Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought the Instant Pot IP-LUX60 in amazon.com in may, 2013. I had used it a lot and it had been working fine until this morning. I was cooking multigrain and used the delayed timer function to set it to be ready at 7:30 am this morning. However, we were waken up at 5:40pm by the steaming noise from the pot. A lot of steam came out of the exhaust valve continuously. We checked the float valve. It was in the rise position. To avoid explosion, we unplugged the pot and it eventually cooled down. If we were not home, it would continued to heat up and eventually i believe the pot would explode. Later we cleaned everything and tried to cook rice and used the delayed timer function to set it be ready in two hours to figure what was the problem. However when we plugged the pot in, it started to cook right away and in less than 20 minutes, it started to release steam and this time, a lot of steam came out from the edge of pot. We had to unplug it otherwise it would keep heating and the pressure in the pot would be higher and higher. We were guessing that the pressure switch fails and the delayed timer function fails too. We did another experiment. We empty everything and waited everything to cool down. Right after we plugged the pot in, it started to cook even before we press any key. I think it lost all the programmable functions. Therefore we cannot no longer use it normally. Since I only purchased it half a year ago, it is still within the warranty. I called the customer service. The guy just referred me to submit a ticket online. I am waiting to hear from them and see how they are going to solve it. Jing Updated review: Shortly after I submitted the ticket online, I was contacted by their customer service and they asked whether there was water on display. I emailed back with picture showing no water on the display. They wrote back immediately and said they would send me a replacement of the base without charging the shipping fee. I am waiting for their replacement now. Very happy about their prompt response and good service. That is why I changed my rate from one to five. hopefully the one I had just happened to be a defective one and the new one will last longer. updated review on April, 2014 The control panel of the replacement base I received from the company is out of order again, this time about three months' use. (we got the replacement in November, 2013 and started to use it in middle December and the control panel started to malfunction in early March. I have to say we use it pretty often, three times a day, we use the multigrain function for breakfast and the rice function for both lunch and dinner. This time, the rice function is broken. It is supposed to stop cooking after 10 minutes. However, after 10 minutes cooking, the pot would make cracking noise and will not go to keep warm function. instead it would restart the cooking cycle, which means the rice would be cooked for two cycles. At beginning, we think we can live with it just by putting more water in. But after several days, it would not stop cooking at all, it would cook for 10 minutes and then restart to cook for 12 minutes and then restart again to cook for another 10 minutes... we started to realize that the control panel of this pot is really out of order and can be possible dangerous. (if it keep cooking for many cycles, it may mean burnt rice or more than that). So I contacted the company and described the problem. I have to admit that they have good customer service. They asked whether we ever had any spill or whether the pot display had any water in it. The answers were no. The panel display is very clear. There is no water in it. So it is not caused by water. This happened to the first pot we used. No water in the display window. The control panel just cannot function normally after some time of use. They are willing to send another pot base however I have to pay the almost $20 shipping fee. In less than a year, the control panels of both pot bases were out of order, one after about 5 months' use and the other after 3 months' use. If it only happened once, I can say we might just get a defective one by chance. If it happens twice in a row, then I would question the quality of the pot. I don't want to spend more money to get another replacement, likely to break down in several months. When you buy a programmable pot, you are hoping that you can trust the control panel to do the work. When it does not, it can be dangerous because it can mean the pressure pot is not working properly when you are sleeping or when you are away from the kitchen. IT happened to us. Once I woke up hearing the great noise from the pressure pot, trying to release the pressure from the pot because the pot continued to produce heat when it was supposed to shut off. I had to literally unplug the pot to stop it. If I did not hear it, I don't what would have happened, possible explosion? Anyway, I just feel that buyers need to be aware of the poor quality of the control panel of this pot. I bought it because it had stainless steel inner pot with programming function. But I didn't realize that its control panel was unreliable. I am thinking of switching back to manual pressure cookers. Well it might mean I lose some convenience but may be safer because I don't need to worry about whether the programming function is working or not.