Anything that gets rid of a "crank telephone" (slow cooker) scores points with me.

Few questions: What's the maximum level for contents and is there a minimum content requirement like with the cranks, er, slow cookers? Also, how is it for cleanup?

I need a nap, lol. That was an exhausting test. I don't have the brain cells left to follow another operator manual. Or the desire to store and pull out another appliance. With a SousVide, a steam oven and a new wall oven with a kick-**s broiler and a thermopen...some good cast iron and enameled cast iron....and actually enjoy the prep and chop and add to the pot as i go cooking....

I do get the new insta-pot phenomenon for a set-it-and-forget-it family meal like the old crock pots. But up-dated. Yet i used my crock pot once/twice a year for caramelized onions and a random pot of chili when i had the stove top full of stock and tomato sauce at Fall harvest time.

I get it, Sleevendog! I'm not good at brevity, and it gets worse when I'm tired, as I have been lately. So sorry to go on to the point of exhaustion. The actual cooking--or I should say prep and pre-cooking--was amazingly brief and casual. Could have been just as easily done on my stove, which can even be programmed to turn itself off, but easier from not having to figure anything out. Just dump, dial, push to start. I get it about reading manuals, too. I think that was part of why it took me so long to open it. But the manual is pretty clear and has all the information about how and how much and makes it easy to conceive of how to use it.

You absolutely do not need one of these, unless, maybe at your other home if you have electricity and need something besides the wood stove. I was thinking this would be a great device for an RV, if we had a small RV. There's one I really like from Canada that's pretty much the size of a standard van, but has a full bathroom and a murphy bed, but only the most minimal of kitchens. The multicooker would be perfect for it, especially if it could be secured for cooking while driving. I haven't looked at the specs, but it might even be able to run off a battery without exhausting it. At home, I have all the equipment you mentioned and more, but no pressure cooker. I certainly didn't need this, but it was a gift, and not of the kind that one can dispose of. It worked so well, I'm sure I'll find uses for it.

Cynic, The book says the maximum capacity is 4.5 quarts, but there are some things you're not supposed to fill past half way up--but that might be for pressure cooking, or dry beans/grains/legumes--I don't remember. Minimum is one quart for slow cooking. There are very clearly marked levels in the pot so there's no guesswork in the measuring. They're molded in, however, and dark, so it's best to check them and know what you're aiming for before putting the food in. They make a bigger model if you want to make more. This size took a pound of beans (weighed while dry), a pound of beef, 10 oz. of carrots, two baseball sized onions, four celery ribs, a can of tomato paste, a bottle of chili sauce and generous glass of wine, and was 2/3-3/4 full, which is kind of perfect for my purposes. I can't imagine wanting it for big cooking. In the end, there were about 6-8 servings.

The inner pot is metal with a coating. The unit has a CA Prop. 65 warning, but I'm not sure about what. It could be the pot, or it could be the circuit boards for all I know. :) The description from the company on Google says: Ceramic-lined Inner Pot – PTFE and PFOA free ceramic coating with textured base. The steamer basket and rack are bare and shiny. The sensor underneath is indeed for temperature.

Clean-up is easy. The pot cleans as easily as the old ceramic ones--it doesn't have the built in handles, however, just a small rim--but that probably is to encourage you to dish out the food from the unit, rather than trying to pull the pot out hot and full. Oh, yeah, and I'm sure it fits better for the pressure cooking seal of the lid. The manual says you can put the pot and lid in the dishwasher but advises not to. Probably because some dishwasher/detergent combos can etch. There is a rim around the edge of the unit for catching condensation dripping from the lid, and it even has a little overflow cup. The lid itself comes off and on easily, and it has a silicone gasket that is easily removed. It's a little harder to get on, and much easier while sitting at a table, than standing at a counter. There are instructions for cleaning out the valves and a recipe for clearing odors from the unit. For what I made yesterday, the clean-up is as easy as it would have been if I'd done it in a pot on the stove.

The official name is Breville Fast Slow Pro. The one with a "6" is the bigger one.

I received one of the multi-cookers for a Christmas gift. I use my crock pot a modest amount, but don't tend to cook nearly as much since the kids left home. I used it recently to make a roast-using the slow cooker part. Doh, why didn't I think to brown the meat in the pot! Mine was the kind sold on TV, but I know it was purchased from a local store. It didn't come with very many recipes. Probably wouldn't use them anyway, but would give me a guide on timing for my own recipes. Guess I should check the web site, maybe they have more complete instructions/recipes there. I've used it 3 or 4 times, seems to work well so I will probably get rid of my smaller crock pot that is about the same size.

Nancy, even if it's not a Breville, if it has similar functions, you could look on their website to see if they have the manual and recipe book posted. There are good charts in the manual for cooking all kinds of things, and the recipes in the book are varied, and actually look pretty good. Definitely good for a jumping off point. If your old crock pot is one of the old ones that cooks at a really low temperature, don't get rid of it! Unless you're giving it to one of the kids. Those are precious.

One of the faults of my new toy is that it cooks hotter than an old fashioned crock pot. For the "chili or stew" it ran for six hours on lo. It could probably have gone eight or nine with what I was cooking, but like the current crock pots, it automatically changes to keep warm after cooking too quickly for a full workday, let alone if there's commute time.

Even if the timing isn't an issue for you (and since you use it rarely), you might like the old crock pot as a soup server, mulled wine heater, etc. I got rid of my old one because it was a very weird design--it didn't really cook well because of it. If it were like my mother's original kind, I'd keep it!

My crock pot is old, but I don't think it is that old. Broke my favorite several years ago, & was given one I didn't like at all. A metal pot that sat on the cooking surface, it often scorched the food even on low. This one is much better. You are right though, it would come in really handy at holidays just for keeping food warm. And I often do a family soup lunch with 2 or 3 soups/chili. I'll check out the Breville site!

I'm considering getting one. We eat a lot of rice, I like to make soups and stews using the slow cooker method, and I'm thinking the pressure cooker would be great for beans and a few other things. I know Jacques Pepin is big fan of pressure cookers. I guess you can't can small batches in them though, right? I have a pressure canner but I hate using it. I am too lazy to fuss with the rocking rate of the pressure valve. Plus my current electric stove is not worth a carp.

Pink, no, canning in the electric isn't recommended, even though the instruction manuals with a couple of the brands will indicate that's possible. You would have no gauge or weight to verify at which pressure you are actually processing. And, the super quick heat up and cool down times with the electric voids the processing times in the tested recipes - time it takes to come to pressure is figured into those guidelines. They are for the most part too small, the test for size for pressure canning is whether or not your cooker/canner will hold 4 qt jars on a rack, lid closed. That just about limits one to not canning in anything smaller than 12 qt size. My 8 qt Mirro stovetop misses by an eyelash, but misses.

Love my Fagor multi cooker for browning, slo cooking, pressure cooking foods but I'd never can in it. With my glass topped stove, canning these days is outside over gas. ;0(

Pink, my unit certainly isn't acceptable for canning. I wouldn't even try canning petite jam jars in a water bath in it. You want to use your own brain for canning, not some machine's.

Some people who have incompatible kitchens get the burner from an old turkey fryer at a garage sale to use outside with the pressure canner. It's that fiddling with it that's the important part. :)

Yeah, I guess if i ever pressure canned again I would do it on the porch over my camping stove or the gas grill. But honestly I am so lazy and I have a freezer so I freeze most of the stuff I would pressure can.

Freezing is good! I don't want to bother with approved recipes and all that, so I just freeze. When I first joined GWCF, I got some great 21st C. freezing advice, but I missed out on the introduction of the home blast chiller. I wish I could think of a place to put one...