ReviewedByPhil

Buy it at Amazon: Bestek 6 Qt Electric Pressure Cooker [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Cooks fast, easy to use, versatile for lots of recipes; easy to clean.

The electric pressure cooker has a nice stainless steel exterior and glossy black plastic base, handles, and upper lid. This cooker has a capacity of 6 qts and measures 14" tall with an 11" diameter. It comes with a steamer rack, 4 ft power cord, plastic ladle, rice scooper, and measuring cup. You'll also receive an instruction manual and recipe book.

On the bottom of the lid is a removable silicone seal gasket which makes it easy to clean. The inside bowl simply lifts out and has measurement lines for cooking rice and for the capacity of the bowl up to 4/5 full. The inside of the cooker has the heating element on the bottom and a non-stick coating on the inner surface that cleans up fast with a simple wipe down. On the outside on the front bottom right is a holder for the rice scooper. The manual is readable, but isn't the best English translation. However, the functions are by and large self-explanatory. There are presets like soup, porridge, bean/tendon, cake, rice, multigrain, tenderloin/mutton, and chicken/duck. There's also a Nutritious Cooking button which allows you to select from 4 presets: Stew Desserts, Steamed Egg, Steamed Spareribs, and Steamed Fish which seem a bit unnecessarily specific. The 'Preset Time' button allows you to delay the start of cooking up to 24 hours in 5 minute increments ('-' adds hours and '+' adds 5 minutes). The pressure holding time it the amount of time you want your food under pressure, adjustable in 1 minute increments. Selected pressure allows you to switch between low/high pressure at 30kPa to 80kPa. There's also a keep warm mode but it has a max time of 2 hours after which it shuts off automatically.

With any preset you can change the default values by using the other setting keys to customize the function for your recipe. Making rice in it is fast and simple, though the water recommendation lines tend to result in very wet, soft rice so I generally use about 1/2 cup less water for white rice. I also tried making the beef stew in the recipe book. The book recipes are full of typos and small mistakes like missing words and misspellings, but the ingredients list and steps are generally follow-able, even if the photos aren't always representative of the recipe listed next to it.

So far I've made beef stew, steamed chocolate cake, hard boiled eggs, rice, mashed potatoes, and chili in the pressure cooker and they all came out pretty tasty. Overall, the pressure cooker is pretty versatile in what you can make in it, and it's simple and straightforward to use. It's also cleans up easily, and I haven't had a problem with anything burning or sticking to the stainless steel pot. So far, I haven't been disappointed with anything I've cooked in it.

Buy it at Amazon: Bestek 6 Qt Electric Pressure Cooker [Affiliate Link]

Buy it at Amazon: Blusmart CR-26A Electric Pressure Cooker [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Fast and convenient; makes delicious food but no included recipes, could use better instructions.

After owning a stovetop pressure cooker for many years, I have to say there are few occasions now where I would use that over an electric one. The electric ones are more convenient, heat up faster, and don't need constant monitoring. This Blusmart electric pressure cooker has a capacity of 6 qts and measures 15" tall with a 11" diameter. All the accessories are inside when you receive the unit: 4 ft power cord, rice scooper, measuring cup, condensation cup, and instruction manual. The inner bowl and bowl chamber both have non-stick coatings on them for ease of cleaning. On the bottom of the lid is a removable gasket and debris filter, though you have to pull pretty hard on the silicone handle to extract it. The bowl also has measurement lines for the capacity of the unit and water measurement lines for cooking rice.

The manual is readable, but isn't a great English translation. It doesn't explain well what the differences between the modes are or how to use them as there are no recipes included with the unit. You've got presets like rice, cake, chicken, fried foods, and soup. Then the 'manual cook' button allows you to set a delayed start time from 30 mins to 24 hours in 30 min increments. The red key is the power/cancel and keep warm key, and there are up and down keys for time adjustments in 1 minute increments. When you press any of the presets, it'll just input set values for the cooking time under pressure. With any preset, you can increase or decrease the time under pressure and the unit automatically switches to keep warm when the timer runs out.

So far in the pressure cooker I've made rice, chicken stew, beans, steamed veggies, hard boiled eggs, zucchini bread, quick preserves/jam, corn on the cob, and boiled pot stickers (which I later air fried). The unit takes about 5-10 minutes to pre-heat and pressurize, depending on the amount of food you put in, before the timer counts down, so expect a 5 minute setting for 1 cup of rice to actually take about 15 minutes. The one thing that kept throwing me off at first is that the pressure valve isn't marked as to which direction is seal and which direction is release (counter-clockwise is seal). I also recently found out the square tab that sticks out of the stick of the lid is so you can store/stand it upright in the handle on the side of the pit. That's clever, but again, not explained in the manual. There's no recipe book included so I'm kind making up recipes as I go.

The things that really impressed me was the cake function. I didn't actually think it would bake a decent cake, but my zucchini bread came out wonderfully moist, evenly cooked, and fluffy. It also released cleanly from the bowl and wasn't burned at all on the bottom. I liked that I didn't have to fire up the big oven and that it took half the time to finish cooking than in the oven. I was also able to make quick fruit preserves/jam by adding chopped fruit, lemon juice, and sugar with a splash of water and putting it under pressure with the release valve open for 20 minutes. This eliminated the hours of standing in front of the stove stirring and reducing jam and it came out wonderful and slightly caramelized.

Overall, the functionality of the pressure cooker is very well done. The construction is solid and durable. It's easy to use and saves me time versus traditional cooking and baking. It's also cleans up easily. My main complaint is that there weren't any recipes included and the different settings aren't explained well. Like for 'fried' am I supposed to use oil and deep fry under pressure? Should I use the gasket or not and should the valve be open or closed in this setting? It's unclear and the instructions weren't too helpful in that respect. A bit of clarification would help me fully utilize the device's potential, which currently I don't feel like I have enough information to do. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with it and plan to use it a lot more and experiment with different recipes.

Buy it at Amazon: Blusmart CR-26A Electric Pressure Cooker [Affiliate Link]