We bough an Ultra Mini around two months ago. It was instant love with the device. As a matter of fact, one week later we ordered a larger unit.

Just recently we found that the front dialing button was stuck. I carefully removed it and found that it was bent out of shape in the portion that seats inside of the panel. It is easy to figure out that this could have happened because of the heat that the unit generates (button is made of plastic).

I contacted Instant Pot customer service asking if this was covered by warranty, or if not, how could I purchase a replacement. This is their reply:

"Hello Edmundo,

Thank you for getting that information to us, it is appreciated.

This piece is not sold separately as the base comes as one full unit. This is not something that is covered under warranty. With that said we can offer you our loyalty price on a new Ultra mini cooker base for $65.95 USD.

Please let us know if you would like to move forward."

I am very disappointed with this reply. I am not willing to buy a whole unit just to replace a small cheap button. I am sure that they have thousands of these buttons at their warehouse. The button is replaceable, you can pull it out and push it back in. It is not a fixed part of the base unit. I am disappointed because this company can not offer me a simple solution for a small problem.

The Ultra Mini is an excellent product. I have solved the button problem by putting it back in and not pushing it all the way in. Works perfectly until I can find a similar button somewhere. It is not a big issue. What is a big issue is the poor customer service attitude of this company.

Best regards,

Edmundo

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Caution--if you purchase the Ultra Instant Pot, please be aware that you must learn how to use the buttons because all the recipes for Instant Pots are geared toward the standard-not the Ultra-and the buttons on the Ultra are all different from the standard. It took me awhile to figure this out and I am still learning. I love my Ultra IP but the company did not do a good job of explaining the differences in the buttons--I had to search by googling and reading lots of blogs.

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 Not being new to pressure cooking first thing I can say is WOW. I have to confess that I had a stove top pressure cooker a long time ago and have not used one in a while. I have been out of the loop on the Instant Pot electric pressure cookers too which is a blessing in that I followed my instincts and bought the Ultra without making the mistake of trying to save a few bucks for the Duo series.

Like going to the car dealer for a new car, think of the Instant Pot line of cookers the same way., The Lux is the base model, the Duo is the model up from the base and the Duo Plus two models up from the base and the Ultra is the fully loaded model. Just like the car dealer, - more features means more money. With a street price of $149.00 for the Ultra, you can be patient and find them on sale from time to time. However, in any case $149.00 is a good price for what this cooker can do for you. If you use this cooker you will make up the cost of in saving on not eating out as much. The food you can cook is that good.

I have been cooking in this Instant Pot every day since I received it; sometimes twice a day. I have also made sure to make things that require me to use more than the manual setting that can be created under Pressure Cook or Ultra. Here are my Pros and Cons.

Pros:

• LCD display - one of the big things I hear in the discussion groups is “I pushed the button and it says “ON”, but I don’t know what is happening. The Ultra has a cooking graph that displays the progress through the preheat, cooking and warming phases so you know right where you are in the process. The LCD display is miles ahead of any of the control panels on any other model offered by Instant Pot.
• Venting, Quick release and the Pressure Regulator are improved. The vent/regulator now is controlled by a separate button - the Quick Release button, Push the button into the locking position and it pops the Vent up to release the pressure, turn the quick release knob and unlock the Vent so it drops back down and stops the pressure from releasing.
• Ultra Program You can set the exact Temp, as low as 104 degree and as high as 208 degrees.
• Set your Altitude and the programing on the Ultra will make the adjustments.
• Aesthetics - It is much more attractive with the LCD panel than the other models

Cons:

• Sealing ring in lid (silicone) picks up all the cooking smells and this ring stinks. The only solution I found to help take the cooking smell out of the silicone is to run the silicone ring through the dishwasher on the top rack laid flat. This seems to be a on going complaint from many Instant Pot owners
• The Manual is not very detailed. The “Water Test” as know by users is in the manual as “Initial Test Run” on page 14. The instructions for the “Initial Test Run” are incomplete. After instructing to rotate the dial to steam and set the time for two minutes, the manual forgets to tell the user to press the start button next. While the explanations under numbers 6,7 and 8 are important for Pressure Cooking, it is not clear to the user that those are not part of the Initial Test. Since users have adopted the lingo “Water Test”; Instant Pot would be better off changing the future manuals to instruct the “Water Test”. A little more information on the preset programing. The manual talks about making Yogurt, a few more pages like that on the other functions would be helpful.

This really is not a con, but just part of pressure cooking. Pressure cookers are moist cookers so any crispy dish you desired has to be done outside the Instant Pot, so for example Lasagna would be finished under the broiler to get that baked finish. Chicken skin does not come out the same as if it was roasted in the over. For all the other things you can do with your Instant Pot, these things are not a big deal.

Here are some of the items I have prepared with my Instant Pot Ultra and the setting used.

Pressure Cook - Apple Sauce, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, Slumgullion/ American Goulash
Soup Broth - Split Pea Soup using dry split peas
Meat/Stew - Crack Chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken, Cranberry Brisket, Dr Pepper Ribs, Beef Bourguignon, Bratwurst
Bean/Chili - Black Beans and Smoked Turkey Sausage
Steam - Sweet Potato
Sauté - vegetables and meat for dishes above
Porridge - Steel Cut Oats
Cake - New York Cheese Cake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Giant Pancake
Egg - Hard Boiled Eggs
Yogurt - Greek Yogurt with 2% milk
Ultra - Sous Vide Tuna Steaks, Tempered Chocolate for candy making.

Many people try to figure out which model is the one for them. If you are a cook or like cooking and know how to cook many items, then you are going to want the flexibility of the Ultra. It is worth every penny and not worth trying to save a few bucks going into the Duo model. Even if you don’t not cook a lot or have a wide range of cooking skills, the LCD panel really takes the mystery out of the pressure cooking cycle which is not available on the Duo or Lux models. Maybe the extra settings will entice novice cooks to try new things.

Another thing I see commented in the forums is that people are afraid to start using their Instant Pot. Either they are afraid of pressure cooking in general or running the Instant pot is too complicated, so why try.

This is a computerized pressure cooker, The venting and pressure regulating system the Ultra is excellent. If you follow some basic rules then you will be cooking worry free for a long time.

1. Always have enough liquid in your recipe, The Instant Pot cannot generate pressure if there is not enough liquid.
2. Do not over fill the pot. The bottom of page 14 in your Ultra manual has a great explanation on how much you can put in your Instant Pot Ultra.
3. After each use, make sure to clean the lid and check to see if the venting system has any food that might block the venting system.

This is a computerized pressure cooker and that makes it light years ahead of your mother’s or grandmother’s pressure cooker. The flexibility that the programming creates for the user makes this one of the more versatile cooking gadgets you can have in your kitchen. The computer programing makes it a safer cooking system compared to a manual stove top pressure cooker.

My family is very typical, our kids have many after school activities, we get home late and no one wants to go through the hassle of cooking. We have a slow cooker, but if we forget to set it up in the morning before we leave the house, it still takes time to put together recipes when we get home. The Instant Pot has changed all that. The pressure cooking system cuts cook times dramatically. Additionally I don’t have to sit over the stove monitoring my cooking food. Once I put all the food in the pot, put the lid on and hit start, I can get many other things done around the house.

My family is eating out less (saving money) and eating healthier, making better food choices than when we are eating out. There are so many recipes out on the internet and in cookbooks that my family looks forward to coming home to eat because it is going to be something good and probably new to us.

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I purchased the top of the line Instant Pot as it came highly recommended from family. The pot will not consistently pressurize. So I reset, check everything, (including liquid level) and it fails to pressurize. So I reset, check everything again and retry. Pretty soon, a 1 hour meal has consumed 4 and 5 hours and it's still not done because the Instant Pot will not pressurize to finish the meal. I have tried two meals, and both failed and had to throw them out (pot roast, and a corned beef).

So I opened a ticket on March 4th and received a reply stating longer than normal wait times. It's now March 13th and my return window through Amazon just closed. So now I'm stuck with a product that doesn't work from a company that doesn't respond.

Do not waste your money or time.

 Instant Pot Ultra 6 Qt 10-in-1 Multi- Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Yogurt Maker, Cake Maker, Egg Cooker, Sauté, Steamer, Warmer, and Sterilizer

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I love the instant pot pressure cooker! However I would like to make 2 points that may help others.
- First, I was hoping a 3 qt mini would be enough for me (single guy). I can tell you, while it being OK, I outgrew it on the first day. I believe 6 qt is the way to go, even for a single person. It isn't just about the amount of food you make. You can do so much more with it. No comparison!
- Second, the ultra does not really have any functional differences from the DUO model, apart from different interface. 10 in 1 - is just marketing. I bought a 6 qt DUO, and let me tell you - it is way more convenient to use, since you have buttons instead of a pesky dial, and the venting mechanism is much more robust. The Ultra looks better though. But it comes at the cost of user friendliness and higher price.
I am returning my 3qt Ultra and keeping the 6qt DUO. I love it so much more!!

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DO NOT BUY - Quality significantly reduced.
Have an older 6qt instapot which we love and have used heavily for many years, and were looking forward to upgrading to the 8 quart. After one use making stew, the stainless steel interior pot showed pitting on the inside and out and was leaving a black residue on food and on anything that you wiped the outside of the pot with.....found lots of similar complaints on Amazon.com reviews....never had this problem with the old stainless steel pot. I am very disappointed with the lower quality materials and will just use old one as I do not trust their quality anymore....they have lost a once very loyal and extremely satisfied customer.

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I have 2 Ultra pots, I think that’s enough said! I bought my first instant pot when Ultra was just released, so went with the newest model. And I was very skeptical, and thought I could always return it. After using it twice, I was hooked. I cook congee, rice, broth, soup, stews, eggs with it regularly. It was so useful, I had to get another around Christmas. And I have an additional inner pot and two lids. It takes a bit to get use to as I do agree the manual requires some updates to make the instructions more clear but you can really set the temperature, time to anything of your liking. For instance, I found my eggs taste best with just 2 min at egg setting with low pressure and no warming. Then I quick release it as soon as the pot beeps, and I drop the eggs in ice water. All in all, I get perfectly cooked soft boiled eggs in less than 10 min (washing my eggs, placing in pot, and let the pot warm up, and cooking). The pot actually takes most time in warming up and natural releasing the pressure. The cooking is super fast. Note that there’s a difference between natural and quick release though, and it’s pure preference. It is definitely worth buying the ultra instant pot. Life changer!

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I bought this for my mother for Christmas. So far have used it to make mashed potatoes, butter chicken and ribs.

The ribs were by far the most tender and fall-off-the-bone ribs I’ve ever had and only took ~1hr to cook. The butter chicken was also unreal.

Note to make sure the top edge of the inner pot is very clean before putting the lid on, I had an issue with the pot not coming to pressure and it was due to the lid not sealing properly because there was a very small amount of residue on that edge.

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Where have you been all my life? I love my Instant Pot! I have only tried about 4 or 5 things but so far it works beautifully! It's great for people who work full time and have very little time to prepare healthy, home cooked meals and want to eat before 8pm! It took 35 minutes to cook a whole frozen chicken and the meat was tender, moist and flavourful. This is a MUST have for all home cooks who value nutritious & delicious food and of course what little time we have during the week. I highly recommend!

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It’s easier than most of competitors. Different choices and customizations. I gave it 5 stars but I still have to coment on 2 or more things. Before this instant pot ultra, I had StarFrit which was working great, I thought this would be an upgrade, yes it has more options than Starfrit which is only preprogrammed but this instant pot ultra still doesn’t have quick preprogrammed for potatoes or poultry, whenever I cook them, it a mess, they are fully of water and over cooked. For some reason I don’t know why it takes so long time for natural pressure releases. The steam rack is close to nothing, you can’t steam veggies with it, it’s too small, too short and can’t hold many things, if you are buying it you also need to buy a new rack from other sellers. An other point and very important, the metallic look on the lid is great but it get very hot when you are cooking and it makes the rest of the cover hot, it will burn you if you touch it.
Dear instant pot designer, cover it with plastic for safety reasons on the next model and improve the steaming rack. Apart from that, it’s a great pressure cooker, it looks elegant in my kitchen. I gave it 4.9/5 Stars.

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I found the main dial and program selection to be complicated to adapt to and learn. I even purchased separately a "How to Instapot" book to help me master the settings. My Instapot heating element became defective after only 5 weeks use. When using the "sauté and slow cook" functions, the heating element would shut off midway through the cooking process leaving food under cooked or not browned or seared. However, the manufacturer replaced my cooking base quickly and without making the process difficult.

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It works. Figuring out the timing of things. I've made ribs, soups, rice, lentils, roasts, veg... all turned out quite nicely! It will take you some time to figure out timing - especially for meat. Most of the cookbooks/online recipes cook times are way too long. Invest in a digital thermometer so you can make sure your meat is done! So much better than a slow cooker. You can sear your meat, sweat your onions, saute your veg and then add everything else and VOILA! We're enjoying it!

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1. They don't tell you that in order to cook something in "only 5 minutes" - it takes up to 20 minutes to heat up, plus about 5 minutes for the steam to come out. So the "5 minute" is really about 30 minutes.
2. The food does not taste good. It comes out bland and mushy.
3. You cannot add things as you go, or taste it to see if it needs more salt, or pepper or spices - because it's sealed. Whatever comes out is what you get.
4. It is bulky and takes a lot of space. It may be useful for a handful of dishes - but is it worth having around for a once-a-month cook that saves you only a few minutes?

Verdict: Highly overrated. Only useful in certain cases. Too bulky, food quality is meh. I returned mine.

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 I had previously a pressure cooker T-Fal Cook4me, which is absolutely fabulous, but has one big flaw - the pressure release is automatic, and I could not cook soups and broths, for it was releasing liquids together with the steam.
Instant Pot Ultra has perfectly answered my needs - it has manual pressure release, customized options and looks beautiful. By the way, the far from being pretty appearance of the previous Instant Pot versions stopped me from buying it.

The reasons I have given my choice to Ultra version are:
- Fully customizable Ultra program - I choose everything according to my needs: pressure, non-pressure cooking, temperature, "keep warm" on/off, time and delayed start.
- Modern and sleek appearance: LCD display and central dial (it's similar to T-Fal Cook4me pressure cooker).
- Pressure release knob - I can control pressure release and safely speed the process up, without covering the countertop with liquids.
- On-the-go setting adjustments.
- Ultra remembers my last customization.

So far I have used Ultra to cook chicken broth, soups, oatmeal, vegetables, cereals, pork, beef and ribs.
So far, the best results I have achieved while using customized features (Ultra).
The oatmeal program didn't work for me at all, for it was saying that oatmeal "burns," and required more water than I'd wish to, so now I'm using customized non-pressure program applied through Ultra option.
The given opportunity to prepare a nice, hearty soup in no-time added a variety of dishes to our winter meals rotation.

A word about accessories.
The steam rack that comes with Ultra is not convenient, so I'm using T-Fal Cook4me steaming basket, that perfectly fits and does a great job.
Also, T-Fal Cook4me has an original ceramic coated non-stick pot, and its quality is superb, real-deal non-stick cookware, amazingly easy to clean, durable and proved itself over time.
When I purchased Instant Pot Ultra, I wanted to get a similar ceramic-coated pot for IP as well, so I bought it, but was disappointed right out of the box for its cheap quality is so evident. The ceramic-coated pot's internal surface is somewhat grainy and had a couple of tiny sharp bumps.
I have returned the product, for it doesn't meet the standards of ceramic-coated cookware according to my experience.

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Very pleased, it works really well and it cuts cooking time by a lot which is convenient to make ribs, curries etc.

1 thing I find odd is that there's no lock so it's possible to open the cover when it's super hot (the steam is really strong) which could be dangerous... Maybe I'm the one who didn't understand the lock mechanism as I did not have the time to call client services yet.

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I have been enjoying my new Ultra 6 qt. Instant Pot. I have been making yogurt weekly ever since I got it. It’s just so easy with the no boil recipe. I’ve made soups, main dishes, cheesecake, lemon curd and that’s just the start. It’s made me excited to try new recipes again and in the hot summer just past, not having to worry about heating up the kitchen. And all accomplished by the turn and press of a dial. The pressure release is done by pressing a button, it automatically seals itself without needing to twist a toggle and you can watch the temperature inside the Pot rise, level off and cool down on a graph on the outside of the pot. So clever!

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The 3Qt Instant Pot is been great - exactly what I was looking for to prepare small portion dinners. I read and read all the reviews for the various "x in 1" machines trying to decide which version would be the best. I opted for the most expensive (10 in 1) Instant Pot. Now that I have it, and have been using it, I find I never use the "10" presets - most recipes tell you to use "manual mode", so turns out I likely would have been just as happy with a 7 in 1. Nonetheless, great machine - love it.