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See why.The Best Stovetop Pressure Cookers
The convenience, ease, and (yes!) safety of the modern pressure cooker will put dinner on the table fast—and make it taste as if you spent the whole day at the stove.
By Updated Sept. 1, 2022Our former Best Buy stovetop pressure cooker, the Fagor Duo, was discontinued when the Spanish manufacturer went out of business. However, the U.S. branch became a separate company called Zavor and is producing the same cooker, calling it the Zavor Duo 8.4 Quart Pressure Cooker. We purchased it and put it through its paces, using all the same tests. The new pot has minor improvements: The settings, handle lock, maximum fill line, and the spot where you align lid and pot to seal the cooker are all more clearly marked. Its cooking surface is slightly narrower and it didn’t reach as high a temperature as the previous model, however, we had no difficulty browning food or cooking. The rebranded model by Zavor is our new Best Buy. We recommend following the manual’s instruction to put vegetable oil on the gasket to make it easier to get a tight seal under pressure and to help the lid slide smoothly.
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
Pressure cookers can be intimidating. Before I began testing them, I had heard countless stories about exploding cookers—usually ones belonging to someone’s grandmother. This made the whole enterprise seem mysterious and dangerous, or at least very messy. But after spending weeks testing 12 models of pressure cookers, I can report that they are as safe as any other cookware—and definitely worth getting to know. Pressure cookers are surprisingly simple to use and in less than an hour can produce food that tastes as if you spent all day over the stove. You don’t have to tell a soul that your savory, fork-tender pot roast, pulled pork, short ribs, or stew cooked in record time—and most of that time was hands-off. Dried beans are creamy and tender after just 10 minutes under pressure. Risotto needs just 6 minutes under pressure to reach the perfect consistency. Recipes once saved for weekends, or the slow cooker, can be started when you get home from work.
Pressure cookers function based on a very simple principle: In a tightly sealed pot, the boiling point of liquid is higher. As the pot heats up, pressure begins to build. This pressure makes it more difficult for water molecules to turn to vapor—therefore raising the boiling point from 212 to 250 degrees. Why does this matter? The steam generated in the cooker, which can be at temperatures up to 38 degrees higher than what's possible in a normal pot, makes food cook faster. And because the pot stays closed, cooking requires much less liquid than usual, and flavors concentrate. As a bonus, this method also uses less energy: Once pressure is reached, you cook with the heat turned down as low as possible, and cooking times are short.
Pressure cookers have been around for a long time. In 1679, French mathematician and physicist Denis Papin invented the “steam digester,” the earliest-known pressure cooker; still, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century that smaller pressure cookers were introduced for home cooks. After World War II, demand boomed for pressure cookers, and some accounts note that unscrupulous manufacturers made shoddy cookers that were prone to explosions. Older cookers had “jiggle tops” that rattled and puffed while they cooked. Today’s models use spring-loaded valves, which are silent and vent mere wisps of steam when pressurized. In other words, today’s pressure cookers are quieter and simpler and have many more safety features than your grandmother’s cooker did.
Across-the-board improvements over the years didn’t necessarily mean that all models would work equally well, and we wondered what characteristics to look for in a good pressure cooker. They...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Cooking: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 3 stars out of 3.
Solidly constructed, with a low, wide profile that made browning food easy, this well-engineered cooker has an automatic lock and an easy-to-monitor pressure valve. The only cooker to reach 250 degrees at high pressure, it cooked food to perfection in the time range suggested by the recipes. Update, November 2018: Purchasers of our winning pressure cooker, the Fissler Vitaquick 8½-Quart Pressure Cooker, cited a valve issue that prevented the cooker from pressurizing. In most cases, this is not a defect, but due to not putting the pressure cooker on the highest heat setting at the start of cooking (once the cooker is pressurized the heat can be turned down). The Fissler remains our top pick for stovetop pressure cookers and still receives our top recommendation.
Recommended
- Cooking: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 3 stars out of 3.
Performing like our winner at a fraction of the price, this cooker has a fairly broad cooking surface, and its pressure indicator was easy to monitor. It cooked quietly and held pressure steadily without making us fiddle with the stove. Despite falling short of the 250°F target for high pressure, it cooked beef stew, pork ragu, risotto, and other dishes well and within recipe times. Its simple design made it easy to use and clean.
- Cooking: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 3 stars out of 3.
The lowest-priced cooker in our lineup, this flimsier model has a hard-to-monitor recessed pressure indicator and bulging sides that encourage scorching. Still, its low, wide profile was good for browning and stirring; it cooked meats and beans well. This model has no low-pressure setting, the usual temperature for cooking grains.
Recommended with reservations
- Cooking: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 1 stars out of 3.
This cooker’s small disk bottom caused scorching and forced us to keep flames low, delaying reaching pressure. It is deeper and narrower than we prefer. The pressure indicator was easy to monitor, though the pressure often dipped, forcing us to hover to adjust the temperature. That said, this model produced tender beans and stew.
Not Recommended
- Cooking: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 2 stars out of 3.
With a tall, moderately narrow pot that overhangs its even narrower disk bottom and a hard-to-interpret, recessed pressure indicator, this model created extra work. Its valves made odd noises; it sometimes struggled to retain pressure and took longer than other cookers to make tender beef stew and beans.
- Cooking: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 0.5 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 2.5 stars out of 3.
While solidly built, this cooker had a tall, narrow shape that made more work, as did its fussy extra valve. One sample stopped working properly halfway through testing. While the food wasn’t bad, it was not worth the effort. For the price, this cooker should be perfect.
DISCONTINUED
- Cooking: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 2 stars out of 3.
A narrower cooking surface forced us to brown meat in more batches, but the red pressure indicator was simple to monitor and its controls are straightforward. The cooker didn’t reach 250 degrees, so we wound up with slightly too-firm beans, beef, and risotto at the end of the cooking time.
- Cooking: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Evaporation Loss: 2.5 stars out of 3.
While this pot’s design was light and maneuverable, with a low, wide shape, its 6-quart capacity (the biggest size available) was a drawback. Bulging sides hang over the disk bottom, leading to scorching. Beans and beef weren’t properly tender at the end of the cooking time.
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing.
Lisa McManus
Lisa is an executive editor for ATK Reviews, cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube, and gadget expert on TV's America's Test Kitchen.
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