The Best Slow Cookers

Our longtime winner has held up to years of use in the test kitchen, and we recently circled back with more testing to confirm that it’s still up to par. We still recommend it for its well-designed, straightforward control panel with a countdown timer that starts immediately, which made it simple and unambiguous to set and allowed us to monitor progress at a glance. Throughout our testing, the roomy, heavy stoneware crock cooked gently and evenly and never boiled, so food emerged tender and juicy. We loved that its broad, protruding handles with grippy textured undersides usually stayed cool enough that we could pick up the crock without potholders. Thick internal insulation kept heat directed toward the crock, and a built-in internal temperature sensor gave this slow cooker extra “brains” to keep the temperature below boiling, which helped guarantee better results. 

Every dish we made in this slow cooker emerged deeply flavorful and perfectly cooked. Its simple controls made it very easy to set temperature and time and to monitor progress; an attached temperature probe let us know exactly when our food was done. Its temperature climbed very slowly and gradually, cooking foods more gently than other models in our testing. Aside from executing basic slow cooking recipes perfectly, it had some nice extras: The lid offers three silicone-gasketed ports that let us insert the temperature probe at different locations without worrying about losing heat. The probe stores neatly on the handle between uses. Latches and a silicone gasket around the lid create an especially tight seal on the cooker for safe transport. While its actual capacity seems comparatively small, in practice, it easily fit a large pot roast with potatoes and carrots without crowding. Lastly, this cooker offers a bonus: Its “hold temp” feature lets you set a desired temperature and cooking time to use the cooker as a fondue pot, to reheat leftovers, or to make yogurt. Despite its advertising, we don’t recommend this feature for sous vide cooking, since it can’t circulate water to cook food evenly; it also takes three times as long to heat water to your desired temperature as our favorite immersion circulator. One quibble: This cooker was very easy to clean, but we discovered that painted labels partly wore off two control buttons; this did not affect performance. 

We loved the lightweight, nonstick metal crock and stay-cool plastic handles that made this model so easy to maneuver and clean. The long, rectangular crock sits directly over a built-in hotplate, so this model tends to run a little hotter and cooks foods faster than traditional ceramic slow cookers. We suggest checking recipes early for doneness. It cooked evenly in every test and has built-in temperature sensors that prevent the contents from boiling. Its brown/sauté function eliminates the need for a separate skillet, and its steam function and included metal rack let you use it as a steamer. A few testers found setting this cooker a little confusing due to its slightly busy control panel. That said, it’s a solid performer that yielded excellent cooking results and is a great choice if you hate to lift heavy crocks or worry about breakage.

We loved the clean look of this slow cooker, its stay-cool exterior, and its lightweight, ceramic–nonstick coated metal crock. We liked being able to sauté in the cooker without using a separate skillet, but its slow-cooking results were uneven. Our first pot roast emerged shriveled, with a rubbery rather than fork-tender texture; the sauce was greasy and broken and the meat was dry. Additional cooking didn’t help the meat tenderize. Chicken Tikka Masala was acceptable, though compared to the same dish made in a higher-rated cooker, its flavors seemed less fresh and bright, and the chicken was a bit overcooked. Our temperature testing showed that this model heated rapidly and climbed steeply on both low and high settings and then leveled off below boiling. Since sautéing in the cooker meant that it started out warm, this could have accelerated its cooking times. So we made another complete pot roast with vegetables, which cooks on high for 6 to 7 hours, checking the meat for tenderness one hour early (after 5 hours and again at 6 hours) and got more acceptable results, though the meat remained a bit chewier than ideal. 

Large and inexpensive with a big, heavy pot, this uninsulated manual cooker cooked unevenly, which was especially noticeable with chicken breasts but also with pot roast and turkey. While it’s easy to set, it’s not that convenient to use: It has no countdown display, so you can’t monitor progress unless you set a separate timer, and it can’t automatically switch to warming mode after cooking is done—you have to return to turn it down or switch it off.

Like the Cuisinart, this model has a thin, long, rectangular metal crock and cooks fast but evenly. It has both a built-in hot plate and a belt-like heating element for different cooking functions. While the cooker was easy to set, its controls are a little complicated because of its multiple functions (steam, roast, slow-cook, etc.). We disliked that its slick, bare metal handles get very hot, and while its brown/sauté function works, it’s noticeably slower at browning food than the Cuisinart, probably due to its lower wattage. (Note: We did not test the “steam-baking” or “steam-infused roasting” functions.)

The metal crock on this cooker gets very hot, so cooking runs slightly fast, though it cooked evenly. The crock can be used on the stovetop for browning and searing before placing it in the cooker to slow-cook. However, we had quibbles with the design: Its metal handles became quite hot; the slick ceramic coating still felt greasy after repeated hand washing, but the dishwasher is not recommended; and the thin lip of the crock meant that its lid sometimes slipped into the pot when jostled. Some testers found the controls confusing.

We loved the lid latch and rubber gasket that prevent spills if you take this pot to a party, and we loved the simple controls and low price. Its food was cooked acceptably, although its temperature climbed to boiling (or barely below) on both high and low settings. But this model lost major points because we couldn’t set odd-numbered cooking times as called for in many recipes. Our only choices were 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 hours, and there was no countdown timer (instead, lights next to the numbers extinguish as the cooking time decreased, giving a rough approximation of progress).

This cooker is very slow. Its wattage is comparatively weak (250 watts), and its housing contains insulation, which is an advantage for helping prevent hot spots but made this slow cooker downright poky. Food was generally good, with the exception of pot roast—it didn’t become fully tender within the recipe time frame. The wifi-enabled functioning was more annoying than awesome. We had to fire up an app to do anything beyond simply turning on the cooker and selecting a temperature setting. With no countdown display, we couldn’t check progress at a glance. The app itself was jumpy and often left us guessing whether we’d inadvertently turned the pot off from afar. We’d strongly prefer to have full controls on the cooker and not just via the app.

This cooker was very simple: On high, it simply got hotter until it hit boiling; on low, it climbed steadily. While its food was not inedible, it emerged unevenly cooked in each of our cooking tests: The outermost chicken breasts were overdone before the center ones were ready, and the pot roast was a little dry in spots and not yet tender in others. Small handles on the heavy stoneware crock were set too close to the hot collar of the metal casing.