We loved this at first but after about a month of use we are having problems with the lid sealing properly. We always put the lid on the same way, according to the manual instructions, and this has now happened twice. The problem is that the lid appears to be truly sealed, but after the unit gets hot, steam starts pouring out of the top lid sealing component. When the cycle is eventually finished and we open the pot, the water inside is completely gone (and yes we are using the proper amount of water) and the bottom of the pot is all burned and brown. Today a simple batch of har boiled eggs resulted in this and an egg explosion inside the pot. We have only had it a little more than a month. The Amazon return window appears to be over and we are at a loss for what to do with this now. This is pretty much a disaster.

When I noticed that the majority of people was using the IP to cook big meat pieces, I wasn't sure about purchasing one. But then I decided to try it and I now love it.

My diet is mainly plant based, with some goat and sheep dairies, some simple fish and eggs every now and then. So what I make with my IP?

1. Soy yogurt : not that gross thing with rice and other stuff, just milk and probiotics. I used 2 quarts of Westsoty milk at a time and then strain the resulting yogurt obtaining about 6 servings of yogurt and 3-4 of whey that I use in my smoothies --> 10 breakfasts. I also bought a bunch of bananas, a few peaches, some celery, some baby spinach and some young ginger that I chopped and frozen in separated containers so I always have my ingredients fresh and ready for my green smoothie.

2. Bean soups/curries/sausages : I've always hated the long cooking time of beans, so I used to buy tons of canned legumes and eat them basically straight from the can. Now I'm enjoying cooking delicious and creamy soups, experimenting with meat alternatives - with no wheat gluten and other not-so-healthy stuff.

3. Brown rice dishes (as risotto or biryani) : this dishes usually take a quite long time to cook even using refined rice, let alone with brown, right? Nope, right now I enjoy those delicious and flavorful dishes way often since they take the same amount of time of their refined equivalent.

Not only my diet is healthier now, but it's also more delicious and I'm even saving some money that I used to spend in tons of fruit and veggies (I mean tons, I used to have a fiber intake of 2-3 times the recommended amount!) and in fancy yogurt. Today I used it to cook some beans that I then used to make bean sausages that I steamed under pressure and right now it's making yogurt.

For reference, I'm a food blogger, cookbook author - I have quite a decent amount of experience in the kitchen - and under 30 Italian girl living in the Sf Bay Area, and I'm shocked realizing how much this appliance is making such a difference in my life right now!
(Photo of the sausages I made for tonight dinner following the recipe of "Vegan Under Pressure", page 98)

Worked as advertised for exactly for 45 days, then just died, a quiet death! Will contact customer service and will update my review based on their response. Murphy's law works, happened right after 30 day Amazon return policy!

I was very excited to get my new Instant Pot, and ready to start cooking immediately on our vacation! I love to cook & we always seek vacation lodgings w kitchenettes. But something odd happened when I did the Instant Pot's "initial test run" as described in the user's manual. (3 c. water, set at "steam") Steam kept leaking from the closed vent, and when the cycle finished and I allowed a "natural" release of pressure, a big puddle formed on my counter. There is a small plastic drip-catcher that snaps in place on the back of the pot; this ended up with a 1/2" of water. But most of the little running stream of water from the vent missed the cup. I was not able to find anyplace online that said this is normal, so I decided to get Instant Pot Customer Support. It was almost 5 PM on Fri. When I first called and got a recording that support is available weekdays from 9 -5. I wasn't sure the pot was safe--so it sat, unused, all weekend. Called Mon. AM and after waiting 10 min., the fellow on the support line couldn't tell what was going on, but said DO NOT use the pot. He also said to do the "initial test run" again, and video the results to show the problem, then take pictures of the seals on the back and the bottom of the pot, and the puddle after use. I was to email all of this, with a description of the problem, to "technical support" at Instant Pot. Between the time I made the phone call, did the "initial test run" took the videos and photos, wrote up the problem, and emailed it all, I had invested almost 4 hours of my time. My vacation time!! No response from Instant pot for all of Tues. Later on Wed. I finally got an email--requesting a video of the problem and photos of the seals. Clearly nobody had looked at the materials I had already, painstakingly, sent. Resent the video and photos, and again heard nothing for over a day. Fri. I .called again, reviewed the situation & my frustration. I was promised a phone call from technical support before end of day. Surprise! No. Phone. Call. It was the weekend again--so nobody at Instant Pot was working. On Mon. I returned the pot to Amazon--having lost the opportunity to cook on vacation. I emailed Instant Pot one last time to inform them of the return, because the performance of Customer Support was completely unacceptable.

I loved it until it stopped working a month and a half after I bought it. It won't even turn on. 😢