Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

seraphina

Which? this month has an article on slow cookers - IIRC the Lakeland own brand ones did well. Probably worth a trip to your library to see if you can find a copy.

mummyjane

Thanks I will. I have started taking the kids to the library weekly so will have a look then. I couldn't believe how many books they had which never seemed to get read. I have now told them if they want more books they borrow them from the library and have boxed up lots of their old ones for my forthcoming car boot

LJM

i have a 3.5l morphy richards oval one with 3 temperature settings got it from tesco for £14.99 best money ever spent

Pink.

Hi mummyjane,

I had a brand name (morphy richards) slow cooker until recently when the crock pot cracked. As it was outside the guarantee period I replaced it with the cookworks model from argos which was cheaper than buying the replacement part from morphy richards. The cheaper cookworks slow cooker only cost £11.99 at the time and is much much better than the old one. I can highly recommend it. :j

We have an earlier thread on slow cooker recommendations that should help so I've added your thread to it to keep the replies together.

Pink

jcr16

i've got 3,lol. a 3.5 litre round slow cook one ( ABout £12 in argos about 4 or 5 yrs ago) which is fine for a family of 5, but not good if i want to cook extra for freezer portions, a 4.5 oval sainsburys one ( was in sale for £9.99 3 yrs ago) fantastic for a chicken. i mainly use this for cooking a whole chicken . it is perfect. i can easily fit a £5 or £6 morrisons chicken in it, and from that i get enough meat for about 4 meals for 5.

lastly i have a morphy richards 6.5lt ( about £30 from argos) it is huge and ideal for making huge vats of chilli or curry for freezer.

Magpie27

I've decided I need to get a new slow cooker I love cooking with mine but it's only 1.8 litres so is a little bit too small and I never have enough left to freeze I've seen 2 in Argos for around the same price £16 one is 6.5 litres and the other 3.5 litres. Is the 6.5 just too big, I would like to cook a reasonable size joint of beef/ham or a chicken in it so would that fit in the 3.5 litre version?

jcr16

a 6.5 is huge. mine holds about 12 pints of water up to the brim, my 4.5 hold about 8 pints up to the brim.

how big is your family ? how much food are you likely to cook at any one go ?

i can fit a LArge or extra large chicken in my 4.5 fine, sometimes the legs pop the lids off so i just weight it down.

Magpie27

there are 3 of us and I would like to cook dinner for 2 nights, by the sounds of it the 3.5 litres should be big enough thanks

jcr16

thing is , if you find it isn't you can always split the food between the new one and the older one you have, and maybe later on if you really need to them upgrade to a bigger one.

mummyjane

I have to say I am a bit confused now :undecided we are a family of four (six when dss's are staying). I was hoping to be able to make curries and spag bol etc and maybe have a bit left over to freeze for a quick dinner. I saw a nice one in argos today but it was 6.5 litres and I am worried it might be too big?