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The Best Slow Cookers for Set-It-and-Forget-It Soups and Stews

Simmer down and check out our favorite tested and approved models

Slow cookers we recommend on a yellow background

The Spruce Eats / Amelia Manley

For a lot of comforting recipes—from chili to beans to stew to tailgate dips—you need long cooking times. Low and slow is how you get tender meats and deep flavors, and the slow cooker is the secret to low and slow on the countertop. This simple appliance can maintain a simmer all day, overnight, or even longer without needing any stirring, flame-adjusting, or other babysitting. It might seem contradictory that cooking your food slowly over the course of several hours might actually help save time, but busy cooks know that a slow cooker is the secret to getting hearty meals on the table with little to no hands-on cooking time.

There are so many slow cookers on the market, ranging from dirt-cheap devices with nothing but an on-off switch to fully digital machines that can control the temperature down to the degree. After pitting 32 slow cookers against each other in a battery of tests, we've found our favorites.

How We Tested Slow Cookers

Based on the results of previous testing as well as online research, we chose a total of 32 slow cookers to purchase and test. We sent them to the homes of qualified testers and asked them to use the slow cooker they received over the next few weeks and record their findings.

We Observed

  • The outside of the slow cooker. The lid, weight, and handles of the appliance are just as important as the size of the bowl. We asked our testers to note if the slow cooker's lid fits well and if it slid around before they started using it for the first time. The slow cooker was also picked up and the heaviness was noted. We also tested the comfortability of the handles and if they make maneuvering the slow cooker seamless.
  • How much space it takes up. Counter space is very valuable, and some slow cookers are rather long. We asked our testers to note how much room each slow cooker takes up in our testers' kitchens as well as how easy it is to store in a cabinet or other space.
  • The cooking speed and accuracy. We used the machines to prepare a variety of dishes over the course using all their different cooking modes, including at least one recipe using a single large cut of meat in the standard machines and one cheesy, melted dip in the small ones.

We Rated

  • Design: The shape, height, weight, control panel, handles, and other features and accessories like a probe thermometer, lid lock, mobile app,
  • Ease of Use: For slow cookers, it's all in the name, so we made a point to look at the control panel and settings for each model we tested. We marked down if the buttons/dials and screen (if there was one) were easy to see and read and if they were easy to use. We also took note of if it is easy to control the temperature.
  • Performance: The ultimate charm and convenience of a slow cooker is the "set it and forget it" method of cooking, and so it was very important for us to get detailed insights about this from our testers. We asked them if this method worked on the slow cooker they were testing, and if so, how well. We asked them to note how long cooking was supposed to take and how long it actually took.
  • Ease of Cleaning: Again, the appeal of a slow cooker is in the minimal work it requires to cook a stew, soup, meat, and more. But that convenience can turn into a lot of work if the appliance is not easy to clean. In addition to marking down any drippings or buildup in or on the outer and/or inner chambers of each slow cooker, we also noted any soaking that a slow cooker needed and if they are hand wash only or have parts that are dishwasher safe.
A person adding chicken and seasonings to the KitchenAid 6-Quart Slow Cooker

The Spruce Eats / Elizabeth Theriot

Best Overall

Hamilton Beach Set & Forget Slow Cooker

Hamilton Beach Programmable Set & Forget 6-Quart Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Inexpensive

  • Automatic temperature control with included probe

  • Lid latches for portability

What We Don't Like
  • Heavy

  • Pot is not stovetop-safe

When Hamilton Beach named this slow cooker the Set & Forget, the brand really meant it. You can stick the included thermometer probe into a piece of meat and program the machine to switch to keep warm mode when it hits the right doneness, or submerge the probe in liquid and let the cooker maintain the exact simmering temperature you want, down to the degree. That lets you do things other models can't, like ferment yogurt or cook sous vide. (But you don't have to use the thermometer; you can also set the temperature to low, medium, or high and use a traditional timer.)

At 6 quarts in capacity, this model is about standard size for a slow cooker, which is to say it can feed a fairly sizable family. We managed to fit a 7-pound piece of pork roast inside, but that's about the maximum. The lid has a gasket around the edge to make a more airtight seal, something that's helpful to prevent too much liquid from evaporating during longer or overnight cooks. Combined with the integrated lid latches, this also makes the machine portable. You can toss it in the trunk or back seat to take it to a potluck or family dinner. We even successfully transported honey-glazed ham to a Friendsgiving with zero spills.

The dense ceramic pot with the Set & Forget holds heat very well, but it's also quite heavy. You can't put it on the stovetop for high-temperature searing like some models' steel or aluminum pots. On the other hand, you can throw it and the lid right in the dishwasher for cleanup. We loved the previous edition of this slow cooker, and the latest update improved one of our only complaints: the controls. There's now a dial instead of up and down buttons to select the temperature, and the LED screen has a backlight.

The Hamilton Beach Set & Forget is priced on the low end of the average for slow cookers, which makes it a fantastic value given all of its abilities and extra features.

Capacity: 6 quarts | Pot Material: ceramic | Empty Weight: 13.1 pounds | Dimensions: 12 x 17 x 11.9 inches | Stovetop-Safe: no | Dishwasher-Safe: yes

Runner-Up, Best Overall

Calphalon Digital Sauté Slow Cooker

Calphalon Digital Sauté Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Stovetop-safe pot

  • Even heating

  • Lightweight

  • Very effective nonstick coating

What We Don't Like
  • Fairly expensive

  • Odd pot shape

This model combines the best features of a metal and a ceramic pot. Its lightweight stainless-steel vessel can go onto any stovetop (including induction) for high-temperature searing, but its ceramic coating is highly nonstick. We started a pot roast by browning beef and onions on the stove and leaving lots of crispy bits behind; we were able to simply wipe everything out with a paper towel, no scrubbing needed. (You can still put the pot and lid in the dishwasher if you want, though.)

The Calphalon's ceramic coating also makes the pot heat more evenly than bare metal, and we definitely noticed that in testing. There were no hot spots or scorching, whether while browning on the stove or after a long simmer. It has only three temperature settings—low, medium, and high—with a timer you can set in intervals of 15 minutes rather than the 30 minutes or an hour of other models. We also appreciate that it switches to keep warm mode and plays a little tune to alert you when cooking is done; it's easy to forget about a dish that's been in the pot for 6 or 8 hours.

We love the looks of this machine, with its striking matte-black finish. The tall, circular shape makes it a bit more space-efficient than a traditional squat oval, too. But the pot is wider at the top than at the bottom, a strange choice of shape that leaves less surface area for browning and searing. It's priced right at the average of the models we tested, though that makes it a lot more expensive than the Hamilton Beach above.

Capacity: 5.3 quarts | Pot Material: Stainless steel | Empty Weight: 9.8 pounds | Dimensions: 14.4 x 9.8 x 14.6 inches | Stovetop-Safe: Yes | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

Best Budget

GreenLife Cook Duo Slow Cooker

GreenLife Cook Duo 6-Quart Nonstick Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Inexpensive

  • Ceramic pot is oven- and stovetop-safe

  • Lightweight

What We Don't Like
  • Basic functions only

  • Large footprint

  • Lid doesn't fit firmly

GreenLife's very traditional slow cooker doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it does a good job at slow-cooking, at a very friendly price. The control options are quite minimal, with three temperature settings and a timer controlled by a very basic LCD screen, but everything works as advertised. On low, it took about 6 hours for the beef to shred and fall apart in a pot roast, while a batch of daal on high cooked in just 40 minutes.

Where this machine stands out from others is the unique material of its pot. It's free of the PFOA, PFAS, and other problematic chemicals sometimes found in nonstick coatings and holds onto heat like a dense ceramic, but you can also heat it on the stove or in the oven. It's kind of the best of both worlds of ceramic and metal.

We only found a couple of other minor complaints in testing the GreenLife, impressive for such an inexpensive model: It's laid out in a way that takes up a large amount of cabinet or countertop space for an average-capacity slow cooker. Also, the lid can slide around a lot on top of the pot. You'll need to really secure it well if you want to transport the cooker, but more importantly, you'll need to make sure it has a good seal and plenty of liquid before long or overnight cooking sessions. If too much water evaporates, you could wake up to scorched stew.

Capacity: 6 quarts | Pot Material: Ceramic | Empty Weight: 10.2 pounds | Dimensions: 10 x 10 x 10 inches | Stovetop-Safe: Yes | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

Best Splurge

Wolf Gourmet Multi-Function Cooker

Wolf Gourmet Multi-Function Cooker

Bloomingdale's

What We Like
  • Custom programs and presets

  • Large capacity

  • Built-in temperature probe

What We Don't Like
  • Uneven heating on sear mode

  • Complicated controls

This Wolf model is by far the most expensive slow cooker we tested, but it does offer some impressive features in exchange for that luxury price. The basic-looking dial on the front lets you choose from the normal manual slow-cooker operation, plus presets for searing, sous vide, and even making rice. On top of that, you can create a custom program that switches from one temperature to another, like, say, to brown a piece of beef briefly before long-simmering it into stew. There's a built-in thermometer probe that helps keep the temperature steady and can also be used to trigger a switch from one cooking mode to the next. (You're going to need to read the instructions closely to figure out how to control all those settings using just a dial, so don't throw out the manual.)

The Wolf's 7-quart stainless-steel pot is a bit larger than normal, and you can put it on the stove or in the oven—though you really won't need to since the base can heat up to searing temperature by itself. There's no nonstick coating on the steel, which we don't love because burnt-on bits can stick, but on the other hand, it's dishwasher-safe and we had no trouble with cleanup.

It took about 6 hours to get 3 pounds of easily shreddable pulled pork in the Wolf, with no intervention whatsoever needed during the simmering process. However, we started by browning the pork shoulder on sear mode, and the heat was a bit uneven: The meat was a lot darker in the center, directly over the heating element, than it was on the sides. With that said, the final results were delicious.

You can do a lot of things with this fancy countertop appliance, and you can do them well—at a high price.

Capacity: 7 quarts | Pot Material: Stainless steel | Empty Weight: 22 pounds | Dimensions: 17 x 14.5 x 11 inches | Stovetop-Safe: Yes | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

A look in the Wolf Gourmet Multi-Function Cooker's pot that's filled with shredded meat

The Spruce Eats / Riddley Schirm

Best Large-Capacity

Crock-Pot Programmable Slow Cooker

Crock-Pot 8-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Large capacity

  • Inexpensive

  • Consistent heating

What We Don't Like
  • Basic functions only

  • Bulky and heavy

Crock-Pot is synonymous with slow cookers, and we included eight different models from the venerable brand in this round of tests. Our favorite of the bunch is this extra-large machine, whose 8-quart capacity can hold chili for a dozen, or enough queso or beer cheese dip to satisfy the biggest Super Bowl party on the block.

This model isn't terribly expensive, especially given its increased size, and it held its temperature remarkably steady throughout the cooking process, both for 5-hour pork tinga on high and 9-hour chili on low. There's also a keep-warm mode and an up-to-20-hour timer, but that's all the Crock-Pot offers in terms of settings. Plus, the ceramic pot isn't stovetop-safe and you'll have to do any searing or sautéing in a separate pan.

The advantage of the huge, heavy ceramic pot is that it holds onto a lot of heat to keep the temperature stable, but the downside is that it's a huge, heavy ceramic pot that can crack if you drop it. It and the lid are dishwasher-safe, but we couldn't actually fit the pot in our dishwasher. We wrangled it into a farmhouse sink for hand-washing, though, and didn't need to do much scrubbing.

Capacity: 8 quarts | Pot Material: Ceramic | Empty Weight: 14.3 pounds | Dimensions: 9.5 x 15.4 x 15.3 inches | Stovetop-Safe: No | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

Best Multifunctional

Greenpan Elite Slow Cooker

Greenpan Elite 6-Quart Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Multifunctional

  • Excellent searing performance

  • Effective nonstick coating

What We Don't Like
  • Expensive

  • Not stovetop-safe

Sure, it takes hours at low temperatures to cook a big cut of meat into tender perfection, but a few minutes of smoking-hot searing at the beginning is also important to add depth of caramelized flavor. With some slow cookers, you have to do the browning in an entirely separate pan, while others have a pot that can go on the stove before it goes in the slow-cooker base.

The Greenpan Elite can instead heat up to searing temperatures all by itself. Its brown/sauté mode worked impressively well in testing, adding nice color to meats and veggies before we slow-cooked them into braised beef, baby back ribs, and a pork roast. It also has a steaming mode, with an included metal rack to put food on. The remaining settings on the "eight-in-one" machine are pretty much just different temperatures for slow cooking, ranging from a buffet setting for holding hot food at serving temperature, to the very simple "hi."

This machine's cooking pot is steel, coated with a special ceramic made to conduct heat evenly and keep food from sticking. It is indeed impressively nonstick and easy to clean, but it also can't go on the stove or in the oven. It's a high-performing slow cooker with an appropriately high price. If you'll use the sear mode a lot, it could be worth the extra cost, but if not, there are cheaper machines that do the same job.

Capacity: 6 quarts | Pot Material: Stainless steel | Empty Weight: 13.7 pounds | Dimensions: 19 x 13.4 x 10.9 inches | Stovetop-Safe: No | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

Best Small-Capacity

Crock-Pot Mini Round Manual Slow Cooker

Crock-Pot Mini 1.5 Quart Round Manual Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Inexpensive

  • Easy to use

  • Even, consistent heat

What We Don't Like
  • Small capacity

  • No temperature settings

The baby of the Crock-Pot family, the adorable Mini is intended to hold a warm, melty dip at a party, but it also works nicely as a cooking appliance for one. Setup couldn't be simpler, as it doesn't have any options besides on and off. The ceramic inner bowl helps hold onto heat and keep the temperature steady, and it did so beautifully with a batch of spinach dip. For two-and-a-half hours, the dip stayed nice and melty without even a hint of scorching.

We also discovered a fantastic new use for a slow cooker: baked potatoes. Ok, they're technically steamed, but when we cooked both regular and sweet potatoes in the Crock-Pot Mini, they took on a moist, evenly fluffy texture that was a big hit. We also used it to make a buttery sauce for clams, letting everything melt together in the slow cooker while we prepped the rest of the meal.

You can theoretically adapt standard slow-cooker recipes for the Mini by cutting down the amounts, but it's so small that the math can be tough. (The Crock-Pot website doesn't even have recipes small enough!) And the lack of temperature control means the cooking time required will be tough to estimate.

The fact is that the teeny-tiny Mini is unlikely to replace a full-sized slow cooker in a larger household. But it's great for a dorm room or office, or (assuming you secure the lid very well) you can bring it to a potluck.

Capacity: 1.4 quarts | Pot Material: Ceramic | Empty Weight: 4.1 pounds | Dimensions: 9.5 x 9.5 x 7.8 inches | Stovetop-Safe: No | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

A Crock-Pot Mini 1.5-Quart Slow Cooker surrounded by ingredients to make a dish

The Spruce Eats / Sara Luckey

Best for Buffet

Elite Gourmet Maxi-Matic Triple Slow Cooker

Elite Gourmet EWMST-325R Maxi-Matic Triple Slow Cooker

Amazon

What We Like
  • Inexpensive

  • Ceramic material

  • Separate temperature controls for each pot

What We Don't Like
  • Bulky

  • Individual pots are small

You can be your own caterer with this simple appliance. It's essentially three small and basic slow cookers stuck together, for the cost of one large and basic slow cooker. Each of the 2.5-quart pots has its own separate controls, which means you can boil, simmer, and keep warm three different dishes all at the same time.

We tested the Elite Gourmet with a series of party favorites—two different cheese dips, mini-sausages, and slow-cooker brownies—and were impressed by the performance of its pots' dense ceramic material. Despite their small sizes, the vessels heat evenly and were able to maintain a consistent temperature without scorching. The nonstick surface also makes them easy to clean up; we didn't need more than a rinse and wipe, although the pots are dishwasher-safe if necessary. Another nice feature is the included lid rest, which gives diners access to the food without needing to find a place for a hot, condensation-dripping lid.

The major downside to the triple-pot design is that each individual vessel is fairly small. You can use this machine to make traditional slow-cooked items like chili or stew, but you'll have to either cut the recipe down or divide it among multiple pots. It's really intended more for serving and entertaining, and it does a stellar job at that.

Capacity: 2.5 quarts per pot; 7.5 quarts total | Pot Material: Ceramic | Empty Weight: 25.2 pounds | Dimensions: 25.6 x 26.5 x 8.8 inches | Stovetop-Safe: No | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

A side view of the Elite Gourmet Triple Slow Cooker sitting on a dining table

The Spruce Eats / Chad Sparks

Final Verdict

Our top pick is the Hamilton Beach Portable 6-Quart Set & Forget Slow Cooker. It features a built-in temperature probe to monitor the temperature of food and adjust as it cooks, along with an array of other helpful features. If you've got a party to feed, the Elite Gourmet Maxi-Matic is three slow cookers in one.

Other Slow Cookers We Tested

  • Cuisinart Cook Central 3-in-1 6-Quart Multi-Cooker: A close contender with the Calphalon for overall runner-up, this machine can slow-cook, sauté, and steam, and it can do a good job at all three. And its price is middle-of-the-road and reasonable. But its oblong shape is kind of a pain to store, in comparison to the less bulky round pot in the Calphalon.
  • Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker: Drew Barrymore's slow cooker does look quite beautiful, and it's quite affordable for a full-sized machine. In testing, though, it ran hot. Dried beans that are normally perfect after 8 hours were reduced to mush, and a honey-based braising liquid cooked all the way off and burnt to the bottom of the pot.
  • DeLonghi Livenza Programmable 6-Quart Slow Cooker: On the other hand, this slow cooker ran extremely cool in testing, unable to exceed about 160 degrees on high. A birria recipe that was supposed to take 6 hours took 16.
  • KitchenAid 6-Quart Slow Cooker: We're big fans of the KitchenAid brand in general, and its slow cooker made delicious chicken two different ways in testing. We were a bit disappointed in this machine's construction, however, especially for the price: The lid doesn't make a good seal, the body gets very hot while it's on, and the small handles make moving it around a chore.

What to Look for in a Slow Cooker

Capacity

How much chili are you going to cook? Slow cookers tend to perform best when they’re at least half full, so there’s no sense in buying a giant cooker if you prefer cooking in small quantities. On the other hand, if you often make batches of food to freeze, a larger cooker is your best bet.

Shape

Many slow cookers are oval-shaped, which makes them better able to hold a whole chicken, roast, or other large item. But that elongated shape can be awkward to fit into a cabinet. If you’re only going to use your cooker for making soups and stews shape is less important and you might prefer a taller, round option.

Material

The interior cooking pot for a slow cooker is generally made of aluminum, steel, or ceramic (sometimes called stoneware). Aluminum and steel are both fairly light and heat quickly, which can potentially lead to hot spots, but they're also usually safe to use on the stovetop. Ceramic is denser, heavier, and takes a long time to heat up, but it also holds onto a lot of heat and maintains temperatures more evenly. Ceramic pots typically can't go on the stove, and they can crack or shatter if dropped, or if you pour cold ingredients into a hot pot.

Metal slow-cooker pots often have a nonstick coating to help with cleanup. There are many different coatings with different levels of effectiveness, but many slow cookers use a ceramic-like coating that helps mimic some of the heat-conducting properties of ceramic pots.

Extra Features

Some slow cookers simply heat up, but other machines have useful extras to make cooking easier and extend their usefulness. Programmable timers let you literally "set and forget" a dish and some machines even have an integrated thermometer to monitor and control the temperature down to the minute precision needed for sous vide.

While many slow cookers have pots that can go on the stove to brown and sear before you start slow-cooking, some models have the ability to heat up to stovetop temperatures all by themselves. Other helpful features you might find include locking lids to make transport spill-free, racks to suspend food above liquid for steaming, or a mode that turns the machine into a rice cooker. Of course, extras like these make the controls more complicated, and the slow cooker more expensive.

FAQs

What cuts of beef are best for a slow cooker?

The moist heat and long cooking times of a slow cooker are great for cheaper cuts with lots of fat and connective tissue, which are tough and chewy when cooked with a fast, high-heat method. Slow cooking breaks down beef into fork-tender shreds, so there's no point in using the kind of fancy steak you'd usually grill or broil. Look for cuts like chuck roast or brisket. Cuts with bones in them are also a good choice, as they add richness of flavor, and the meat will just fall off after cooking. Try short ribs or oxtail.

The same rules apply to pork. Try shoulder, ribs, or butt (which is actually from the front leg of the pig).

Can you put frozen meat in a slow cooker?

Using frozen meat in a slow cooker is not a good idea, as partially thawed areas can stay in the temperature "danger zone" long enough for nasty microbes to grow. You should always fully thaw any meat or poultry you plan to slow-cook before it goes in the pot. Frozen vegetables, however, are a different story. They're small enough that they'll thaw quickly after being added to a soup or stew.

Can you cook food in a slow cooker overnight?

Yes, absolutely. Some slow-cooker dishes need 12, 15, or more hours, and you don't have to stay up to monitor them at every second. But you need to make sure there's enough liquid in the pot and that it's sealed with a lid. If too much water evaporates, you might wake up to scorched food. You should also never run a slow cooker on the keep warm setting overnight; this isn't hot enough to kill bacteria and should only be used for a few hours at a time. The overnight slow cooker is actually a great option for prepping breakfast or brunch dishes ahead of time, like a large pot of oatmeal or a breakfast casserole.

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Donna Currie is a cookbook author who writes roundups and reviews products for The Spruce Eats. She has tested more than 90 kitchen products for the brand.

This roundup was updated by Allison Wignall, a writer who focuses on food and travel and is always in the kitchen trying to recreate recipes from around the world; and Jason Horn, who's spent nearly two decades writing about food and drinks, and grew up in the Midwest, the slow cooker's homeland.

Additional reporting by
Allison Wignall
Allison Wignall The Spruce Eats

Allison Wignall is a staff writer for The Spruce Eats who focuses on product reviews. She has also contributed to publications such as Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Southern Living.

Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
Originally written by
Donna Currie
Donna Currie
Donna Currie is a food writer and blogger specializing in recipes and kitchen gadgets. She covers kitchen tools and gadgets for The Spruce Eats and is the author of Make Ahead Bread.
Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
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The Spruce Eats uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. United States Department of Agriculture. Cook Slow to Save Time: Four Important Slow Cooker Food Safety Tips.

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