10 Best Slow Cookers (Review) In 2021

It’s not often in these lists that we have such a clear winner to be our Best Choice product. The Instant Pot DUO60 Pressure Cooker is one of the best slow cookers ever made. It has over 37,000 positive reviews on Amazon, it’s the best selling product in the category, and it regularly tops lists like this one. Put simply, it’s the best.

One of the main reasons it’s so popular is the easy-to-use interface on the front of the cooker. Choose from options like meat stew, poultry, and bean chili, and the Instant Pot DUO60 will do the work for you. It can also be used as a rice cooker, steamer, saute, yogurt maker, and warmer. If you want solid results every time and a slow cooker that’s super easy to understand, this one is still the best. For more useful kitchen appliances, check out our guide to the best Dutch ovens.

This Crock-Pot Manual Slow Cooker is one of the cheapest products on this list. You can see from a quick glance that it doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of features as the Instant Pot or other brands. In fact, it has just 1 dial with the options: off, low, high, & warm. That’s it. There’s no presets, no timer, no app with thousands of recipes.

But don’t let that put you off. The Crock-Pot’s simplicity is its greatest asset. If you want to cook something up quickly, set it to high. If you want to leave it all day, while you’re at work, set it to low. You can’t get it wrong. It’s also more portable than other models. Unplug the power supply and you can take it round to a friend’s house. You can even buy an insulated carrying case to keep your food extra warm. Our guide to the best sous vides features more quality kitchen tools, so take a moment to check them out.

This slow cooker from Hamilton Beach is basically a slightly more advanced version of the Crock-Pot. The main advancement is the addition of a programmable timer. You can choose the desired temperature of the food, set a cooking time, and program it to keep the food warm when it has finished cooking.

The other excellent feature of Hamilton Beach Portable Programmable Slow Cooker is the integrated temperature probe. It’s attached to the slow cooker itself and displays the temperature inside the food on the LCD screen on the front. That means you can cook meat precisely without worrying if it’s undercooked. It’s not quite as simple as the Crock-Pot, but for less than an extra $10, you get a whole host of extra features. If you want a bit more versatility out of your slow cooker, this is one of the best budget options. To be able to extend the shelf life of food and keep it fresh for longer, check out our guide to the best vacuum sealers and pick your favorite.

We’ve included the Elite Gourmet MST-250 XS Electric Slow Cooker mainly because of its price. Amazingly, it costs less than $20, which is outrageously cheap for any kitchen appliance. The reason it’s so cheap is that it’s tiny. At 1.5 quartz, this is the smaller slow cooker on this list. It’s big enough to make a meal for 2 people. But that’s it. Some Amazon customers have bought it to use alongside a larger slow cooker. It’s great for soups, stew, dips, rice pudding, and more.

It has a similar control knob to the Crock-Pot, so there’s no option to set a timer and leave it going. Because of that, it’s not really suited to cooking meat because it’s hard to be accurate with it. To be able to make healthy snacks at home, check out our reviews of the best food dehydrators and find the right one got your kitchen.

There are two reasons people love slow cooking food – it tastes great and it’s super easy. The KitchenAid KSC6223SS delivers both of these things perfectly. The thing we love most about this slow cooker is the user interface. You get a choice of 4 temperatures – low, medium, high, & keep warm. And, you can set the timer in 30-minute increments. So, when you head out for work in the morning, you can set it to cook for 6 hours on low (or however long your dish is going to take) and it will stop cooking automatically. It’ll even switch over to the warm setting in case you’re let getting back.

The other great benefit of the KitchenAid KSC6223SS is the way it looks. It has a sleek, metallic finish that takes its inspiration from old serving pots in fine restaurants. If you want a slow cooker that’s going to add to the aesthetic of your kitchen, this kitchen essential is one of the best looking.

The All-Clad SD700450 Slow Cooker is very similar to the Kitchenaid slow cooker. It has a choice of 4 temperature settings, a programmable timer, and will automatically switch to warm mode when the timer is up. There’s not much between them – they look pretty similar and operate just as effectively as each other.

The main reason people choose the All-Clad SD700450 over other slow cookers is the quality of the construction. From the stainless-steel metal handles to the heavy ceramic pot, everything feels like it’s been made to the highest quality. Even the control buttons are housed in a stainless-steel box to make them fit into the overall design. The other main benefit is the ability to leave it on for 20 hours on the slow setting. If you add the 4 hours of warming time afterward, you can leave this pot for a whole day without worrying about it. Be sure to check out our guide to the best indoor grills, pick the one you like and make delicious meals for you and your family in the comfort of your home.

Cuisinart makes some of the best kitchen appliances on the market. This slow cooker is up there with the best and it’s cheaper than most too. It has a 6.5-quart capacity, which is plenty of space to feed 4-6 people comfortably. On the front of the cooker, there’s an old-school button pad and an LCD screen. This has the standard options we’ve seen in most of the slow cookers on this list – low, high, warm, etc. However, we’d say this one is even easier to use. You can throw the instructions straight in the trash, it’s intuitive enough that you won’t need them.

The other cool thing about the Cuisinart PSC-650 is that it comes with a cooking rack and a recipe book full of the best slow cooker recipes. For more quality products for your kitchen, check out our guide to the best waffle makers.

The Crock-Pot SCCPWM600-V2 is the slow cooker of the 21st Century. The slow cookers we’ve featured so far are all fantastic, but they don’t take full advantage of modern technology. With this ultra-modern slow cooker, you can schedule cooking, monitor the cooker, modify the settings, and get notifications when your meal is ready, all from your smartphone.

Just download the WeMo app, and you can completely control this slow cooker remotely. This gives busy people complete control of their home-cooking, from wherever they are. If you get stuck late at work, turn the temperature down and let your food cook slower. If you want your meal earlier than expected, turn the temperature up. You can even send notifications to your friends and family and let them know what time dinner is served. Plus, you can control the cooker manually, which gives you true versatility. For outdoor cooking in summer, check out our guide to the best pellet grills. 

Black and Decker are better known for making power tools than kitchen appliances. But don’t let that put you off. This slow cooker is one of the most innovative on this list and it beats most of its competitors on price. The control panel is pretty standard – it has 3 heat settings, a programmable timer, and a small LCD screen to tell you when your food will be cooked.

Our favorite feature on BLACK+DECKER SCD4007 7-Quart Digital Slow Cooker is the chalkboard surface. You can get creative and write recipes, make notes of allergy concerns, or just doodle anywhere on the slow cooker. If you’re an artist, you can turn this boring-looking slow cooker into a bright and colorful kitchen feature. Now we’ve seen this, we think every kitchen appliance should be made of a chalkboard. This cooker also makes a nice Christmas gift for any cooking enthusiast in your life.

We’ve already featured a Crockpot slow-cooker that looks remarkably similar to this one. It was second in our list and we think it’s one of the best budgets slow cookers on the market today. So, why are we featuring this one as well? That’s easy. Crockpot SCCPVS600ECP-S  is basically the same slow cooker under the hood, except this one has a built-in timer and a 4-prong secure-lid locking system.

Basically, if you want to buy a Crock-Pot slow cooker (and you should, they’re one of the best-loved brands on the market) this one gives you more versatility and security. It provides just as good results, but it’s a little more accurate. We think it’s comparable to the more expensive slow cookers like the Kitchenaid KSC6223SS and the All-Clad SD700450. It might not look as pretty, but the results are just as good. And, just like the first Crockpot we featured, it’s easy to take around to a friend’s house. There’s no need for extra dishes – when it’s finished, just unplug it and take it around.