Best Inexpensive Slow Cookers

A slow cooker is an ingenious appliance. It’s simple. It cooks slowly. Real slowly—like it takes 8 hours to get a meal ready whereas other methods can take 30 minutes. But unlike that 30-minute meal, a slow cooker doesn’t require work. It doesn’t need a babysitter—no coddling required with a slow cooker. You can just throw the ingredients into the cooker, set it, and walk away.

But that’s not all. A slow cooker requires very little energy. It costs on average, 21 cents to run a slow cooker for 10 hours. If you roast a pork roast for 2 hours in the oven instead of using the slow cooker for 10 hours, you would spend $2.51 to operate an electric oven or $1.49 to operate a gas oven. Multiply the low cooking costs for a slow cooker over an entire year, and you will experience real savings.

 

 

There’s one more thing: A slow cooker doesn’t heat up the kitchen the way a stovetop or oven can. During the hot season especially, with temperatures soaring right along with home cooling costs, that’s a big deal.

Slow cookers are pretty basic. Some have programmable timers, but generally, it’s On or Off plus a dial to tell the thing how many hours to cook. Slowly.

The thing you want to pay most attention to when selecting a slow cooker is the size. For peak performance you want it to be about 3/4 full while doing its job. That means that a 7-quart model would be inappropriate for say a family of 2. And conversely, a family of six would not be happy with a 1.5 quart model.

Best Inexpensive Slow Cookers

Here for your consideration, are my picks for the three Best Inexpensive slow cookers on the market today.

 

Reg. $50
Spacious 7-quart manual slow cooker serves 9 plus people; fits a 7 pound roast. Set cooking time to high and get a hot meal in no time or set it on low and tonight’s dinner can cook while you’re at work. Auto cut off: Yes, it goes to warm.

 

Excellent small programmable slow cooker from Hamilton Beach. You can mix and match the temperature with your choice of cooking times. User friendly and easy to clean. Perfect size for 4 lb. chicken or 2 lb. roast.

 

This Hamilton Beach Set & Forget consistently cooks foods at a gentle simmer, making the most tender roast. It’s one of the few cookers I have tested that has a probe thermometer so you can cook to a specific temperature. That one feature really sets this slow cooker apart from the rest. The lid clips securely in place, perfect for taking the slow cooker to a party, potluck or tailgate. The tight seal helps prevent messy spills along the way.

 

This Hamilton Beach slow cooker is programmable to the extent that you can set the amount of time you want it to cook, knowing that it will stop as directed and move into Warm mode. With its 8-quart size, the Hamilton Beach cooker has three settings, and accommodates up to a 7-pound chicken (that’s one big bird) or a 4-5 pound roast. The lid has a rubber gasket and clips to keep it tightly secured. The removable crock is dishwasher safe as is the glass lid.

 

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