Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2020
I promised myself if I invested in this instant pot that I couldn't get my hopes up about the wifi option because most all the reviews say that it doesn't work. We are currently a family of 4, living in a 5th wheel on our property as we are building the first shipping container in our small North Florida town. I figured the worst that would happen is I invested about $20 to much for a special feature that ended up not working as everyone says. Well, I am here to tell you those reviews are dead wrong. I won't lie, I have 2 special needs kids, one is 15 and one is 10 and both eat like a dog ravished with hookworms. I also am not tech-savvy at all but remained hopeful that between the hubbin and I, we could manage to figure out the wifi thing and I would no longer have to miss any school functions or the hubbin would no longer have to miss school functions as we are not very eager to ever leave any kitchen appliance or our dryer on when we leave our house. I am also a penny pincher and there is no way I was going to pay double for a smart wifi slow cooker when I already have 2 slow cookers that do the samething they just aren't wifi compatible. So I told myself not to get my hopes up because of all the negative reviews on Amazon that say the wifi doesn't work. I will not lie, the day I got this instant pot delivered to me, I was able to get it unpacked out of the box, washed every piece the instructions told me to, and then I had to dash out the door to go get my 10yo from school and take my 15yo to her weight lifting practice after school. On top of weight lifting 4 days a week, on Fridays she marches in the ROTC program at all the football games whether they are home or away games. So either I or the hubbin was having to sit at home and miss her performances and miss supporting their high school football team because one of us had to ensure the slow cooker didn't burn our house down. So I was intrigued the moment I saw smart wifi instant pot. I was initially worried 6 quarts wouldn't be enough for our family of 4 as my daughter has to be on a strict high protein diet for weight lifting and to meet her target weight gain required to be able to join the air force as soon as she graduates high school. My son and hubbin along with my daughter all have a very high metabolism so they eat like dogs ravished with hookworms but never gain an ounce of weight. So I figured the worst-case scenario I would end up having to make double batches of dinner so they could all have their 2nd helpings most nights and then after I save up enough money after the holidays I would have to invest in another smart wifi instant pot and run them both at the same time. I have only run into not having enough for seconds on the nights that the inlaws surprise us with a visit and they end up eating dinner with us. This is not that big of a deal the kids just wait until after they leave and then we will all having something like a bagel or bowl of cereal before we go to bed. lol. At this point, we are very happy with our instant pot smart wifi because we can monitor the instant pot from our mobile phones and we no longer have to take turns missing out on our kid's after-school functions. It did take us a few tries to figure out how to connect it but again, I think that is a normal thing when you are not tech-savvy. Once it is connected so long as you leave it connected to the same wifi, you can then unplug it, store it under a cabinet or in the panty, and then when you plug it back in you can simply open the smart wifi instant pot app and it automatically reconnects itself. So please don't let these 2-year-old, non-patient, and non-tech-savvy reviews detour you from buying this awesome instant pot especially if you are an on the go mom. The biggest mistake I made thus far is sending my daughter to school with her special high protein egg bites to have to boost her energy levels before weight lifting and to help her build muscle. Her coach asked her what she was eating and her response was, "I have no clue what they are called. My mom has this mold thing that goes in her instant pot, she dices up fresh spinach, fresh tomatoes, fresh kale, and parsley, mixes it all with the eggs and a little milk, then pours it in the mold and 10 minutes later we are greeted with these delicious egg bites." She offered to let her coach try one and he absolutely loved them so much that I am now given the responsibility of making enough egg bites for their whole team 4 days a week. Of course, I switch it up with different veggies, meats, and fresh seasonings like cilantro and kale but it doesn't matter what I have put in them, they always devour them. The other mistake is my kids have always loved just being able to go in the fridge, grab an egg, peel it, and add a little sea salt and eat hard-boiled eggs like they are ice cream or something. lol. So between the weight lifting team and their infatuation at home with hard-boiled eggs, and me cooking egg bites on the weekends for breakfast we can easily go through about 3-4 of the 2 1/2 dozen box of eggs you can buy at Walmart. I am half tempted to just get my own chickens but I don't want to be feeding animals that can't possibly produce enough eggs every week unless I had hundreds of chickens and I don't have time to be adding any more keeping humans or animals alive in our busy household. lol. On a side note, as we have gotten more comfortable and familiar with our instant pot, we did finally cave and bought one of those accessory kits that come with a double egg steamer, vegging small and deep strainer, reusable cupcake and cake dish things, and lots of other handy little tools to make using the instant pot easier on us. Our next investment will be the air fryer lid for the instant pot and once school lets out for the summer, my daughter and I want to get back into our canning, and buying another instant pot with the canning feature will make our lives that much easier. What I didn't know when I originally started looking into buying an instant pot, that I would be using the sanitize feature the most to sanitize my kid's sports bottles/cups, if they don't get anything on their facemasks, I simply drop in the steamer rack that came with my instant pot, and steam sanitize their masks every day. If they do happen to get food or yucky sweat on them and/or dirt on them I then wash them in the washer separate from our clothes with tide bleach safe for colors, then instead of putting them in the dryer and causing the eleastics even more stress and harm, I put their masks on the rack and steam/sanitize them dry. The only down fall to the instant pot that we have discovered is if you use things like fresh garlic cloves, garlic powders, onions, fish, etc those smells tend to set into the rubber seal and it makes it smell like a middle school's boys locker room. lol. So I highly recommend buying extra rubber seals, in different colors, then write down on a piece of paper what foods were used with that color seal and only use those foods with those seals. Like I have a seal separate for fish/seafood because the only seafood I eat is shrimp, lobster, and crab. I do not do fish at all and I will projectile vomit on you if I get even a whiff of that fish smell. As for the other 3 seals I have, I have one strictly for when I use fresh seasonings like garlic cloves and so forth and once I am done cooking those, I immediately removed the seal and soak it in one part vinegar and one part water. I have another seal for strictly raw meats and foods that could make you very ill if you eat it and it's not been brought to a safe temperature,. Another seal I use strictly for baking and pastries only, and the last one is strictly for use with my egg bites and boiled eggs. I also recommend you indulge in the accessories as they can open an entirely new world of cooking with your instant pot and lastly, I highly recommend you buy extra grabber mits. In our case, we did not and it turns out puppies absolutely love the silicone grabber mits that come with the instant pot. lol. I apologize for the long review but, I wanted to give my honest and rightful opinion in the hopes I help a future newbie make the right purchase of an instant pot for their family. God bless, and here's to cooking with all our love, for our families, through our instant pots. Not going to lie, this instant pot has truly been a very big time occupant through this horrific pandemic our country is going through and it has really brought our family closer as we experimented with recipes from the instant pot recipe app, instant pot google recipes, and the funniest of all our nailed it pintrest failures and achievements. lol
