Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

child359

Also sorry to be a pain but watching this one on ebay

"Brand new in box Hinari lifestyle 1.5 ltr health cooker . Slow cooker"



This is all it states about the cooker. Would 1.5. litre be enough for us? Having read the threads suggested by pinkwinged it appears people think bigger is better then can freeze and sometimes small ones are too small.

All thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks:T

lil_me

I think those are the ones they have in Asda for £10. Wouldn't pay more than £10 inc postage for it. Would make enough for 2 probably but not left overs. Couldn't fit likes of a chicken or half decent size roasting joint in it for example. You've only really got 1 litre of cooking space as they say to fill it 2/3 full usually. Could fill a litre container with pasta then pop it on a plate, will give you an idea of what size portions you would be able to fit in it, maybe a little more at a push.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4207490.htm 3.5 litre one for under £10

child359

lil_me wrote: »

I think those are the ones they have in Asda for £10. Wouldn't pay more than £10 inc postage for it. Would make enough for 2 probably but not left overs. Couldn't fit likes of a chicken or half decent size roasting joint in it for example. You've only really got 1 litre of cooking space as they say to fill it 2/3 full usually. Could fill a litre container with pasta then pop it on a plate, will give you an idea of what size portions you would be able to fit in it, maybe a little more at a push.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4207490.htm 3.5 litre one for under £10

Heh, thanks for that!!!!! £10 is good. Saw a MR reduced to £16 in Argos too. Still 3.5 litre but is MR likely to last longer and worth investing the extra cash in it or not?:T

Pink.

Hi child359,

The good thing about Morphy Richards is their two year guarantee and their customer service is fabulous. Many people have posted on OS time and time again to say they've had goods replaced with no problems if they go wrong.

The 6.5ltr MR is absolutely massive. Unless you are planning on doing a lot of bulk cooking I think the 3.5ltr one would probably suit you better. 1.5ltr sounds really small to me and I doubt you'd have much left over to freeze.

At the moment I have a 3.5 ltr Tower slow cooker (23 years old and no longer being made or I'd recommend it) and it just about feeds five of us, but is too small to be able to add potatoes etc in for us all. I keep talking about getting the MR one, but haven't got around to it yet.

Pink

beedeedee

I have the exact same one as in the photo - It's briilliant !
I also have a larger one - but it can be a bit intimidating when your ingredients barely cover the bottom.... but fine if you're batch cooking or have a large family....
There's three of us (all grown up) and the Hinari slow cooker does enough for us for everday cooking. Mine cost less than a tenner new ( I think £7.99).

Olliebeak

I have the A W-T one - which is the same as one that somebody else had problems with (I think hers wasn't heating up properly and she had it changed).

Have to say that mine heats up really great and has produced some fabulous meals so far. It's a really large one (6.5 litres), has three settings - low/high/auto - and leaves us lots for next day (or for any of my 3 adult kids who have a habit of dropping in on us in the evenings just to see what we're having/had for our tea!).

The last effort produced a load of soup that went down really well - and it was only left over veggies from making a 'dish of scouse' two days earlier - so cost me nothing really AND fed us for 2 days with some crusty bread.

Have to say that I've been buying ASDA Smartprice stewpacks of vegetables (medium swede, medium onion, 4 medium potatoes, about a pound of carrots and about a pound of parsnips) for around £1.25 - will have to check if that works out a reasonable price really . You need to watch the onions in them (I got a slimey one once) - and it's best to take the veggies out of the polythene bag or they sweat in there.

trying-very-trying

The one thing that I have noticed since I saw it mentioned in another thread, is the wattage of these cookers nowadays. I have a "cordon bleu" sc, and it's only 130watt, and I think the first one I had was even lower, but a lot of the new ones are about 300 watt.

Boomdocker

I got that 1.5l hinari free in a catalogue loop hole from here last year. Haven't used it yet but plan to now its getting colder for stews/casseroles and the like. There are 2 of us and I think it will do for us but probably no more than that.

wornoutandweary

Hi there everyone.Just joined up and thought I would share with you I have just bought a 4.3l Breville slow cooker from Currys.Only £19.99.I got a discount as it was a display item. There are 5 of us and this a great size. Really pleased with the results so far, and looking forward to joining in with the discussions on this site. Bye for now!!!

trying-very-trying

Erlang wrote: »

We were introduced to slow cookers (SC) nearly 25 years ago, the original one bit the dust (well the crock) about 5 years ago so we bought a Cookware one.
Now I always thought it was a bit more vigorous than the original one. On checking out the specification for buying my son (new Uni student) a SC
I was surprise to see via Argos some are rated as high in Watts as 630W the lowest I could find was a 330W. :eek:

Now I can't be certain but I am sure the original one was only 100W and took all day to cook well, and you had to pre-heat everything to start it off.

Although 630W isn't as much as a conventional cooker it is still quite a bit of wattage for 7 or 8 hours.

It doesn't take away from the convenience, but makes my fatherly economic advice of "As cheap as running a lightbulb" slightly embarrassing.

Thanks for highlightint that erlang. Yes, they were sold on the "As cheap as running a lightbulb" slogan. My cordon bleue one is 135w.

I don't know if the ones that are 300w+ have a maximum output of 300w, but maybe use a lot less when used on the low setting