Works great. Gets food hot enough to burn a sensitive tongue. Easy to clean. Next up for me is a Bento box.

This right here is awesome. It's going two years and I have no regret, only sorry I didn't take a bigger size. It's super cute, it hot my lunch always, it can be really hot sometimes, which is good, it works extremely well. Guys, you need to get yours now.

I had been taking my hot lunches to work in a thermos, but this is much better. With a thermos, I had to take time in the morning when I was rushing to get out the door to heat the food in the microwave, then transfer it to the thermos, wash the microwave container, and get out the door. When it was time to eat, it's awkward to eat out of a thermos. I didn't like to microwave my food at work because the microwave is always dirty, and sometimes someone else is using it. If I'm in a hurry that can be a big problem.

With the crockpot, I fill the inner container with food the night before, stick it in the fridge, grab it in the morning and go. I leave the crockpot itself at work. I stick the inner container in it when I get to work, plug it in, and by lunchtime it's piping hot (but with no hot spots like soup heated in the microwave). I've tested it even sooner, and with some soups it only takes 60 minutes for it to get hot. After I finish eating, I allow the inner container to cool a little, then wash it out and take it home for the next day. (The inner container is a cylinder bowl shape, so it's easy to eat out of with a spoon (unlike a thermos) and it holds about 20 ounces).

As other reviewers have noted, the lid for the inner container snaps on but is not a super tight fit. It's designed that way so it can release within the crockpot when your food gets hot to allow steam to escape. In order to make sure nothing spills on my way to work, I put a strong rubber band around the inner container and put the whole thing in a ziplock bag. I haven't had a spill yet, but I do make sure to carry it upright in my lunch tote. This is not the kind of container you want to be banging around roughly or turning upside down.

If you wanted to, you could leave it at your desk while it's plugged in and carry the whole thing to the lunch area when you're ready to eat. There is absolutely no smell while it's heating up your food. Even when the lid for the inner container releases, the outer lid is still tightly on. You can't smell the food until you open the outer lid when you're ready to eat.

In addition to doing a great job, the crockpot itself is very cute. I bought the bright turquoise one. I wish I could buy extra replacement inner containers but the crockpot website is always sold out when I've checked.

This is a great product and you won't be disappointed!

This has revolutionized lunch time at work. I leave the actual crock pot at work, and bring the inside pan back and forth to work everyday. It is just the right size for a can of Progresso soup. I would be reluctant to carry soup back and forth in the inside pan, because the little lid does not seem tight enough to keep liquid in (I bring a can of soup and open it when I am ready to begin heating), however, I would carry leftovers without a lot of liquid back and forth. I have been using it every day for a year now and it still works like new!

I prefer this mini crockpot to heat up soup, chili, Ramen, 100% better than a microwave or having the mess of cooking on a stove. It evenly heats up your food, something the microwave can't do, and that slow, thorough heating improves the taste of the food.

Yes, it makes a fine pot of Ramen. Just break up the dry noodles into the pot, sprinkle in the seasoning packet and add water to the fill line. Plug it in and in an hour you'll have perfectly made, thoroughly heated Ramen and the noodles will not be mushy. You're welcome.

That said, I don't recommend it for reheating leftover noodles or rice. In my experience those do become mushy. But it does fine with dry noodles like Ramen. But for canned soup that has noodles in it, like chicken noodle soup - it does great.

I love that a can of soup fits perfectly in it. Pop open the can of soup, pour it in, close up the crock with both the inner and outer lid on and plug it in. It will be hot and ready to eat in about an hour.

Pro tip: you can order multiple inserts with lids directly from the Crock Pot company and just transport those instead of the whole crock pot back and forth between work and home. I found that securing the lids with a thick rubber band or two kept them from leaking while being transported to work.

Before pandemic: I took my mini crockpot to work and left it there at my desk. I brought in cans of soup and packets of Ramen that I kept in my desk to heat up whenever I wanted to have that for lunch. I either washed the insert and inner lid at work, or took it home to wash and just brought it back to work with me, sometimes filled with leftovers that I just popped into the mini crock and plugged in once I got to work. I personally found that if I turned it on to start heating up food at 8am or 11am, that food would be heated to the same ready-to-eat temp by lunch time and I never had any problems with it overheating anything.

And if I wanted to use it to heat up something homemade, I'd fill up one of my extra inserts kept at home and take just that to work (with rubber bands over it to keep it closed) and pop it into the mini crock pot once I got to work. I'd pop out the insert already in there, pop in the one I brought from home, and then when I was done with lunch, I'd put the clean one back in and put it away for the day. I'd take back home the one I'd brought in.

During pandemic: I took my mini crockpot home and have continued using it because I prefer the taste of evenly heated soups and Ramen cooked in it instead of the microwave. And now the one that I had just died and I'm immediately ordering a new one. I got A LOT of use out of the old one and I consider the price a good deal.