Even though pressure cookers have been around for a long time, the earlier designs lacked special features and safety mechanisms. However, the modern instant pot is a special household appliance with safety measures that you can use for cooking quick and tasty meals.
Still, with all these safety mechanisms, people wonder if it’s safe to leave an Instant Pot unattended while it’s cooking.
Instant Pots have safety features that allow the user to leave the appliance unattended while it’s cooking as long as the Instant Pot has been placed in a safe location, which means a flat surface and far away from other objects. Once the Instant Pot has been started, it will require no manual input from the user. Still, you should not leave the house while the Instant Pot is cooking.
Instant pots come with security and safety mechanisms such as lid locks and sensors to prevent potential accidents. Therefore, nothing bad SHOULD happen to your Instant Pot while you’re away. However, because we’re dealing with an electric appliance that reaches high temperatures, there are risks involved.
You should not expect an Instant Pot to always work as intended, even though it will 99.99% of the time.
Continue reading to get a greater understanding of the topic and what we recommend that you do.
Can You Leave an Instant Pot Unattended?
While the risks involved with leaving an Instant Pot unattended are very low, they’re still there. You should be safe if you’re somewhere else in your house or out in your yard and check on the appliance once in a while, but we do not recommend leaving the house.
The accident doesn’t have to be caused by the appliance itself. It could be caused by mother nature through weather, or by animals playing in proximity to the appliance while it’s running.
Instant Pots are much quicker than slow cookers. You can cook a meal that would take 7-8 hours in a slow cooker in no more than 1 hour in the pressure cooker. The Instant Pot comes with a keep-warm function that keeps the food outside of the “danger zone” where bacteria starts to form.
Because of the Instant Pot’s automatic features, you’ll be able to be somewhere else in the house without overcooking your meals. There are some safety measures that should be applied before you set and forget your Instant Pot.
Before you decide to leave an Instant Pot unattended:
- Make sure the Instant Pot isn’t overfilled as it could lead to food spilling it, making a mess.
- Make sure the Instant Pot has liquid in it. You don’t want to run the Instant Pot without a little amount of liquid.
- Make sure the Instant Pot is placed on a flat surface capable of handling the temperatures.
- Make sure the Instant Pot isn’t located close to the edge of the countertop
- Make sure the Instant Pot isn’t close to other objects
- Make sure the Instant Pot is firmly positioned and can’t be moved by pets, the wind, or anything else that might fall onto it
Can You Leave an Instant Pot On Overnight?
Leaving appliances on overnight, regardless of what appliance we’re talking about, is a risk. This isn’t unique to cooking or kitchen appliances, it applies to every electric appliance in your home.
You may remember what happened to phone chargers a couple of years back. They started burning and manufacturers recommended that chargers shouldn’t be plugged in overnight.
So what’s the deal with Instant Pots, should they be left on overnight? They’re pretty much automated and are very safe – but is it safe enough?
An Instant Pot can be left on overnight if the appliance is set to run on the keep-warm function. You should not run a regular cooking cycle in a pressure cooker overnight unless you’re awake and can supervise it.
Instant Pots are electric cooking appliances with incredible safety features, but they can still malfunction.
The keep-warm feature keeps food warm until you’re ready to eat it. It can be automatically activated for up to 10 hours and manually for up to 99 hours and 50 minutes.
The keep-warm function can guarantee that your food is safe to eat after 10 hours by keeping it at the right temperature throughout the night.
While a lot of people leave their Instant Pots on overnight with the keep-warm function running, we do not want to recommend that you do it.
We do it ourselves, but we’re well aware of the risks and have a designated safe spot where our Instant Pot is placed.
The keep-warm function is nowhere near as hot as the regular cooking temperature is. In addition to that, the pressure inside the cooker has depressurized when the regular cooking cycle has finished.
The benefit of the feature comes with certain precautions that need to be undertaken. If you decide to leave your instant pot on overnight, you need to put it in a ventilated area.
All of the steps we mentioned earlier should also be applied.
Remember: We do not recommend leaving your appliance on overnight.
How Long Can You Leave Food In an Instant Pot?
If you have your instant pot in a warm setting, most foods can stay safe for at least 10 hours. And even though the food might lose its texture and taste, you can still consume it without health concerns.
Since the inner dish of instant pots is made from stainless steel, you aren’t exposed to any danger of unsafe materials getting into your food if you decide to leave the food sitting in the pot after cooking it.
However, if the pot’s ambient temperature isn’t safe for preserving cooked food, you’re likely to notice bacterial growth after some time. In such a case, the food won’t be safe for human consumption after 2 hours in the “danger zone”.
The danger zone for bacterial growth is when food is left at temperatures between 140-40 degrees Fahrenheit. This zone is neither too hot nor too cold for bacteria to thrive, making it possible for them to multiply.
If you check most instant pot instruction manuals, you’ll notice some warnings against keeping perishables such as rice, fish, or meat in your instant pot at room temperature.
Foods To Keep In An Instant Pot
There are so many foods that you can keep in your instant under the keep warm function. This includes stews, soups, and other food options that can simmer for long periods.
However, avoid keeping delicate foods in the instant pot since they can lose their appeal and become mushy. Such foods include pasta and leafy vegetables.
Some foods, especially those placed directly in an instant pot, might lose their texture or dry if kept warm for long. One good example of a food that dries when exposed to high temperatures is rice.
Do Instant Pots Turn Off Automatically?
Absolutely! Instant pots are designed with a feature that stops them from cooking once the set cooking time has finished. You can then decide if the appliance should turn off completely or if it should activate the keep warm function.
This way, there is no need to run back immediately when the food is ready. In fact, you can take longer as you prepare to eat your food.
The feature functions by reeling pressure slowly to prevent the food from cooking. However, we guarantee you that your food will still remain warm.
After the pot turns off, you might see steam coming out or heat whistling. This is either the pressure release valve or the keep warm feature at work.
Just so you know, if the pot emits pressure while still cooking, it’s doing so to keep a certain safe level. However, it does so while on the warming feature as a sign that food is ready but being kept warm.
Can You Leave an Instant Pot On Keep Warm Unattended?
Yes! You can leave your instant pot unattended at least for the cooking duration. And for your information, instant pots normally cook faster compared to slow cookers. For instance, while it’ll take a slow cooker 7-8 hours to cook, an instant pot only takes 1-2 hours.
We recommend against turning your instant pot on and leaving for work. However, if you’re just around the house, you can comfortably leave it unattended.
You’ll notice that it doesn’t need much supervision. You need to be as close as possible to turning it off when it’s through with cooking.
Is It Safe Leaving Your Pot Unattended?
If you have not overfilled your pot and have set it appropriately, then it’s safe to leave it unattended for a short time. As we’ve seen, the pot normally finishes cooking food in 1-2 hours. You can use this time to do something else.
However, ensure you’re not far from the kitchen for safety purposes.
Before leaving the pot unattended, ensure it isn’t overfilled:
- The pot cooks food using a tight seal and pressure. The heat and steam generated usually cook food faster. Overfilling won’t provide room for steam.
- Overfilling can translate into food spillage that might mess up your countertop.
Put your instant pot on the countertop away from the edges for safety purposes.
What Safety Features Do Instant Pots Have?
All modern instant pots are designed with safety features to protect the device from damage and the user from injuries. Generally, the safety features are meant to prevent potential errors that might arise while using the pot.
Below are some common safety features worth mentioning:
- Stream Release Valve
This is a manually operated valve created to release pressure from the instant pot. This happens before you can safely take the lid off.
Note that the steam release from the instant pot is normally extremely hot and, if you aren’t careful, can lead to serious injuries or burns. The work of the valve is to eliminate these risks.
- Anti-Block Shield
This is an inner layer shield made from stainless steel. It prevents food from clocking and blocking the pot’s steam release pipe.
- Automatic Temperature Control
Every instant pot is designed with a microprocessor that regulates intensity and heat. This ensures that the post remains in a safe temperature range during operation.
- Overheat Protection
Although modern instant pots are smart devices, they sometimes experience overheating when in use. And when it overheats, you’ll see a burning message. In response, the program lowers the heat output to prevent food from burning.
- Safety Lid Lock
This is a special lock meant to keep the pot’s lid from opening when the pot experiences pressure. The lock will only open when the pressure reduces.
Avoid opening the lid by force. Force opening an instant pot will cause serious injuries and burns.
- Lid Position Detection
This safety measure ensures that the lid is in a safe position during operation. It guarantees that all the seals and locks are in the right position before cooking begins.
- Thermal Fuse
When the pot’s internal temperature exceeds the maximum acceptable limits, it’ll cut off power.
- Automatic Pressure Control
According to the physics laws, an increase in pressure causes an increase in temperature. It means that when pressure exceeds the acceptable limits, your food might burn. Therefore an automatic pressure control is put in place to stop the cooking process when such a scenario occurs.
- Electrical Fuse
If the power supply experiences any problems, the electrical fuse will cut off the power.
- Leaky Lid Detection
An instant pot stops building up pressure as soon as a steam leak is detected.
Instant Pot Safety Tips
Even though a build-up in pressure in your instant pot guarantees super-fast meals, it’s also a source of household hazards. For this reason, you need to employ some safety measures before cooking.
Below are some critical safety tips to consider:
- Avoid filling your instant pot to the maximum. There is a maximum line that you shouldn’t go past.
- Never deep fry, especially foods like chicken and rice. You’ll be endangering the instant and yourself.
- Keep off the instant pot steam. Avoid opening an instant near your face. The steam from the pot is always very hot and can cause serious burns.
- Always replace the pot’s sealing ring if necessary. This is one of the most vulnerable parts of the pot.
- You need to inspect it for cracks and other serious problems. And if possible, clean it regularly.
- Maintain a single cup of liquid to develop and maintain pressure.
- When you set the instant pot at high pressure, don’t leave it alone. This way, you’ll prevent unwanted accidents and injuries.