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.

Well, first let me admit that I did not purchase this product from Amazon. I bought it at Kohl's because I had a bunch of promos saved up and wound up being able to buy it for something like $85. I do agree with another recent reviewer who questioned the need for everyone to rush out and buy the top-of-the-line Instant Pot model when one that costs a third less will satisfy most peoples' needs. Honestly, no matter how much I like the product (and we'll get to that in a moment), I wouldn't have spent $150 for it myself.

OK ... so on to the product itself. Well, first, let me say that I've owned it since July (it's late November now) and I've used it to make quite a few meals -- nothing fancy-shmancy like sous vide or "porridge," but "normal stuff" like chicken, pork barbecue, pot roasts, and potatoes. Tell ya what, this thing does rock. For example, after 30 years of Crock Pot cookery, I was pretty much a master at slow-cooked pulled pork and thought 20 hours on Low in the Crock Pot was the only way to do it. Well, my new InnyPot (as I've nicknamed it) proved me a barbecue Neanderthal. I throw a roughly chopped-up pork shoulder or butt in this guy with my homemade sauce and seasonings, and roughly two hours later (90 minutes' cook time plus time for pressure buildup and a "natural release" -- more on that in a moment) I've got the same thing -- actually better, because it comes out moister -- ready for fork-shredding. Two hours vs. 20? No-brainer, folks! My Crock Pot hasn't left the cupboard since this baby came home. (For posterity I've attached a photo of my InnyPot pulled pork.)

But it's just as incredible for other things. Want to make "real" mashed potatoes but don't have a lot of time? Pare a few potatoes, toss 'em in the InnyPot with a bit of water (to provide that all-important steam pressure), and you've got taters ready for mashing in less than 30 minutes. Important thing to note here: Some recipes -- including Instant Pot's own manual -- claim 10 to 15 minutes for potatoes, but that's just to wow you. If you've never pressure-cooked before, you need to understand that the pot takes about 15 minutes to reach cooking pressure, and even more time on the back end to release that pressure if you don't cheat and press the release valve. Beware of the incredible cooking time claims some reviewers make without allowing for pressure buildup and release times, which you cannot get around. Yes, the potatoes only "cook" for 10-15 minutes ... but they don't begin cooking until the pot has pressurized, and you can't physically open the pot after the cooking ends until the pressure has released. So, more like 30 minutes even if you do an "Instant" pressure release. And for what it's worth, since it's the pressure that makes this thing work its magic, I prefer to let it release naturally. Besides, doing an "Instant Release" is scary, hazardous, hot, wet, and sounds like you're test-firing a Space Shuttle booster engine in your kitchen. :)

There are literally thousands of recipes out there, on Instant Pot's website and Facebook page, YouTube, personal and professional cooks' websites, and so on. So you'll never run out of ideas for how to use this little miracle, which from the looks of the recipes out there seems to be able to do everything. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that the manual is a hopeless attempt that a 10-year-old could have done better, but there is so much help online that is so easy to find, that little scar on an otherwise stellar product really didn't matter much to me.

Being a guy and fascinated with gadgets, this thing is worth the money just in entertainment value. The display is a hoot, giving a graphic depiction of the cooking process. There are enough settings and options on the front panel to keep a guy entertained for quite a while (but don't be scared, it's pre-programmed to do a lot of its magic automatically -- but this is one car that comes in manual and automatic in the same model). Heck, you can even optimize it for your home altitude! On top of that, it just looks ... well, COOL. Those white characters on an ice-blue background ... it's strikingly handsome and modern without being gaudy. It's a very "top end"-looking appliance. I was a little hesitant about the brand name ... never having heard of it, it sounded to me like one of those things you only see advertised in half-hour "infomercials" at 2 o'clock in the morning. But seeing it out of the box quashed all of my concerns. This thing is built very well (like a tank), and the professional reviews out there seem to agree, continually besting the Instant Pot over the competition from Cuisinart, Black & Decker, etc.

In summary, buy an Instant Pot and throw away everything else in your kitchen. Nah, just kidding ... but really, this little appliance is a 1-cubic-foot wonder. It's already replaced my Crock-Pot and has already saved me gosh-knows how much electricity by cutting my oven use by at least 50 percent. And the food is incredible! It's amazing that the technology behind this thing is actually decades upon decades old. Turns out our grandmothers had something here, something that we're only now re-discovering. Grab your own InnyPot ... whichever model you like ... and find out what all the excitement's about.

EDIT: Two days later ...

I just tried hard-boiled eggs in this little wonder, using instructions I found with a quick web search: A dozen eggs on the included steamer rack, one cup of water, five minutes cook time followed by a natural release (or, if you prefer, the aforementioned NASA procedure five minutes after cooking ends). I've never found hard-boiled eggs so easy to peel. The pressure makes the shells like glass when you break them and they nearly fall off by themselves. All 12 came out without a ding, crack or blemish, which is a record for me. Pics attached. Chalk up another reason to throw away your kitchen!

Great pot that is infinitely customizable. I've used mine daily since I bought it. I love the redesign of the pressure release valve so that it now resets it self automatically to "seal" when you replace the lid. The LCD face is bright and easy to read. The dial gives me the sense of more control over how I am adjusting the programs vs just pushing the button. That being said, the documentation that comes with the product is seriously lacking (hence 4 stars vs 5). Very little guidance is given on how to change the settings (such as in Saute, which comes with different heating options depending on whether you want to simmer, saute or brown). The yogurt program has also changed. There is now low/medium/high for incubation temps instead of the old Less/Normal. I had to take a guess to figure out which one to use. Same with the new Sterilize function. You can set it to no pressure, low pressure or high pressure without any understanding of why one should choose each option. Even the website is sorely lacking information. Thank goodness for more experienced users out there who have taken the time to blog about the different programs and settings. If this had been my first electric pressure cooker, it would have been returned immediately.