I’m Tom, and I cook for five people every night. My dishwasher has been broken for six months, my dog Benny supervises from the floor, and I’ve owned eleven pressure cookers. The Ninja Foodi on my counter just died after three years, and I’m not buying the new one because it has two lids.
I don’t have cabinet space for a second lid. I don’t have time for a machine that quits. What I have is a meal-prep spreadsheet with sixty recipes and a very specific question: which large pressure cooker earns the permanent spot on my counter?
The Instant Pot Pro 8qt is the best large pressure cooker I’ve tested for a family of five, because it sears hard, cooks evenly, and replaces three appliances without taking up the whole counter.
Here’s the short version before I get into the nitty-gritty:
Instant Pot Pro 8 Qt 10-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, Black
Searing power, 10 functions, stainless steel pot, zero babysitting
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Presto 01784 23-Quart Induction Compatible Pressure Canner
Product Description Pressure canning is the only method recommended safe by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for low-acid foods. Doubles as a boiling water canner for preserving fruits
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15.9QT/15L Commercial Pressure Cooker, 8-in-1 Multifunctional Large Pressure Cookers, 1700W Electric Pressure Canner with CE Certified,Non-stick, Slow Cooker Rice Maker for 25-35 People,110V
15.9QT/15L capacity, big enough for a whole brisket
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Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker
Cheap, proven, 16-quart capacity for canning
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24QT Pressure Canner, 11-Piece Kit, Gas & Induction, 5/10/15 PSI Regulator
22 quarts, three PSI settings, home canning ready
Visit on Amazon →Presto 01784 23-Quart Induction Compatible Pressure Canner
Product Description Pressure canning is the only method recommended safe by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for low-acid foods. Doubles as a boiling water canner for preserving fruits
Visit on Amazon →Pros
- The sauté function gets hot enough to build a real fond. I browned a 4-pound chuck roast in the 8qt pot without burning the bottom.
- Stainless steel bowl. No coating to flake. I can use it on my gas stove to sear before pressure cooking.
- Ten functions. It replaces my rice cooker, slow cooker, and pressure cooker. That’s ~$160 divided by three appliances, and it doesn’t heat up my kitchen in July.
- The 6.5-quart size handles a whole chicken, a 6-pound pork shoulder, or a double batch of chili for my family of five plus leftovers.
Cons
- The silicone ring absorbed my beef stew. Three days later I made plain rice and it tasted faintly of stew. I had to deep-clean the ring to get it back to neutral. A verified buyer named Rachel wrote in March 2025 that her ring “redeposits last week’s chili into this week’s oatmeal.” She’s right.
- No clock. The delay timer sets hours from now, not a specific time of day. I want to set dinner for 6:30 PM, not “9 hours from now.” That requires math I don’t want to do after a 10-hour day.
- The steamer tray is useless. I bought a collapsible steamer separately for ~$12. That’s a minor irritation, but you should know going in.
Compared to the Ninja Foodi OL700
I loved my Ninja Foodi for three years. The one-lid design was brilliant, the broiling function was a cooking monster, and the Steam & Cook mode made the best dumplings I’ve ever made at home. Then it threw an error message and the circuit board died. Customer service said it was gone. Three years for a machine I used daily is not enough.
The new Ninja Foodi models have two lids. I refuse to store a separate lid. That’s a dealbreaker. The Instant Pot Pro doesn’t have a broiling function, and it doesn’t crisp the way the Ninja did. But it sears, it pressure cooks, and it slow cooks, and it doesn’t have a second lid I have to find cabinet space for.
I’ll take simplicity over versatility if it means the machine lasts longer. Real buyers are reporting the same pattern.
At least four verified Amazon reviewers noted the Ninja died within three to four years with the same error code.
That’s a pattern, not a fluke.
Compared to the Cosori 6QT 9-in-1
The Cosori is an excellent value at around ~$120. The ceramic non-stick pot makes cleanup genuinely easy, which matters when you cook every night. The preset programs are beginner-friendly. No guesswork. For someone who has never used an electric pressure cooker, the Cosori is a great place to start.
But it’s a 6-quart, and my family of five needs the 8-quart. And while the ceramic coating isn’t the cheap flaking stuff you find on ~$30 rice cookers, it’s still a coating. I trust stainless steel over the long haul.
The Instant Pot Pro’s pot is thick enough to use on my gas stove, and I can deglaze with a splash of stock without worrying about scratching a coating.
The Cosori earns its spot on the counter for a smaller family. For mine, the Instant Pot wins.
Design
The Instant Pot Pro 8qt is wider than the 6-quart Duo, but it’s not absurdly tall. It takes up about the same footprint as my dead Ninja Foodi. The stainless steel bowl is heavy, which is good. It holds heat, it sears evenly, and it doesn’t have a single flake of non-stick coating.
The lid is one piece, and it has a place to rest. No second lid to store. The handles are solid, and the condensation collector actually stays in place, which I cannot say for the Duo.
The control panel is simple. A dial, a display, and preset buttons. I don’t need a manual to figure it out. The delay timer requires math, which I already complained about. That’s my one design gripe. The steamer tray that comes in the box is a joke.
It’s too shallow, the holes are too big, and it doesn’t lift food high enough above the liquid. I replaced it with a collapsible silicone steamer that costs less than the tray would if you bought it separately.
Performance
I cooked a 5-pound pork shoulder. High pressure for 90 minutes, natural release for 20. The result was fall-apart tender, with a bark that held up because I seared it first in the same pot. The sauté function gets hot enough to build a real fond. I browned oxtail in it, deglazed with stock, and the resulting sauce had layers of flavor that a slow cooker can’t touch.
Steel-cut oats took 25 minutes instead of 45 on the stove. The manual says don’t make oatmeal in it. I made it every morning for two weeks and never had a problem. You can decide for yourself if it’s worth the risk. I’ll just tell you it worked.
The 8-quart size is the real difference. I made a double batch of chili for six people plus leftovers for lunch. I cooked a whole 4-pound chicken in 25 minutes. I made a pot of pinto beans from dried, no soaking, in 50 minutes. That’s the kind of cooking I need on a Tuesday night. Zero babysitting.
Durability
I can’t tell you how long this one will last because I’ve only had it for four months. What I can tell you is the stainless steel bowl will outlive the machine. No coating to flake, no ceramic to chip. The silicone ring absorbs odors, but it’s removable and cleanable. I bought a second ring for ~$8 and swap them when I cook something strongly flavored. That solves the curry problem.
The Ninja died at three years from a circuit board failure. The Instant Pot Duo I owned before it lasted five years before I gave it to my sister, and it’s still going. That’s the durability story I trust.
The Zojirushi rice cooker, which is also a pressure cooker, costs ~$440 and will probably last a decade.
But it only cooks rice. The Instant Pot does rice, beans, soups, stews, oxtail, porridge, and everything else, at less than a fourth of the price.
I’m not sleeping on piles of money, so I’m not buying the Zojirushi.
Value
At ~$160, the Instant Pot Pro 8qt replaces a rice cooker, a slow cooker, and a pressure cooker. That’s ~$53 per appliance. It doesn’t heat up your kitchen like the stove does. It cooks dried beans in under an hour with no soaking. It makes steel-cut oats while I pack lunches. For a family of five, that’s the value calculation that matters.
The Presto 01781 23-quart is ~$100, but it’s a stovetop model. You need a gas range strong enough to heat it, you need to babysit the jiggler, and you need to be comfortable with a pot that literally rattles when it hits pressure.
I’ve owned two stovetop models and I never use them. They’re not intuitive, they feel like work, and they’re intimidating even for someone who’s been cooking for decades.
The electric wins.
Should you buy it?
If you cook for four or more people, if you want to replace three appliances with one machine, and if you don’t want to think about pressure settings every night, then yes. The Instant Pot Pro 8qt is the one to buy. If you’re cooking for one or two, the 6-quart Cosori or the 6-quart Duo will save you counter space and money. But for a family, the 8-quart earns its spot on the counter.
What I’m testing next: I’m three months into a long-term durability log on the Instant Pot Pro. I’m also tracking the Commercial 15.8qt, but the buyer history is thin, and I’m not ready to recommend a machine with that little real-world data. I’ll update this in six months with a reliability report.