Cuisinart PSC-650 Stainless Steel 6-1/2-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker (Silver)

Title: Perfect All-in-One Cooker — I Use It Constantly! Review: I bought this Cuisinart four-mode cooker because I wanted one appliance that could handle multiple cooking tasks without taking up a lot of counter space. It can sauté, steam, slow cook, and roast — and it does all of them really well. First impressions: When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was how solid and well-made it felt. The controls are simple, the inner pot is sturdy, and nothing feels cheap. Performance after real use: After using it often for several different meals, I can say it’s become one of my most reliable kitchen tools. I love being able to sauté meat or vegetables right in the same pot before switching to slow-cook — no extra pans to wash. It cooks evenly, heats up fast, and everything I’ve made has turned out great. Pros: • Very versatile (sauté, steam, roast, slow cook) • Saves time and reduces extra dishes • Easy to clean • Solid build and reliable performance • Great for everyday cooking Cons: • None so far — it’s performed perfectly for everything I’ve used it for Would I buy it again? Absolutely. It’s one of those appliances I reach for constantly, and it has replaced several other gadgets.

This is a great slow cooker. It has some features that others do not have. Love the stainless non stick insert (much lighter than those heavy ceramic ones & much easier to clean). Also, being able to brown/saute meat before slow cooking is a great time saver plus less mess. Just brown & switch to slow cook. Also has a steamer rack which is another plus. This slow cooker is well worth the money. I have only had it since late December & have used it several times already.

excellent pot for cooking, great size, even heat, good size. this is three in one but four in one is also available. I cook in this amost everyday. does not stick. I have recommended this to so many of my friends and thay are happy with it too. A great purchase for daily cooking, saute and brown and then steam in the same pot and also keep warm. Deep so the food does not splutter everywhere.

I have had this through the winter (slow cooking season) so I feel I can leave a review now. I have other sizes and brands of slow cookers, but this one gets used the most for a few reasons. First, I cook meals for 2 people with leftovers...so you could consider that 4 people. We are pretty big eaters...for instance we can destroy a full size pot roast within 2 days. Hey, it's the Midwest - we love beef! I feel I could fit an entire (smaller) chicken in this cooker if I wanted to. Mostly I cook boneless chicken breasts, stews, chili, and the aforementioned pot roast. This cooker is that perfect in-between size where I can do as little as 3 large chicken breasts or as much as a roast and potatoes, although that fills it to the top. Second thing I like about this cooker is the programmable timer is dead easy. At first I thought it was too simplistic and would confuse me, but I have no problems with it, whereas my "Stay or Go"...I had so much trouble feeling like I had it on the right setting I would sometimes consult the manual and often leave for work convinced that I did something wrong. I came home to THAT cooker "off" one day for no reason and I never did figure out if it was user error or a power failure, but there was no way the food was safe. The Cuisinart is easy and I feel confident it will go into warm mode when the cook time is done, since that is the default setting...which is ideal for me since I am away from home 11-13 hours. Third thing I like is that it's actually easier to clean than my "Stay or Go." I have no idea HOW since they both have the black removable crock, but this one releases stuck food much much easier. I have NOT tested it, but it also seems the temps are better in this crock. My other one seemed way way too hot hot hot on the low setting and there was just no way a boneless skinless chicken breast would survive that. This Cuisinart cooker just made me the most lovely pot of moist juicy white chicken breast (which I shredded and used for tacos) the other day and I am STILL amazed. Two quibbles: I think it's expensive. I delayed buying due to that and I wish I'd had this cooker sooner! The cord is about 16" long at MOST. It's the shortest cord ever. I understand that this is probably for safety??? But in older homes like mine it often means there is only one spot on the countertop where this can go, and it's where everything else is...my other crock at least had a long enough cord that I could put the cooker on the stovetop and keep the countertop clear, but this one has to be snugged right up to the outlet, directly under the cabinets.

EDITED - SEE COMMENTS AT BOTTOM [Now edited again - MORE problems] ************************************************ No more ceramic crocks to break or crack! And unlike some "name brands" with ceramic crocks, you won't have to fill this with a lot of water to cook anything because there's no risk of cracking the insert. Browning and steaming appear to work fine, though we're using it primarily for slow cooking. But be aware that another "name brand" slow cooker with ceramic insert requires the crock to be placed on the stove top for browning, and then put into the cooker for the slow cooking. This does it all, within itself. Additionally, it is very easy to clean, especially with the significantly lower weight of the insert, compared to a ceramic insert, making those much easier to break (if you don't crack it by failing to follow instructions and drown your slow cook project in water). No such issues with this product!. The controls are also very easy to both read and operate. Worth the higher price? Absolutely! Crack a ceramic crock (or two) and you'll have spent the same amount of money, and still have less convenience all around. With a three year warranty, it will be hard to go wrong with this device. ************************************************************************ EDITED 21 November 2015 We have downgraded this from an original 5-star rating (not easy to get from us), to only a 2-star rating. There has never been any utensil used in this cooker except nylon/plastic utensils specifically designed for non-stick coatings. Yet there is bare metal already showing through the bottom of the insert, with scratches also showing as if metal utensils had been scraped along the bottom. The only person to use this has been my wife, so there is no possibility that someone else damaged it. We will be contacting the company about a replacement or return. We do not want non-stick coating in our foods. At the price we paid for this (willingly at the time, in order to get away from a CrockPot product) we expected FAR better quality. Very disappointed, and now the Cuisinart name means nothing more than any store-brand name to us. UPDATE: 23 December 2015 - it's now been a months since the insert was returned to Cuisinart, and they tell me it is still on backorder. At more than $150 for a "quality" slow cooker, I would expect FAR better than that. We couldn't use it for Thanksgiving, now we can't even use it for Christmas with guests coming to stay with us. After verifying that the non-stick insert is still on backorder with no projected date for replacements, the company very admirably offered to send a completely new unit due to the length of time, which I think is a very decent response. However, there are clearly internal problems that make this a product I simply cannot recommend. I have downgraded it to a 1-star rating because under no circumstances would I recommend that a friend buy this product anywhere near the price charged, based on poor quality and the company's inability to properly service problems. I even have to spend money to return the cut power cord to prove I can no longer use the old unit (that doesn't have a cooking insert anyway). ******************************************* EDITED 22 April 2016 Amazing! The replacement unit already has more metal showing in the bottom of the non-stick inner pot than the original did. We have never used any metal objects in these inner pots, either for cooking or cleaning - always plastic, compatible with non-stick coatings. My wife noticed and pointed out to me that the bottom of the replacement inner pot is NOT smooth, but has small raised spots in it, and some of those appear to be where the coating is coming off the metal. Regardless of how it's coming off, however, it's due to some design or coating application flaw, not anything we're doing. The inner pots (original and replacement) have ALWAYS been washed by hand, using a plastic scouring pad suitable for use in a non-stick product (and used with all our other non-stick items without any problem). The cooking utensils are all plastic/nylon type utensils, and at no time as a metal spoon, fork, knife, spatula, etc., been used in the original cooker or this replacement cooker. Our bottom line is that we will contact Cuisinart on Monday and strongly request a complete refund, since this is still under warranty, but beyond the Amazon refund period. Regardless of Cuisinart's response, it is the last purchase we ever plan to make from that brand or any of the other brands owned by the parent company. We bought what we thought was a premium product at a premium price after multiple bad experiences with CrockPot in recent years. We truly thought the Cuisinart would resolve the issue's we've had with CrockPot products. The Cuisinart is no premium product, clearly. ******************************************* EDITED 16 May 2016 The good news is that we received a check for a full refund, plus the return shipping that we previously paid to Conair (Cuisinart owned by them). However, we had no luck with telephone customer service on the first call, but called back and at least got someone to give us the name and address of a senior customer service person in the NJ corporate office. A letter detailing the history was sent, with the statement that we wanted a full refund, or that we would never again purchase a Conair product (which includes Conair, Cuisinart, Waring, and Interplak toothbrush products). Today we received a check without even a note that apologized for the problems or encouraged us to give their companies another try. Given the large number of 1-star ratings based on bad non-stick coating, and the fact that this extends over multiple manufacturing batches of the product, along with the horrible customer service, we chose both options presented to Conair in the letter - depositing the refund check, and deciding we no longer deal with Conair Corporation and all of its subsidiaries. If they can't even include any correspondence in such a negative situation, it is clear that they have no concern for customer customers and their experience - it's only about selling products and avoiding refunds as long as they can. We were on our third insert at the time we sent the letter asking for the full refund - well under a year from initial purchase - all for the same problem (non-stick coating flaking off, exposing bare metal to the food).

just got this a few weeks ago, very happy with its functionality. i have one very large slow cooker (ceramic insert) that works when we have a lot of family visiting but is too large for just our 4. originally bought this one for its smaller size, though it still cooks enough for 6 easily. bonus is that it is a multi-cooker, meaning it has 2 other options besides slow cooking: steaming (havent used that) and brown/saute (which basically allows this to function as a frying pan). i can brown/saute onions & garlic, meat, etc in the slow cooker insert in the cooker itself before starting to slow cook -- this eliminates the extra pan on the stove to cook aromatics, the messy splattering of searing large cuts of meat and the awkward transfer of that meat into slow cooker. even better, i have a hard time judging liquid when slow-cooking and often end up with too much liquid. the brown/saute option (that basically turns this slowcooker into a fry pan) enables me to boil away liquid quickly at the end of cooking. as it compares with a low quality slow cooker i bought about 13 years ago and even my highly-rated larger digital slow cooker i bought 3-4 years ago: 1. the pan transfers heat well with no hotspots, and 2. the slow cook is truly low slow heat -- both mean i havent encountered any burned food. i'm very very happy with the quality of the food i've cooked so far (short ribs, turkey broth reduced down for thanksgiving gravy, and an indian red bean curry -- i plan to try pot roast this week, and steaming fish next week). i like this cuisinart model infinitely better and wish i had never bought the other 2. not sure if i would use this to steam vegetables -- microwave or quick dunk in boiling water to parboil might be less involved and faster. left one star off b/c of material and controls. 1. material -- im not too sure of the nonstick material the insert is made of -- its a weird teflon-like material that says its bpa free but in general i dont like cooking in this type of material (i prefer stainless steel, cast iron, or enamel, for health reasons). seems like it would be very easy to damage and scratch, so im trying to be very careful with it. not sure if in 5 years ill get some kind of notice of health concerns from whatever this is made of. 2. controls -- though im pretty savvy with kitchen appliance controls, the controls to this are not as straightforward as they would seem and i sometimes end up turning off after ive set rather than turning on. not a big deal, but you have to watch everything and confirm that youve in fact turned the cooker on and heard it start before walking away for the day.

I am very pleased with this product. Like most Cuisinart products, the engineering and quality are excellent. I haven't owned a "slow cooker" in a while. The last one I had was a Westbend Slo-Cooker Plus from 1976. It had a separate cooking base with limited controls (low, medium, and high), topped with a removable oblong metal pot that could be placed directly on a stovetop burner to brown or pre-cook foods before slow cooking. The main differences between the Cuisinart 3-In-1 Cook Central and my previous slow cooker are that (1) it sautés vegetables and browns meats without needing to remove the pot from the base, (2) the metal pot retains heat well, being fully seated within the cooking base, and (3) it can also steam food. The unit takes up a lot of space on the kitchen counter. However, I didn't want to compromise on the versatility of a larger capacity, so I keep it in the pantry between uses.

We love it. It is an ideal size for small recipes for 1-2 people, with limited left overs depending on how much you eat, fill your plate or just 1/3 your plate with other sides like a veggie & potatoes or roll. But it doesn't fit everything that you would want to make. Realistically you will likely need both a 3.5 and 5 quart crock pots to select based on the size of the recipe. We still use this 3.5qt most for 2 of us, but have on occasion found it filled too quickly and switched over to the 5qt. Remember, any crock pot should only be filled to 2/3, not the top that is shown in all pictures on any box. We had started with a lot of veggies and potatoes and found we were already at 2/3 on this 3.5qt before we could even add the meat, so we switched to the 5qt. But then you do not want to always use a 5qt either, because you do not want too little in. So we end up using this 3.5qt most for the 2 of us, but have to occasionally use 5qt. The 3.5qt pot is easier to clean because it is smaller and weighs less than the 5qt. The construction and quality of this pot seem very good to us. The lid is standard thickness for crock pots, and there doesn't seem to be any need for it to be heavier while it is cooking. It does build up condensed water around the ring of the lid and bubbles out during cooking as it continually pushed out steam. The 4 settings seem to give you plenty of flexibility, but we use low for most, and the automatic switch to warming mode is nice. The recipe book was actually nice compared to a Crock Pot brand 5qt (that we also like) that claimed a recipe book, but really only added a few pages at the pack of its manual. This one is a nice spiral bound book, but no pictures. We couldn't always just set it and forget it, or just follow the exact time on the recipe. You really have to experiment to find the ideal cooking time for you. We found our recipes are done earlier than the usual 8 hours stated in our recipes, and ended up getting overcooked. So you make it once, realize it is dryer or veggies are overcooked, so you reduce the time next time. So the meals weren't perfect the first time we did any recipe so far, but were better the second time around when we made cooking time adjustments. For example, the first meal shown in the video was overdone, apples overcooked, and meat was a bit tough, which I think you can see in the video. So next time, just cook it less. For some meats, you really should test with a probe thermometer to ensure it is safely cooked, but hopefully only to confirm it is done, not to check frequently because you have to add cooking time every time you remove the lid. For the second meal shown in the video (pulled pork), it too cooked longer than needed the first time, and was better the second time when we checked the temperature earlier and confirmed done earlier. The best success we had with this was making pulled pork. Btw, I skipped showing the steps testing the meat temperature, adding the BBQ sauce, and using a fork to shred the pork.