Here is one Instant Pot myth worth exploring. I just read someone exclaiming in a Facebook group that the pot says ON but nothing is happening. The response she received is that once the pot comes to pressure it will start counting down.
FALSE…
Instant Pot reads ON
Once the pot decides to count down it might already be at pressure for a minute or two. I haven’t actually timed how long ON stays on because that would only serve to irritate me. The lag between the pot reaching pressure and the timer counting down is one of the reasons that the Instant Pot cannot compare to the stove top pressure cooker as far as speed goes.
With a stove top cooker, when pressure is reached, you turn down the heat to maintain the pressure and start the timer right away. For some recipes the Instant Pot will take twice as long to cook (with pressure build up and release) as it would in the stove top cooker. Polenta is a great example of this – and there are many others.
Truth be told, though, if you are not home when the food is cooking, you likely do not care how long it takes before the pot responds and starts counting down. What you do likely care about it is, “How well did it cook my food?” And usually the answer is “very well” especially if you used tried and true recipes like those in my cookbooks The New Fast Food and Vegan Under Pressure.
The first time that someone told me that she made recipes from The New Fast Food in her electric pressure cooker, I was in disbelief. I emailed the woman a few recipes and asked her to try them out, as written. She told me that they worked. The reason for this is the same reason that I often find irritating- it takes longer for the Instant Pot to come to pressure and longer for it to come down.
So, irritating or not, the Instant Pot has a lag in time between when the pot reaches pressure and when it starts to count down. It is not immediate so have patience. Depending upon what and how much is in the pot, it can take up to 10 minutes to see the pot start to count down. If it starts counting down and you are sure that it’s not at pressure, watch for a BURN message. In that case, the pot did not come to pressure.
I tell you these things to educate you, not to scare you. Just keep on cooking great tasting food.
This model is definitely defective. Yesterday I returned one to Sam’s club and purchased another one, this one counts down, but didn’t alert when I was finished. The letter L appears and the clock is counting upward. Maybe that indicates the keep warm time – which I turned off at the beginning of the cycle.
Happy to hear that you got a new one. Yes, it counts up once the pressure time is done. It will tell you keep warm or just the time from the end of your pressure cooking.
It sounds to me (pun intended) that you might have turned out the alarm/beeps which is why it didn’t let you know when pressure time was up. Usually it is vociferous in its beeping.
You ought to have a better experience now.
I have noticed my says ON the entire time now (it never used to do this). It used to take roughly 20 minutes to come to pressure and then begin counting down. I started just timing the 20 minutes and then just adding whatever my cook time would be. The food always turned out cooked. Recently I started cancelling the cook and releasing the pressure as soon as the pin pops up. I take the lid off and start it again, and magically it comes to pressure in approx 2 minutes and then starts the count down. annoying that I have to keep doing this, but oh well lol
Because the pot is very hot when you take off the lid, it will come to pressure quickly when you put the lid back on.
However, if the “on” stays on and it does not go to counting down, I think that there is a problem. Have you tried cooking something when you are not around to turn the pot off? That would really let you know how it does.
My instapot never counts down. I cooked ribs in it and set the timer for 25 minutes, high pressure. It says ON and it pressurizes because the pin comes up, and I can smell the food cooking. It said ON for an hour, until I cancelled it. The ribs were cooked. So, I guess mine is broken?
I don’t know a thing about ribs but do know about Instant Pot Cherie. Have you done the water test with 1 cup of water. Set the pot to 1 minute on high pressure. Stand there and watch the digital display. And see if it goes to 1 after a few minutes. Then when it gets to 0 it will beep and then start counting up. If it doesn’t switch from ON to 1, then you have an issue. If it does, then I am not sure what happened with your ribs.
The water test tells you a lot.
Yes, I performed the water test following the instructions when I first got it. The instructions said to set it for 6 minutes. I never saw any numbers on the LCD, but it did heat up the water. I cooked ribs again last night, and this time after an hour, it switched from ON to END. I had the timer set for 00:25, which I believe is 25 minutes, but I never saw it count down. Again, the ribs were cooked perfectly. I just got the Instapot as a gift about six month ago, and I’ve cooked a roast and a chicken and rice meal in it. Every time it came out perfect, but I have never seen any numbers.
Without knowing what you are pressing or seeing what you are doing, I cannot comment. My water test is high pressure (manual) for 1 minute. YOu ought to see it go from ON to 1. If you don’t, then there is something wrong.
I don’t know what 00:25 is. when you set it on manual (or pressure) you adjust to 25, there is no 0 there.
Good luck. BTW, I am a plant-based site and happy to help you but ribs, roast, chicken are all out of my realm.
Thanks Jill, I appreciate your replies. My model is a Viva, and I do believe there may be something wrong with it. Cheers!
Not helpful for us idiots I do not understand if ON means cooking or not so I guess it will burn
I agree! I can’t change the mode no matter what I do. Can’t change to low,med,high….. I guess it will just cook…..be as it may. Just hope the roast is edible
Pat,
Have you seen the beginners video? If not, I will tell you how. You can change only saute to low/medium/high and you can switch to low and high pressure if you have a Duo or higher model. If you have a LUX, there is only high pressure.
I hope that this helps.
mine still shows ON and its been 30 minutes now
If you have a lot of liquid in the pot, it can take that long before the pot comes to pressure but that is unusual.
Try the water test again with 1 cup of water and see what happens.