Credit:
Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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Credit:
Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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This handsome appliance is also multifunctional: In addition to slow cooking, it can brown/sauté, roast, and steam. Read More
This slow cooker has excellent cooking performance, versatility, and good looks. Plus, we love its nonstick surface and lightweight design. Read More
This model isn’t elegant, but it’s programmable and includes a temperature probe. Best of all, it’s excellent at slow cooking without overcooking. Read More
Think of this stainless-steel model as the Rolls Royce of slow cookers. It gives top-notch cooking performance and includes many bells and whistles. Read More
This programmable and very versatile model has a heavy covered enameled cast iron pan rather than a ceramic crock or a metal pot. Read More
When you can't spend much time cooking, a slow cooker is ideal. After some prep work, just toss your ingredients in the cooker, set it, and forget it until dinner.
Slow cookers vary in price pretty drastically, and it may not be clear what spending extra gets you. After months testing different models, we found that the best slow cooker is the Cuisinart 6 Quart 3-In-1 Cook Central Multicooker (available at Amazon) . It aced our performance and ease of use tests, and we loved its versatility.
If you’re looking to spend less, our best value pick is the Hamilton Beach Set and Forget 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker (available at Amazon). If you're willing to splurge, we found that the GreenPan Slow Cooker (available at Willams-Sonoma) is worth the extra dollars.
The Cuisinart 3-in-1 is the best slow cooker we tested.
With functions like reheat, the GreenPan Slow Cooker not only excels at slow cooking but includes several versatile features.
The Hamilton Beach Set and Forget is not only a great price, but it includes a temperature probe to help you cook your food to precisely the right temperature.
Keeps food warm at optimal temperature
Programmable
Nonstick
Can’t be used on stovetop or oven
Cooking vessel is not dishwasher safe
Keeps food warm at optimal temperature
Warm, braise, and sauté settings
Stovetop, oven and dishwasher safe
Very heavy
Keeps food at optimal warm temperature
Programmable
4 slow cook settings
Dishwasher safe
Can undercook some foods
Heavy
Inexpensive
Easy to use
Dishwasher safe
Doesn’t automatically go into keep warm setting
Continues to cook on the warm setting
Heavy
Programmable
Dishwasher safe
Overcooks on the low setting
Heavy
Programmable
Cook to temp mode (with probe), warm, and hold temp settings
Dishwasher safe
Lid clips on for transporting
Overcooks on the low setting
Continues to cook on the warm setting
Heavy
These are the best slow cookers on the market.
Hi, I'm Sharon Franke, and I’ve been testing kitchen equipment for over three decades. Before that, I wielded a knife and rustled pots and pans as a chef in New York City restaurants. When I’m not working, I like nothing better than trying new recipes in my own kitchen.
My experience as both a professional chef and a passionate home cook come into play when I’m evaluating the performance and convenience of pots and pans, appliances, and tools.
Even though I like the intricacies of cooking, there are some days when I crave comfort food without the fuss of preparing it. That’s when I pull out my slow cooker.
In each slow cooker, I cooked three different common slow-cooker dishes: a beef chuck pot roast with lots of vegetables, a spicy ground beef chili, and Indian-style butter chicken using breasts and thighs. I looked for flavorful sauces and tender—but not overcooked—meat and vegetables.
If a cooker had a keep warm setting, I kept the chili warm after cooking for two hours, measuring its temperature every half hour. It needed to stay hot enough for food safety and serving, but not so hot that food kept cooking after it was done.
I considered special features, as well as how easy it was to use the controls and program each model. After using them, I washed each one by hand to see how easy it was to clean and how convenient it was to store.
Some slow cookers include a digital panel to program the appliance.
Unlike multi-cookers, slow cookers are relatively simple. A cooking vessel sits in a base that contains a heating element.
A manual slow cooker will have just three settings—high, low, and warm—and operates with a simple switch. Make sure you’re around when the cooking is done to turn it off, or set it to “keep warm.”
Many slow cookers let you program times and temperatures. When the cooking time is up, they’ll automatically go into a keep-warm mode. Some models have additional features, too, like the ability to brown food, or thermometers that help cook to a specific internal temperature.
Extra features typically come at a higher price, and tend to make the controls less straightforward. However, they can make the cooker more versatile.
Slow cookers often take considerable time to heat up, but once they do, many cook at a high or even boiling temperature. Be careful about which parts you touch once it’s going.
Food that’s cooked in slow cookers can come out extremely tender—to the point where it can be stringy, dry, or mushy.
We’ve found it’s worth paying extra for a model that lets you choose a specific temperature. These models overcook far less often, even when you aren’t using the temperature settings.
While most slow cookers have ceramic cooking vessels or “crocks,” some use nonstick metal inserts. Those are typically easier to lift and maneuver in the sink for washing.
Most slow cooker inserts and lids can be cleaned in the dishwasher, but they are large and will take up a lot of rack space. Be sure to check the product's washing instructions before tossing it in your machine.
Crockpot is a specific brand of slow cooker. Crockpot launched in the 1970s, and helped make slow cookers more popular. Because of their popularity, some people use “Crockpot” as another term for “slow cooker,” regardless of brand. But technically speaking, Crockpot is just one brand of the appliance called a slow cooker.
Sharon Franke
Contributor
Sharon has been testing kitchen equipment for the past 30 years. Before becoming a cooking tools maven, she worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants for seven years.
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