We tested 12 top-rated slow cookers — these 3 are worth the money

A slow cooker — a set-and-forget device that lets you cook an entire meal safely while you work or go to school or otherwise get things done — is one of the most forgiving kitchen devices. With a great slow cooker even absolute beginners can cook a tasty and hearty meal for their entire family.

To find the best slow cookers we prepared 48 chicken breasts, 11lbs of black-eyed peas and dozens of onions over a course of 100 hours. It truly was a slow — and delicious — process, and in the end we found three great models that’ll let you prepare great meals with a minimum of effort.

The Cuisinart 3-in-1 multicooker gave us great results, and offers the best range of really usable features of the slow cookers we tested. We used the 4 quart pot, which easily feeds up to 4 people — the perfect amount for a breakfast, lunch or dinner for many families. It is also available in 6 and 7 quart versions if you have more mouths to feed.

The Cuisinart is technically a multi-cooker, since it allows you to brown, saute and steam as well as slow cook. It isn’t as full featured as an Instant Pot, however, and is optimized for slow cooking, with the secondary functions serving mainly to let you prepare all stages of a dish in the same pot, reducing the amount of pots, pans and bowls you need to wash. The 3-in-1 even allows for combination cooking where you can switch between cooking modes in a single touch — without having to turn the slow cooker off and back on again. Once your meal is fully cooked, the slow cooker will automatically switch to the warm setting for up to eight hours.

Because of the multi-functionality, the pot is aluminum with a non-stick coating. This makes it extremely lightweight and dishwasher friendly. While the coating used is PFOA-free  — like all nonstick coatings produced for sale since 2015 — many other PFAS are still in use and it’s unclear which compounds may be found in currently produced nonstick cookware (and in many other consumer products). If you’re concerned about that class of chemical it’s something you may want to keep in mind.

Aside from a perfectly delicious meal — during all of our cooking tests — we loved that the housing and all handles stayed cool to touch. This helps with maneuvering the slow cooker and ensuring no little hands are burnt. The cord on this slow cooker was also one of the longer ones measured, which helps if your outlet socket is slightly further away from your cooking space.

Since this slow cooker was one of our favorites, we went one step further to test the browning and sautéing functionality as well. We browned both chicken wings and onions — before slow cooking them — and while it doesn’t switch modes automatically, we found the process extremely easy. Using this feature, we ended up with crispy chicken wings falling off the bone and mouth-watering onions with that little extra flavor. Most other slow cookers we tested didn’t have this mode, so if you want to brown ingredients you would have to do so on the stovetop first before throwing them in the slow cooker.

The All-Clad 6.5qt Slow Cooker lives up to the brand’s reputation for quality, high-end cookware. With its stainless steel exterior, handles and rivets and ceramic insert, this slow cooker not only looks top-notch and elegant, but will also give you a perfectly cooked dinner. It also offered the most programmability and one of the longest cooking times of the models we tested.

We tested each cooker initially by filling it with water and measuring how quickly it came up to a safe cooking temperature and how well it maintained that temperature.  The All-Clad heated up fast, reaching a safe target temperature of 185º F in just two hours and then stayed at that exact same temperature for the remaining four hours. Once switched over to the warm setting, the temperature dropped quickly sitting around 155º F to 160º F for the duration of the test. This slow cooker also offers a continuous 26-hour run time (up to 20 hours of cooking plus 6 hours of warming), which is longer than most others we tested.

This consistent — and predictable — temperature let us get great results. Our pulled BBQ chicken dish ended up perfectly cooked, and made for a delicious meal. The meat was tender and pulled apart quite easily. Our bean dish was also evenly heated and the perfect consistency.

Uniquely among the models we tested, the All-Clad lets you set two temperatures for a given cooking cycle. If your recipe requires you to set your slow cooker on high for a certain number of hours and then switch to the low for the remaining time you can set those two temperatures at the beginning of your program and walk away. With the other slow cookers we used, if you are cooking a meal that requires both the hot and low temperature to be used, you’ll have to manually change the settings — requiring you to be home to make the switch.

Of course no slow cooker is perfect and while the All-Clad 6.5qt Slow Cooker is a top-notch product for slow cooking, at such a high price point, we wish it offered a few more multicooker functions, like browning, sauté, or steaming settings. The buttons and labels on the base were also small and the handle on the lid got incredibly hot during cooking. But, if you have the budget to spare, you won’t be disappointed with this kitchen appliance.

Best budget slow cooker: Hamilton Beach Portable 6-Quart Set & Forget Digital Programmable Slow Cooker ($64.99; amazon.com)

The Hamilton Beach Portable 6-Quart Slow Cooker is one of the best if you are looking to stay on a budget. This programmable slow cooker has three different settings — program, manual and probe — which gives you many options when using the appliance. While the Hamilton Beach took a little longer to get up to temperature than some of the more expensive models we tested, that didn’t impact our test meals, which were perfectly cooked.

Program mode lets you select a time and temperature, while manual mode simply lets you cook on low, high or warm. In probe mode, you can program the slow cooker to cook until a desired temperature is reached — instead of a specific time — and then have the appliance switch to the warm setting. The measurement is made with an attached thermometer, which you place through a small hole on the lid. The temperature is also displayed on the Hamilton Beach’s LCD screen as it cooks. Even if you don’t use the probe cooking mode, the port lets you test the temperature without removing the lid and thus allowing heat to escape.

The Hamilton Beach Portable also has latches that secure the lid, which is sealed with a gasket, making it fully spill-resistant. This makes it easy to transport, whether you are going to a party or tailgating. The side handles are a bit small, but stay cool during the cooking process, which allows you to easily move the slow cooker once you are done cooking.

Other features include interrupt protection where the timer will continue to run so the slow cooker will continue to cook if there is a brief power outage, a one-year warranty and a dishwater safe lid and pot.

The fit and finish isn’t as nice as on our overall pick, but at an extremely reasonable price — and not that much more than a manual slow cooker — the Hamilton Beach Portable 6-Quart is perfect for anyone on a budget who wants a fully functional slow cooker.

A slow cooker lets you cook at low temperatures for long periods of time, so it’s perfect for soups, stews, and similar one-pot meals that don’t need a lot of attention once the initial prep is done. Because the temperatures are low, you can let them sit unattended safely, so they’re great for busy cooks or anybody who wants to get dinner started before they leave for work and have it ready once they get home. The slow cooker is often oval shaped, with a heating element that surrounds a pot, typically made of a ceramic like material.

Simple manual slow cookers have minimal settings — generally just high and low temperature settings, enough to make simple dishes like chili a breeze.  More complex slow cookers can be set to vary temperatures over time, and can brown and saute, pressure cook, steam, crisp, air fry and more. The goal is still the same with all of these, put your food in, spice it up, set the timer and let the magic happen.

While most of the slow cookers you will find have a similar shape (oval), sizes can range from 1.5 quarts to 8 quarts. So if you are a party of 1 or a party of 10, you have options. Additionally if you are more adventurous with your cooking, you may opt for the 3-in-1 functionality, with browning and sauteing, take it one step further and look at the Instant Pot Multi Cookers that steam, pressure cook, brown, saute, sous vide and bake. You also may be particular to the materials with inserts made out of ceramic (the most common), stainless steel or aluminum with non-stick coating.

Regardless of the materials or whether you choose a manual device or something digital and programmable, the goal with slow cookers is to cook your food while you are away. Prep in the morning, come home from work and have a meal ready to go. The name of the appliance says it all, you are cooking the meal slowly.

While it’s always best to truly understand the functions of your particular slow cooker before tossing a bunch of food in and hoping for a delicious meal, there are some things to remember as you use any slow cooker. If you have one with a timer, use the suggested time for whatever it is you are cooking and check to make sure it will automatically flip to a ‘keep warm’ setting if you are not home once it finishes the cooking program or cycle. If it doesn’t have a timer, make sure to set an alarm for yourself so you know when to turn it off or to flip it manually to “keep warm.” And while you’re cooking, don’t open that lid too often to check on the food. Allowing the heat to escape could tack on another 15-20 minutes of cooking time.

What’s the difference between a slow cooker and a Crockpot? Well, calling any slow cooker a Crockpot is like calling a tissue a Kleenex. Crockpot (previously styled as “Crock-Pot”) is a brand name, used for the line of slow cookers sold since the 1970s by Rival, which had bought the device from the inventor Irving Naxon, who had patented the idea in 1940. These days you can find slow cookers from brands like Cuisinart, Instant Pot, Calphalon, Black & Decker, KitchenAid, Hamilton Beach, Breville, and — of course — Crockpot.

To help find the best options for you, we picked out 11 of the most popular and well-reviewed slow cookers, ranging in price from $38 to $250. During our testing, we cooked two different meals — a pulled BBQ chicken dish and black eyed peas — and performed a water test to get a read on the temperature accuracy of each slow cooker.

Water test: During our water test, we filled each slow cooker with 10 cups of water at 67º F. We measured the temperature of the water every hour for a full six hours on the lowest cooking setting. We wanted to make sure that each slow cooker reached an ideal cooking temperature of between 185º F and 200º F. A too-low temperature reading would indicate that the food would be undercooked, while too high of a temperature would overcook the food.

After six hours of cooking, we then adjusted each slow cooker (either automatically or manually, depending on the device) to its warm setting for another four hours. We took the temperature at the 1 hour, 2 hour and 4 hour mark. This shows us whether or not a dish continues to cook on a high temperature — which would lead to overcooked food — or if it truly just keeps the food warm. We also wanted to ensure that the temperature didn’t get below 140º F, since according to the FDA, food left at temperatures lower than 140° F can foster bacterial growth.

Pulled BBQ chicken: In each slow cooker we prepped and cooked the same pulled BBQ chicken dish. We selected chicken for the test since chicken breast can easily dry out if overcooked. We evaluated if the chicken was undercooked, overcooked or just right and whether or not it pulled apart easily.

Black eyed peas: We prepared a black eyed pea dish to see whether the beans would stay fully intact (keep their shape) when cooked until tender, or end up as a bowl full of mush.

After all that cooking, we used the followed criteria to assess each model:

Build and design

Performance

Care and maintenance

Price

Calphalon Digital Saute Slow Cooker ($119.99; amazon.com)

The Calphalon Digital Saute Slow Cooker offers a bit more than just slow cooking capability. While you can’t sear, brown and saute your meat and vegetables directly in the slow cooker — like you can with the Cuisinart 3-in-1 option — the pot is designed to be removed and used on the stove top, a unique option amongst the slow cookers we tested and helps you get maximum flavor while providing ease of use.

Unlike many other slow cookers we tested, the pot has a non-stick ceramic coating, but a potential concern for those that prefer to avoid non-stick material (like all nonstick cookware currently on the market is PTFE- and PFOA-free, though there is no way to guarantee that no other PFAS may be present). The pot is lightweight and easy to clean, but isn’t dishwasher safe and the handles got incredibly hot over the course of the cooking process.

The pot is also circular in shape — whereas the rest are oval — which doesn’t work well if you want to cook a roast or a full chicken. But at a 5.3 qt size with tall sides, this slow cooker will take up the least amount of space on your countertop.

Our main concern with this slow cooker was that during our water test, at the 4-hour mark on the low setting, the water started to simmer and by the 5-hour mark was fully boiling at a 212º F temperature reading. Most slow cookers don’t hit boiling temperature until the 7 to 8 hour mark, which means your dish might be simmering for longer than you’d want with this slow cooker. While this didn’t impact our bean dish, we did find that our chicken dish was dry and not as tender as we would have liked.

Kitchen Aid 6-Quart ($109; amazon.com)

The Kitchen Aid 6-Quart is an incredibly easy to use slow cooker. With minimal buttons, it’s very clear how to turn your slow cooker on and off, while setting the cooking levels and timer. This slow cooker also includes a “medium” setting in addition to a “low” and “high” setting, which is a unique feature. The plug storage under the base also allows the cord to be wrapped underneath for easy storage.

We did find that this slow cooker didn’t get as hot as the rest, which means you might find yourself needing to add slightly more time to your recipes. We did this, adding about 30 minutes to the cooking time for our chicken dish and fifteen minutes for our bean dish to get similar perfectly cooked results as we got with the other cookers.

With this slow cooker you can cook on the low setting for 24 hours — which is the longest time we saw. The warm setting will only automatically stay on for four hours, but during our water test, it did get down to 145º F at the 4-hour mark, and while that’s above the food safety temperature for bacteria growth, we wouldn’t recommend having it stay on the warm setting for any longer.

Crockpot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Programmable Slow Cooker ($69.99; amazon.com)

The programmable crockpot comes with a locking lid — making it perfect to transport out of the house. There’s also a plastic gasket around the lid which means that the top stays in place and keeps liquid from leaking while on the go.

While programming the slow cooker was easy to use, the screen is small and not very clear. The outside also got incredibly hot — one of the hottest ones we tested (along with the manual Crockpot appliance). There’s also no handles on the pot, which makes handling the ceramic piece more difficult.

Cuisinart 6.5 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker (99.95; amazon.com)

The Cuisinart 6.5 Quart Programmable offers an additional simmer option, aside from the basic high, low and warm temperature settings. The interface is easy to use and will keep your food warm for up to 8 hours. This is perfect if you’re cooking in the evening and hoping to wake up to a warm-cooked meal for breakfast.

This slow cooker has a sleek design with a stainless steel housing, chrome plated handles and easy push-button controls. This is also the only slow cooker we tested that offers a retractable cord — ideal for not only aesthetics, but also from a safety perspective. But if you are looking to save some counter space, the full rectangular base made this option much bulkier than the other slow cookers we tested.

Instant Pot Pro 6-Quart 10-in-1 ($129.95; amazon.com)

We really wanted to love the Instant Pot Pro, but despite its wide range of cooking modes the well known pressure cooker  unfortunately fell short as a slow cooker in our testing. All of the bells and whistles didn’t make for as same tasty a meal as we got with other simpler cookers.

When we cooked our chicken dish at a low setting, it had a chewy texture. And even though the chicken had an internal temperature of at least 165º F, we felt like it needed more time to cook. We then prepared the same dish again and cooked it on a high setting, but the chicken was then a little too tough for our liking.

Similar results happened with our bean dish and after cooking for 3 hours on high — the setting we used with all of the other slow-cookers — it didn’t have the same consistency as the rest. It took another full hour to cook properly.

However, if you are a family that avoids PFAS chemicals, the stainless steel pot might make it a good choice over a slow cooker that includes a non-stick coated or ceramic insert.

Breville Fast Slow Pro ($199.95; williams-sonoma.com)

Another pressure cooker we tested was the Breville Fast Slow Pro. With many capabilities — and even 14 preset shortcut programs — you can also use the appliance for many cooking options, including slow cooking. But, if slow cooking is all you are looking for, there might be too many buttons for your liking.

This is actually one of the only slow cookers we tested where we truly had to read the manual before starting. It was not nearly as intuitive as the others, but we were eventually able to get it to cook our prepped food.

Unlike the Instant Pot, however, our chicken came out perfectly cooked on a low setting after the properly allocated time. The chicken pulled apart easily and the beans were cooked just right.

And similar to the Instant Pot, the Breville Pot is also stainless steel, if that’s more preferable.

BLACK+DECKER 7-Quart Slow Cooker ($43.46; amazon.com)

As the first manual slow cooker we tested, we instantly realized the benefits of a programmable cooker. The BLACK+DECKER 7-Quart Slow Cooker lacks a timer, which takes away some of the appeal of using a slow cooker to start a dish in the morning and come home to a perfectly cooked dinner. This slow cooker will not automatically shut off — or switch over to a warming setting — once the time is over. Instead, you need to use your own external timer and then make sure you are home once the timer goes off, or you’ll have to live with the results of cooking continuously on your selected setting until you get home.

Additionally, this slow cooker heated up fast and simmered for the majority of the cooking period during our water test. During all of our tests, the lid was extremely shaky during cooking and loud. The ceramic pot of this slow cooker was also the hardest one of the bunch to wash. The sauce from the chicken we cooked was left on the side and required a lot of soaking and elbow grease for the pot to become fully clean.

Crockpot 7-Quart Slow Cooker, Manual ($39.99; amazon.com)

Crockpot makes many slow cooker products, including a very basic manual version. Similar to the BLACK+DECKER slow cooker we tested, the Crockpot 7-Quart Slow Cooker offers a simple dial with three settings: Low, High and Warm.

With this slow cooker, you have to manually turn the slow cooker off or onto the warm setting if you aren’t eating your meal right away. Like the other manual cooker we tested, it isn’t a “set and forget” device — the cook has to pay attention to get predictable results.

Unless you want the simplest possible device — at an extremely reasonable price-point — that you’ll generally use when you’re around, we recommend spending a little more for a programmable slow cooker. You can get the manual Crockpot in a variety of sizes (a 3-quart, 4-quart, 6-quart, 7-quart and 8-quart versions) and colors.

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