What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot?

A pot of food is like a pot of gold with the aroma that sets happiness in your soul. A viral trending kitchen apparatus. A Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot are both the time savers with many contrasting features. The most serious issue is choosing which one to get, a Pressure Cooker, or an Instant Pot.

Before we get down to the differences which set these two apparatus apart, let’s learn what these two pots are all about.

What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot? 2Pressure Cooker – What Is It All About?

As the name suggests, it is a pot that uses steam and pressure to cook food. The pot itself is a sealed vessel that uses high pressure to prepare your meal at a faster rate.

The pressure inside the pot helps in making the food moist. With that being said, Pressure Cookers work best when it comes to preparing cheesecakes, meat stews, and more.

What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot? 3Instant Pot – What Is It All About?

An Instant Pot is an upgraded form of Pressure Cooker. It is basically an advanced piece of equipment that delivers results with a vast range of functionality.

The Instant Pot is designed in a way that consolidates different forms of cooking under one device. It offers slow cooking options, combined pressure-cooking options, and many more.

The pot aims at providing you an instant solution to your hunger. Not only can you roast a chicken in an Instant Pot but you can also prepare a dessert in no time.

Basic Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot

The grounds that sets these two pots apart are based on technology, durability, control, and usability. Back in the day’s Pressure, Cookers were not only viewed as a pot of convenience but also as a pot that’s subject to a blast.

Before the evolution of Pressure Cookers, the controls were meant to be handled manually. It was also made sure that nothing comes in the way of the ventilation channel in order to avoid the explosion.

However, Pressure Cookers of the present era are designed to not only provide more safety features but also convenience to the users.

Whereas, compared to the Pressure Cookers, Instant Pots are an invention of the 21st century. With that being said, Instant Pot has a total of 4 generations out there in the market. The best part about each release of Instant Pots is the advancement that comes along with each generation.

By incorporating advanced features and hi-tech digital controls, the Instant Pot offers a wide range of control to the users. A single push of a button allows you to prepare a variety of meals, only six times faster than the usual speed.

What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot? 4Basic Highlights in an Instant Pot Versus a Pressure Cooker

In order to fully analyze the two pots it best that we dig down and study each pot comparatively.

1)     Capacity

There are various sizes of Pressure Cookers available out there in the market. You can choose from the size of 2 Quant, 4 Quant, 8 Quant, 10 Quant, and 12 Quant. The smallest size, which is 2 Quant, can prepare a meal for 2 people at max. Whereas, the largest size of Pressure Cooker (12 Quant) can serve as many as 12 to 13 people at max.

Instant Pot, on the other hand, provides 4 different sizes to the users. The manufacturer offers Instant Pots in the size of 10 Quant, 8 Quant, 6 Quant, and the smallest size of 3 Quant.

2)     Dishwasher Safe

Your user guide is the best place to find if your unit is dishwasher safe or not. Perhaps, if your Pressure Cooker is a traditional stovetop cooker then the chances are, it is dishwasher safe. However, if it is an electric Pressure Cooker than its best to wash your unit with hands in order to avoid damaging any part that shouldn’t come in contact with water.

As for the Instant Pot, all parts are dishwasher safe except for the cooking base of the pot. The parts that are dishwasher safe are

  • The steam rack
  • Stainless steel inner pot
  • The sealing ring
  • The lid of the Instant Pot

In order to clean the cooking base of the pot, you can make use of a damp cloth to wipe off any dirt or smudge on the unit.

3)     Watts

An electric Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot mostly operate on 100 watts.

What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot? 5Comparable Highlights of Pressure Cooker in Contrast to the Instant Pot

There are many similarities between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot. However, when it comes down to the slight difference of those similarities, they can certainly be a game-changer inside your kitchen.

Replacement Parts:

 Repair parts of both units are easy to find in the market. You can either purchase the parts from the manufacturer’s website, Amazon or eBay.

Power Cord

Aside from the traditional stovetop Pressure Cooker, the power cord can be found in both the electrical Pressure Cooker and the Instant Pot.

Most electrical Pressure Cooker comes with a feature of a detachable power cord. This mainly helps in storing the cooker pot in limited space with ease. Whereas, an Instant Pot comes with an attached power cord which cannot be removed.

Warranty

Warranty of Pressure Cooker usually depends on the manufacturer, brand, and the model of the unit. Normally, a Pressure Cooker warranty expends from 1 year to 3 years.

Whereas, Instant Pot generally comes with a limited warranty of 1 year.

What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot? 6Various Features of the Instant Pot VS the Pressure Cooker

It wouldn’t be an examination without bringing up the contrasts between these two mainstream pots. So we should take a glimpse at the prominent differentiation between features of these two pots.

Delay Start:

This function of this control is to allow you to postpone the setting of the clock on your unit. So far, Pressure Cookers do not come with a control panel that offers such a feature to the users.

However, Instant Pot, on the other hand, offers a feature of a 24-hour delay start. The delay start helps preset your Instant Pot to prepare a meal at a designated hour.

Inside the Cooking Pot

The inside of the cooking pot differs from one pot to another. You can find the bowl of Pressure Cooker made out of ceramic, non-stick, aluminum, or stainless steel. If Pressure Cooker is what you’re interested to buy then we would recommend you to buy a stainless steel Pressure Cooker.

The cooking pot that’s featured inside the Instant Pot is made out of hardened steel. The hardened steel makes the cleaning task easier for the users.

Control Panel

Pressure Cookers manufactured in today’s time are much more different from the traditional ones. What majorly sets them apart is the straightforward use of the unit and the ease of control.

Whereas, an Instant Pot is all about allowing the users to have full control of the unit while it gets the job done with a single push of a button. The control panel is based on user-friendly models which make it super easy to operate.

1 thought on “What Is the Difference Between a Pressure Cooker and an Instant Pot?”

Leave a Comment