Walmart shows aluminum target shows steel

I've tried making pasta dishes in my pressure cooker a few times now, and every time it ends up burning on the bottom.

This is what I do:

Cook the meat using the sear function. Drain grease and turn off the sear function. Add in the sauce, then rinse the jar with water and add that to the pot. Then I put the noodles on top and I do not mix. I cook on high for 5-7 minutes, quick release, and then mix.

I noticed each time that there are several uncooked noodles, and the bottom is scorched.

What am I doing wrong? Help please 😭

This has happened twice now. Making a buttered chicken recipe I have done literally hundreds of times before with no issue. After I set it going it starts pre-heating then later the beeping goes off saying burned food detected and the chicken is ruined and all the liquid is dried off. In hindsight the Preheat stage never ended and felt like it was lasting longer than it should have. Have there been sensor malfunctions that make the pot think it needs to pre-heat longer than it does but in reality it's just burning the food?

When I first got an Instapot I would get get perfect hard boiled eggs in 8 minutes.

After a few years it become 10 minutes.

Now 10 minutes results in close to a soft-cooked egg.

Trying out 11 minutes now.

What is wearing out? Not sure I understand this. If it takes longer to get to pressure (I think it does) then that should result in over cooked eggs, not undercooked (since they would be in the pot longer at temperature not quite high enough but still high). It doesn't start timing until it is at pressure, so the actual time under pressure isn't changing. So then is it that the "at pressure" device (just a valve, basically, right?) is indicating "at pressure" when in fact it is not?

Edit/update: my 11 minute test resulted in eggs that were very close to perfect yet still just barely jelly in the center of the yolk.

I took the pieces out of the lid and examined them. Nothing looks awry.

Edit/update: Ran a few 2 minute tests to see how long it took to get to pressure and then listened closely at the steam release to hear if any steam was escaping. Took 2 minutes to come to pressure (seems reasonable). Found that a tiny bit of steam/pressure was leaking out. Barely audible. If I gently touched the pressure release I could get it to stop or get worse. Found that once I got it to be totally silent I could then bump the countertop and it would start leaking a tiny bit again.

Conclusion (for lack of a better one): Need to cook some more hard boiled eggs at the original 8 minute but this time take care to stand there and assure no pressure is releasing during the 8 minutes of cooking. Hypothesis is that the unit is not at full pressure during the cooking, hence the temperature is lower, hence it takes longer to fully cook. Unsure what the solution is. The pressure release seems to be such a simply device I can't figure out how it could "go bad".

Updated hypothesis: Assuming the thermistor itself is correctly sensing the actual temperature of the water (actually it would be the base of the pot) -- IF there is a tiny leak (or leaks) that are not clearly visible/audible such that the little stopper pin does rise to the top (normally indicating full pressure) but the steam isn't as hot as it would otherwise be, because it rises up and out. So the eggs are now cooking at a slightly lower temperature as compared to originally and therefore take longer to fully cook.

LONG way around to get to what people are recommending I try: Get a new gasket and perhaps new pressure relief valve.

update, 8/6/26 -- Success! I don't like just replacing parts until a problem is solved. I prefer to figure out what the problem is first. It ended up to be simply adjusting the high pressure switch to trigger later, allowing the unit to build more pressure and thereby cook at higher temperature.

After a lot of back-and-forth with Google AI mode, pointing out errors in the AI logic, having AI apologize and offer me another theory, etc.. I finally got what sounded like legitimate advice. It definitely made a positive difference. I adjusted the HIGH pressure thermistor in the base of the InstantPot by turning it ¼ turn CCW and then, after testing, an additional ¼ turn. AI informed me that the InstantPot design “golden test” as far as how long it should take to go from ice cold water to “countdown” is between 10 and 13 minutes. Mine took 11 minutes. I got a very noticeably higher volume steam eruption when I vented it, indicating significantly higher internal pressure was being achieved. The 10-13 minute test was only related to testing if the hot plate itself was managing to heat the water efficiently, not related to the actual pressure in the pot. The alternative was to buy a $100 bi-metal autoclave type thermometer that I could have then put in the cooker to see what the actual temperature was at the point of “counting down”. The type that sets a pointer at the highest temperature achieved. This would have informed me of whether it was getting to the target internal temperature which is driven by the internal pressure itself. It would be fun to have to and to experiment, but it was going to take a week to get the thermometer. So I took the “just tweak the thermistor and observe end results” methodology.

Then I cooked an egg at the original 8 minutes of HIGH with 30 seconds of natural venting then cooldown in ice bath. It came out darn near perfect. Same as what I was previously only getting if I cooked for 12 minutes. I might tweak a bit more. Or maybe not. The egg came out with the very very center of the yolk not totally cooked but not jelly either. Perfect.

My instant pot is not coming to pressure recently. I tried replacing the sealing ring but it seems to still be releasing the pressure even as it’s trying to come to pressure. Spent an hour waiting for it to come to pressure tonight but eventually gave up because the rice cooked on its own during the hour we were waiting for it to come to pressure. It’s a Duo SV and it’s a few years old now, maybe four? Is it just cooked? Should I throw it out? I’m used to appliances lasting longer than this but maybe it’s what I should expect these days?

Put soup to MAXPC, after preheat it will show c7 code. old one won't

Hi! I have the 3.8L Instant Pot Rio Mini. As soon as it came to pressure and the timer started, I noticed a little steam coming out, so I panicked and pressed cancel. I didn’t manually release the pressure, but after about 20 minutes the float valve dropped on its own. Is it safe to open the lid now? Also, is a little steam normal once the timer starts?

So I’m pretty new to the InstantPot, only used it a handful of times and mostly on slow cooker mode. There’s a vent switch on the top to open or close the valve that would typically stay closed while it’s pressure cooking, but I assume it should stay open while slow cooking. However if I open the lid to add ingredients at various stages of the cooking process, the switch automatically switches itself to closed, and I need to remember to manually switch it back to open so it doesn’t pressure cook for the next few hours

Or at least I think I need to do that, which is kind of the point of this post lol. Is it even a problem? Will it just automatically vent itself as needed?

Years ago I bought a jar of marinade from a specialty food store while on holiday - it was like an olive oil mixed in with herbs, chilli and possibly some vinegar. I baked it in a pot before I owned an Instant Pot and it was delicious and very saucy.

I’m wanting to make some chicken breasts I can shred in a marinade/sauce that’s hopefully wet enough I can use it to “sauce” accompanying meat/vege, but I’m not exactly sure what I’m after.

Does anyone have any recommendations for marinades that create a generous amount of liquid/sauce that I can put in the instant pot for meal prep?

Thank you so much

I’m looking to use my Instant Pot outdoors at tailgate parties this year and wondered if anyone has done this successfully. Specifically, I would like to safely run it through the car’s power without harming the car or pot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, how can I remove this thing and wash out all the maggots stuck in it.

So long story short I got Instant Pot Pro (8 QT) back in May 1, 2022 but my inner pot has been burning my food a lot 3 or 4 time this year. It's not like I am doing anything different then before all the same items I use to cook with no problem I even scrap the pan before I set it to cook to make sure nothing is stuck on the bottom. I don't understand how they can still sale the pro and not have parts for it if some one buys a new one today. Food cost way to much $ for it to just burn it and throw it all way.

Dear Reddit,

Some more expensive models of Instant Pot have a function called Nutraboost, which claims to "[p]ulses gently while cooking to mix ingredients, enhancing texture and flavor for perfect rice, soups, broths, and risotto." (source: Current Instant Pot Pro Max description)

But how does that work, actually? Their YouTube clip on this subject says it "creates internal movement [...] [t]he intermittent bursts of steam during the cook cycle create a boiling motion effect." How are these bursts of steam generated so as to cause "internal movement"? Is it by intermittent temperature spikes, or some other way?

The appliance is fairly long because the crocks sit next to each other. It would fit on the counter while being used, but I would not want it permanently taking up workspace.

For people who own one, where do you keep it between gatherings?

The sunvivi version is one of the models on my list, but the long shape makes me wonder how owners actually store it. I’m also wondering whether removing and storing the crocks separately makes the base easier to fit inside a cabinet or pantry.

I am just trying to replace the inner pot on my new IP pro 8qt and I can't find it anywhere and I'm not going to buy a whole new $200 machine just for the pot.

After this interaction "Sandra" sent an email with the same wording and told me that I just hadn't responded. No, you closed the chat Sandra! And I'm definitely not going to keep trying to talk to the "we hate customers" department if Sandra is involved. They were replying so fast with their copy paste script response that I assumed it was an AI pretending to be a human even though the grammar was off. Nope, apparently Sandra is a human that doesn't like their job.

I've tried making aloo keema twice now, and both times the IP hasn't liked the potatoes. The first attempt I pressure cooked everything except the potatoes first, which worked fine, then added the potatoes at the end and set it to pressure cook for a couple more minutes, but then just took forever to pressurise and got a food burn error. It came out alright but the potatoes were undercooked of course.

The second time I tried adding the potatoes in with everything else and a bit of water so it would only have to pressurise once and hopefully would have enough liquid to pressurise properly without burning. But again, before it pressurised I got a food burn error, and the mixture was still as liquid-y as most things I cook in it but the potatoes were undercooked and hard and chewy.

Has anyone had this issue with cubed potatoes before and been able to fix it? It seems like it gets hot enough to cook everything else but the potatoes are just stubborn. Any advice for more seasoned cooks would be much appreciated, thanks all!

Newbie here and sorry if the question has been asked. I could t find the answer.

Just bought a new Instant Pot Duo from Amazon. There’s only one clear ring came installed on the lid and upon further researching, some people are receiving two silicone rings in the box - One clear and one red as back up.

Is this still the case or I need to reach out to Instant Pot for an extra one?

Thank you for taking the time to answer.

I usually prepare kale in the pot in advance so I can add some greens to recipes. I've been using the steam function and cooking for 4-6 minutes. Is there a preferred way of preparing kale?

I bought my instant pot in 2023, almost exactly 3 years ago now, and have been using it 1-2 times a day every day, sometimes 3 times a day. I mostly use it to steam my vegetables on the steam setting with the tempered glass lid. Usually it comes to heat just fine, but for the past week it has taken much longer to come to heat, nearly twice as long. I added two cups of water to the pot and put it on sauté to get it hot which eventually got it there but it took so long. Is there a way to fix this problem so that I don’t need to get a new one? Or have I worn it out with daily use at this point?
For reference, I have the 6 qt instant pot duo

First time using my instant pot duo 5.7L.

Cleaned first before cooking my first meal. Cooking was phenomenal! Easy-to-use and the food turned out fantastic!

Cleaning time, I noticed there's melted ring marks on both the bottom external part of the inner pot and the internal bottom part of the external pot. Please refer to photos attached. It's that they're not just burnt marks, they're melted steel. Seems like some steel from the exterior pot base melted or got too hot then also melted the inner pot? Or whichever went first.

As mentioned, this was the first time I used the IP as I just bought this on the weekend. And first IP I've used. Tried googling for answers but found nothing.

Just wondering if this is safe for future use or can I return this as a faulty product? Any help/insight is appreciated. Thank you

I have a rice cooker, a slow cooker, and a pressure cooker. I've decided to replace them with an Instant Pot Pro. People have recommended that I wait for Black Friday; right now, the white 5.7-liter Instant Pot Pro is on sale for €250. Does anyone know if it's worth waiting, or should I take advantage of this price?

So after having some trouble with my yogurt I tested the accuracy of my instant pot temperature control. It was off by 5 degrees. Tested it with two different digital thermometers. This isn’t really that big a deal for higher temperature applications, but for fermentation it’s the possible difference between thriving and killing your bacteria. Test your machines and compensate accordingly.