For bake, broil/ grill, roast, dehydrate, and air fry you have to switch to the air fryer lid which contains a heating element and turns the multi-cooker into a mini oven.

On the whole though, Ninja Foodi machines are often more expensive than most Instant Pot cookers - and you’ll likely find Instant Pots on sale. We cook chunky frozen chips in our tests as our surveys show this is more popular than fresh chips or thin french fries.

We tested these multicookers in our own homes, using them exactly as you would to make sure they stand up in domestic settings.

Additionally, there’s a delay start timer so that you can throw all your ingredients into the pot and set it to start cooking at a specified time, so that your meal is ready when you get home. Of course, how much you pay might be the biggest deciding factor of all and if that’s the case, the Instant Pot is the cheaper option. Not only do we cover Instant Pot, but we also consider alternatives from Ninja and Wolf Gourmet, which have in-built crisper lids as well as pressure cooking functions. With its black finish and larger LED display screen the Instant Pot Pro Crisp certainly looks more premium than the more affordable Instant Pot Duo Crisp. The names all sound a little vague, but while they seem alike, there's crucial differences between the Duo, Pro, and Crisp ranges.

Both the Instant Pot and the Ninja Foodi offer the same functions with the exception of yogurt making and dehydrating. For example, Helen made a mac and cheese by using the sauté function to create the sauce, pressure cooking to make the pasta, and the broil function to crisp the top.

You can put the pot in the dishwasher, and because it has silicone-coated handles, it's easy to lift out even when your meal has recently finished cooking.The first Instant Pot came to market over a decade ago and created a storm in the kitchen appliances market.