Hamilton Beach® Slow Cookers take the convenience of slow-cooked dishes a giant step further. Several models of slow cookers, such as the Stay or Go® Slow Cooker, address one of your greatest concerns—getting your finished dish to a potluck or party without messy spills. The Highland 3.5 Quart (3.3L) Slow Cooker in stainless steel is an affordable and ideal way to cook food that requires long and slow simmering. Simply put in all the ingredients, select the right setting, and the cooker will do the work for you!
One end of the probe plugs into the cooker and the other sticks through a single hole in the lid so that you can insert it into a roast. In our tests, the probe slid easily into our 3-pound chuck roast, but it may be too short to reach smaller pieces of meat. Many have locking lids and built-in handles for easy transport. There are even s that feature car adapters for power for when you’re camping or eating on the go. For help choosing the right Hamilton Beach slow cooker, see our Small Appliance Buying Guide.
The Temp Tracker also has a ceramic crock, just like our top pick. This model offers a dial to select heat settings, temperatures, and program times, plus buttons to cancel a cycle and to select either the keep-warm or hold-temp option. The backlit digital panel brightens when you’re programming the machine, and it displays remaining cooking times and temperatures throughout the cooking cycle. The keep-warm and hold-temp buttons light up accordingly when the machine kicks over to either setting. Like our pick, the Temp Tracker comes with a one-year warranty. Since owner reviews often claim that slow cookers either cook too hot on low settings or don’t heat up fast enough, we tested how well the cookers could reach and maintain temperatures.
A small Hamilton Beach slow cooker is an apartment essential for young adults or people who are cooking for one. If you need to feed a lot of people or plan to host a potluck, a Hamilton Beach slow cooker with multiple vessels is a great option for preparing different dishes at the same time. Enjoy 9-in-1 cooking flexibility with the Hamilton Beach 9-in-1 Multi-Cooker.
We’ve read some complaints that slow cook settings on pressure cookers like Instant Pots can get dicey, but we didn’t notice any red flags in our tests. A slow cooker is still more affordable and easier to use, but if you have room for only one appliance, an electric pressure cooker is the way to go. We eliminated six models based on their hamilton beach slow cooker poor cooking performance and lack of features. For the final three models, we cooked a classic pot roast with a 3-pound chuck roast and vegetables on the high setting for five hours. Again, we checked the meat’s internal temperature every hour. We sliced and tasted the roasts to see how tender they were (we had to, for science).
After dinner, they’re easy to clean, too, with nonstick inner pots you can put straight into the dishwasher. For all of its additional features, the Set & Forget was still one of the most affordable models we tested, and it beat out more expensive cookers in performance. A stovetop-safe pot allows you to brown meat before slow-cooking. Designed for maximum versatility and convenience, each Hamilton Beach® multi-cooker features a unique set of functions geared towards satisfying all types of home chefs. Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice.
Later on, you’ll come home to a perfectly cooked meal that’s ready to serve. Note that all of the cookers we tested emitted a rubbery, burning-like smell when we first used them. The odor is typical of appliances with heating elements and comes from a coating applied to protect the elements from corrosion while the machine is shipped and stored. The handles on the Set & Forget’s crock are small, and they aren’t as easy to grab as the Temp Tracker’s (our also-great pick) because of their position at the long end of the oval crock.
The Hamilton Beach Set & Forget 6 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker has been our top pick since 2013. A common complaint among owners of slow cookers is that they cook foods too hot, but in our tests the Set & Forget successfully simmered beans on a low setting without boiling them and turning them to mush. And even on a high setting, it was able to cook at moderate enough temperatures to produce a fall-apart tender roast. Its intuitive interface, probe thermometer, locking lid, and modest price make it the best cooker of the models we tested.
If you need to cook it, we’ll give you the versatility to make it! The West Bend Versatility Cooker is your “go-to” tool for easy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. With one appliance you get a slow cooker, oven-ready roaster, stovetop pot, and electric griddle. Plus, the lid and cooking pot are dishwasher-safe so cleanup is a breeze. With Tender Crisp Technology, you can achieve all the quick cooking and tenderizing wonders that you love about pressure cookers.
We also chatted with Marianne Gravely, a senior technical information specialist at the USDA, to learn about slow cooker food safety. Since 2013, we’ve examined more than 70 top-rated models and tested a short list of finalists to find the best. If you’re like most people, an occasional last-minute party will pop up. Don’t worry, Hamilton Beach® Programmable Slow Cookers can easily adapt. You simply add ingredients in the morning and let the slow cooker finish the cooking automatically.