You might want to check out the smaller roaster ovens. You will find a lot of great advice on them and slow cookers over on the Cooking forum.

I really like my All-Clad crock pot. It stays nice and cool on the outside and does a great job of cooking. It was expensive, and I agonized whether or not it was worth the money, but I have been very happy with it.

People are suggesting get an old orange or avocado colored Rival or Hamilton Beech from a thrift shop. Do we have any participants here old enough to remember these appliances?

I've been very unhappy with a new Rival crockpot--as you will see if you read up on the newer pots, they cook at much higher temperatures, which I've tested and found true. The new crockpot reaches boiling point in about 2 hours or so on high and maybe an hour or so later on low, and keeps the food at a full boil for the remainder of the time. I mean, you can just see it roiling! All of my usual recipes were ruined. That's completely against what I need for starting something before work and serving usually 10 hrs later.

It does have the downshift to "warm," but again, that is only after pretty long fixed times on high or low. So it might work if you abandon the low setting and use High which allows a shorter time before shifting to Warm. I also considered an elaborate scheme of delayed start, maybe an hour or so, with one of those timers hooked into the plug, but it was too hard to calculate the potential issues with bacterial growth and kill temps.

You can tell there's a change in the cooking temps, because all the recipes with the new pots say something like, cook 3-4 hrs on high or 4-6 hrs on low, or some such. You won't find any going 8-10 hrs. How does that fit into the typical dinner-after-work, I ask you.

When I got the new pot, I put my old one in the church rummage sale--big mistake! I've since bought another old model at a flea market; however, so far it seems to cook a little "cooler" than my own old pot ( I know, I sound like the Three Bears) , and when I tested with thermometer, I'm not sure it gets hot enough on low for food safety. But I think it will work on high and stay below the boiling point.

I've tried to read a lot of reviews of various brands and see if there is one that cooks differently to make another purchase, but there is almost no info readily available about the time to temp, or whatever. This might be available from a manufacturer's website or customer service rep.

Still hoping someday my old Crockpot and I will be reunited....

frankie have you thought about get one of the Nesco roaster ovens? Their heat range is something like 150 to 400 or 450 and you can slow cook in them. I know they come as small as 6 Qt but think they may come even smaller. Nesco isn't the only company that makes the roasters, Rival, Kenmore and others are out there.

I have always used Rival and have never been disappointed. I currently have the largest one and 3 medium ones, they are oval with removable crocks and I use the liners in them to reduce the cleanup.

Here is a link that might be useful: liners