pot you're about to pressure cook in, no separate pan, no second thing to scrub. Switch it to slow cook and the same element just runs low and steady for hours instead of building pressure. Switch it to yogurt and it holds a gentle, consistent low warmth for the culture to work. The steamer setting is really pressure cooking without the seal, using the same trivet that comes in the box. None of this is separate hardware, it's one pot doing a different job by timing and temperature, which is exactly why it can replace six appliances without becoming six times as complicated. The sink is where this either works or doesn't: one inner pot, one lid, one gasket to smell check after a curry, versus washing a rice cooker bowl, a slow cooker insert, and a saucepan on the same night.