Which Instant Pot Should You Buy? All of the Models Compared

This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Bisphenol A, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. I am the creator, photographer, and author of recipes and tips at Paint the Kitchen Red. I live in the glorious west in Salt Lake City, Utah with my family. The Instant Pot Duo is the most popular model and is widely available. If you have a hard time finding the Nova, go with the Duo. However, the older Duo model is still widely sold and the new version may not be available at many retailers.

Use the + / – keys to adjust the number of hours before cooking will begin. Food must be placed only in the inner pot, not cooker base. The float valve and silicone cap must be installed before use to seal in pressurized steam. If you’re new to Instant Pots, extra sealing rings moosoo air fryer are a must-have accessory and newer models are starting to come with two sealing rings instead of one. One of the largest differences between these two models is the Duo Nova is available in a 10 quart option, which is great if you need to cook for a large number of people.

The Duo Nova comes with a lid that automatically seals your machine, and features a quick-release button for letting steam out. Both models have 13 user-defined settings that give them a lot of flexibility for novices and busy people. The Instant Pot Duo Mini 3 quart, on the other hand, has 11 smart cooking functions. Instant Pot Max also has a large touch screen panel so you can set the time, temperature, pressure level, delayed start, program automatic steam release, and more. The buttons are all big and easy-to-read, and the new LCD has a progress indicator to let you know when your pot is coming to pressure and when the cooking cycle begins.

The 10-quart Duo Nova is perfect for feeding a crowd or meal planning. DWYM is focused on helping you make the best purchasing decision. Our team of experts spends hundreds of hours analyzing, instant vortex testing, and researching products so you don’t have to.Learn more. We looked at the top 4 and dug through the reviews from 9 of the most popular review sites including and more.

instant pot duo nova

That gully is likely a necessity of a pressure cooker’s functionality, but we’re still waiting for someone to find an innovative solution to this issue before we award a higher score in this metric. Additionally, we found many meat-based pressure cooker recipes suggest significantly longer cooking times than Instant Pot suggests for the same cut of meat. In those situations, we generally found Instant Pot’s recommendations to be more on point, with the longer cook times bringing about slightly drier and tougher results.