Customer Reviews

Crock-Pot 4865-W Recipe Smart-Pot Slow Cooker, Chrome

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love crock pot cooking and was pleased to see this one on the market with some new features. Since I have a long work day--sometimes 12 hours away from home--I needed to be able to fine tune cooking times so things would not overcook. So far, so good. The Smart Pot does that; you can set temperatures to high or low and program in the number of hours. After that, the pot shifts to "keep warm". And it performs cooking functions as well as any basic crock pot.
Please note, however, the comments on tops not fitting well. I have had to return a pot for that reason, and it's worth paying attention to while you still have your original packaging and receipt.
Next issue: Rival cheaped out and did not enclose a recipe book with this $80+ pot, they listed only the names of the recipes. So to scan the recipes to plan a meal and ingredients called for, you have to look at the tiny led display and scroll through screen after screen. Not user friendly, not easy to see. This negates the recipe function for all intents and purposes.
Finally, if you have a small kitchen, don't buy this monster. It's huge! My advice: wait for the next model and improved design.

My wife and I both work (long hours) outside of our home so we've used crock pots for many years to help prepare easy, wholesome meals for weeknights. We have been looking for a unit that will automatically shift the "keep warm" after a specified cooking time so my wife gave me one of these new "super-pots" for Christmas. I've tried to cook 2 meals (seafood chowder & ham with navy beans) on the low setting in this pot and it has burned them both. As mentioned above, you'd think an $80 crock would come with a printed recipe book but it didn't so if you're preparing your grocery shopping list you have to drag this monster out, plug it in and mess with a very unfriendly program to try to find the list of ingredients for a given recipe. What a pain! Lastly, the LCD display screen is VERY hard to see in a lighted room. You have to shade it with one hand while pushing buttons with the other to try to find and read the text. It REALLY needs its own backlight. I understand marketing and the fact that it must be very hard to continue findings ways to "improve" something as basically great as the original crock pot but the folks at Rival REALLY missed the boat on this thing. Save some money and buy a more conventional model with fewer bells and whistles and maybe a little better temperature control!

As a crock-pot owner and user for 20 years, this crock-pot seemed ideal. It had all the features I was looking for, plus many wonderful others. Unfortunatley, the lid doesn't fit well. I had read this in other reviews about other newer models, so was sure to be home during my first use. After a few hours of cooking a roast, I noticed a lot of water on my kitchen counter. Moisture was running down the inside of the lid and collecting on the rim of the pot and spitting out. I'm sad to say I'll be taking this one back to the store and pulling back out my 20 year-old model.

I have to disagree with a lot of the negative reviews - I really like this crockpot a lot....the shift-to-warm feature is wonderful, as are all the programmatic functions. The lid fits just fine, and the pot is nice looking as well (yes, it's kind of big, but it's supposed to be! It's all pot, not additional packaging). I do agree that the recipes should be in a book, but, with that said, the recipes I've made so far were lousy anyway - very bland. So, the recipe function is an add-on that may be nice on principle, but not a reason by itself to buy the pot. Buy it for its digital capabilities, design and volume.

I just received this crock pot and love it. I've cooked a couple of meals from the recipe index on the unit and found they were pretty good, good enough to make again. I also have two large books on c.p. cooking and don't always like THOSE recipes either, so it's like anything else, some are hit, some miss. I figure when I make a recipe from the unit, and like it, I'll take the time to print it out and add it to my private collection so I don't have to scroll. Getting to the recipes can be a little inconvenient, but it's OK, you can't have it all, if you're cooking in a c.p., you're already saving a lot of steps, like different pan washing... COME ON... what do you all want? The clean up on the white china insert is a snap, and it's super simple to program, someone said it was difficult?????
I guess they probably never ran a computer either. It's terrific to set the time you want at 1/2 hour increments, hit ENTER, it then tells you to press 'GO', and you're done. To know that if you're late getting home, it won't keep cooking past the time entered gives me real peace of mind, and in this hectic world, thats worth a lot. So happy with my new C.P.!!!

It looks cool, but that's about all it does. I purchased one plugged it in and no display, but it did heat up really fast for no reason. I got that one exchanged and the new one worked very well for about 1 year and some change (just out of warranty). Now I'm having the same problem as I did with the very first one I purchased. Do you remember when crock pots lasted forever? I know people that still have those old ugly green ones from the 70's and they still work. My advice save your money and buy one without all the fancy digital stuff on it, it will last longer. Thanks for listening to my two cents on this.

The Smart Pot is easy to use and to clean-up. It contains lots of recipes that are easy to get from the attached "mini computer." Crock Pot cooking is the way to go for busy families--and this pot is big enough to feed 5.

I was very excited to see a high tech crock pot under my tree, only to find out that it is difficult to manuever. The menu screen is hard to read and I don't believe there is over 200 recipes, its like uh...what are my options? Not only is there little choice really, the buttons don't exactly function well. You have to push them very hard and you have to be a magician to find that working spot. If you have lots of time, this unit is for you.

Ok, I have this model & the older Rival digital model with the glass lid from Sam's (6.5 quarts, $39.95 with duet dish & carrier). Cooked identical recipes; the Smart-pot seems to have a better thermostat. Anyway, you can get free recipes from Rival's web-site. They even sent me a free $14.00 cookbook! I originally bought it from BBB for about $70 plus a 20% coupon; finding a "last one" at a different store for $29.99 or $39.99 plus the coupon I think. I exchanged them (as it was just missing the box,not the paperwork). I've not had a problem, and over the years, Rival has stood behind their products. If in doubt, use a credit card; some cards add an extended warranty to your purchase. Thanks for everyone's input.

so far so good with this cooker but after using this twice I discovered a small but present chip on the bottom of the removable stoneware.
Upon looking closer I can see more bubbles that did not go through the ceramic glazing,but can see a possible problem in the future
I will write amazan a letter and see if they will send me a new and not defective stoneware for this product