Cooking Appliances review
Instant Pot Duo Plus Review: The Progress Bar Is the Upgrade
Nine functions, four of which you will use. What actually separates it from the cheaper Duo is a display that tells you whether it is preheating, and a valve you do not have to reach over.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Instant Pot
Instant Pot Duo Plus 6 Quart
Good · researched from 5 sources
The version of the Instant Pot worth paying a little more for, and the reasons are unglamorous: you can see what it is doing and you are not reaching across a steam jet to release it. Ignore the nine-in-one marketing and buy it for pressure cooking and sauté.
- Buy if
- Anyone new to pressure cooking who wants feedback from the machine · Families of four to six, which is what the six quart size suits · Meal preppers cooking big batches of meat, beans or stock
- Skip if
- Anyone wanting crisp or browned finishes, which needs an air fryer lid or an oven · Precision sous vide cooking · Small kitchens with nowhere to put a twelve pound appliance
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
The upgrade is boring and worth it
Instant Pot sells these on function count. Nine in one, sterilise, sous vide, yogurt, a list long enough to fill a box.
The two things that actually separate the Duo Plus from the cheaper Duo are not on that list.
The first is a progress display. The standard Duo shows a timer and nothing else, so you cannot tell whether the pot is still coming up to pressure or already cooking. The Duo Plus tells you which phase it is in. On an appliance where the real cooking time is preheat plus cook plus release, and where only the middle number is displayed, that is the difference between planning dinner and guessing.
The second is the steam valve. The Duo needs you to reach over and turn a valve by hand. The Duo Plus has a slider set away from the vent. TechGearLab calls it a huge upgrade for safety and usability, and they scored user friendliness a perfect 10 largely on the strength of these two changes.
What it cooks well
Meat, decisively. TechGearLab had ribs tender enough to slide off the bone in about 23 minutes. Home Critique matched an eight-hour slow-cooked pulled pork in 45.
That compression is the entire reason these appliances took over. A tough cut that needs a whole afternoon becomes a weeknight option.
Beans, stock and stews follow the same logic, and The Home Picker rates the yogurt function as genuinely good, which is unusual for a bonus mode.
What it does not do
Nothing comes out crisp. It cooks with wet heat under pressure, so the only browning available is in the sauté step before you close the lid. Every source says this and none of them treat it as a flaw so much as a category limit.
Rice is acceptable rather than good. TechGearLab found it sticky rather than fluffy.
And sous vide is the weakest thing on the box. The Home Picker measured temperature control within 2 to 3 degrees, which is not precision cooking. It is a warm bath with ambitions.
The two long-term annoyances
The sealing ring absorbs smells. This is universal to the platform and the fix is to own two rings, one for savoury and one for sweet. The Home Picker's rule for replacing a ring is when it smells strongly, looks damaged, goes loose or stops sealing reliably.
Home Critique's longer-term observation is that the keypad wears with use. Worth knowing on an appliance people keep for years.
Cleaning is the weak score
TechGearLab scored ease of cleaning 7.0, their lowest category for it, and the reason is the lid that makes it nice to use. Being attached means it is always there, and it also means it is awkward at the sink.
The pot itself is 18/8 stainless and dishwasher safe, though TechGearLab notes it takes real effort after sautéing, which is the price of the one function that browns anything.
How it scored
The overall 8.2 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Cooking performance
TechGearLab scored cooking 8.0, with ribs tender in about 23 minutes. Home Critique got fork-tender pulled pork in 45 minutes against eight hours in a slow cooker.
Value
TechGearLab scored it 86 out of 100 and called it a fantastic value that outperforms costlier alternatives.
Build quality
An 18/8 stainless inner pot and a 1000W element per Home Critique. Their long-term caveat is that the keypad wears with use.
Ease of use
TechGearLab gave user friendliness a perfect 10, singling out the slider steam valve as a huge upgrade in safety and usability.
Ease of cleaning
TechGearLab scored cleaning 7.0. The attached lid helps in use and hinders at the sink, and the pot needs work after sautéing.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- TechGearLab gave user friendliness a perfect 10 out of 10
- A progress display that shows preheating, cooking and keep warm rather than just a timer
- The Easy-Release slider valve moves your hand away from the steam jet
- Home Critique matched an eight hour slow-cooked pulled pork in 45 minutes
- 18/8 stainless inner pot and lid, both dishwasher safe
What we didn’t
- TechGearLab found rice came out sticky rather than fluffy
- Only high and low pressure, with no medium setting
- The Home Picker found sous vide accurate only to within 2 to 3 degrees
- Nothing it cooks comes out crispy, which all three sources note
- Home Critique reports the keypad wearing over time
- At over 12 pounds it is awkward to store
Specifications
| Capacity | 6 quart |
|---|---|
| Functions | 9 in 1, including pressure cook, slow cook, rice, steam, saute, yogurt, sterilise and sous vide |
| Pressure settings | High and low only |
| Inner pot | 18/8 stainless steel, anti-spin, dishwasher safe |
| Heating element | 1000 W per Home Critique |
| Steam release | Easy-Release slider, positioned away from the vent |
| Display | Progress indicator for preheating, cooking and keep warm |
| Weight | About 12.35 lb per Home Critique |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
5
sources reviewed
TechGearLab supplies the category scores, the rib and rice results and the ranking, and is the only source that scored the machine against a group. Home Critique contributed the build specifications, the pulled pork timing and the long-term keypad observation. The Home Picker contributed the function-by-function assessment and the sous vide accuracy figure. We also read reviews of the standard Duo and of the Duo Plus interchangeably in search results and have cited only sources that clearly identify which model they tested, because the two differ in exactly the ways this review is about.
What we read
Common questions
What is the actual difference between the Instant Pot Duo and the Duo Plus?
How many of the nine functions will I use?
Is it good at rice?
Does the sealing ring hold onto smells?
Can it make anything crispy?
The bottom line on the Instant Pot Duo Plus 6 Quart
The version of the Instant Pot worth paying a little more for, and the reasons are unglamorous: you can see what it is doing and you are not reaching across a steam jet to release it. Ignore the nine-in-one marketing and buy it for pressure cooking and sauté.
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