What is the iPot made for?
Coming back from CES at Las Vegas, I am very pleased with the overwhelming responses from the media and the public. The Instant Pot iPot was hailed as one of the “Fourteen Hot Products from 2014 CES” and one of “The Weirdest Tech Gadgets at CES 2014”. Techhive made an on spot video report, CNET has a more detailed review, Sound and Vision compared the iPot to a connected slow cooker, PurpleClover asked “Exactly How Smart Should Your Home Be?”, TechGlimpse put on a coverage, Homecrux drilled down to more details….
Not all of them get the details right. This is no surprise in exhibition halls crowded with tens of thousands of people and announcements of thousands new products. Some may see iPot being cool because it uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE, Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth 4.0/4.1) to connect iPhone/iPad to the cooker. Well, that’s not the purpose. Here, I want to clarify the two design objectives of the iPot.
1. Solving the cooking consistency problem. Have you ever not been frustrated by failing to reproduce a cooking recipe!? The quality of cooked food out of Instant Pot is ultimately the most important thing to users. Cooking consistency is affected by many factors: food materials and their size/volume, cooking time, elevation and cooking process. A one-size-fit-all program (3 “sizes” in Instant Pot) can only go so far. To achieve the optimal result, we need a tailor-made cooking program for each recipe. Once this is done, undercooked short-ribs and beans or burnt oatmeal at the bottom will be history.
2. People want to use Instant Pot in many unique ways. To get a taste of the variety, let’s sample a few.
Making germinated brown rice. Brown rice sprouts in warm water (38°C or 100°F) in 12~24 hours, producing unique nutty flavor and more complete amino acid. See the picture of germinated brown rice I made on right.- Sous vide, Onsen Tamago (hot spring eggs), etc.
- Pasteurize milk at the lowest temperature (63°C or 145ºF) so all pathogens are killed but none of the good enzymes and nutrients are lost
- Pressure baking
- Decrystallize honey in the jar without destroying its health properties
- Sanitize baby bottles, pacifiers, pump pieces.
There is clearly a long tail of these use scenarios. If we add a button for each of these functions, the control panel will soon look like a keyboard. We’ll have to leverage something with a better user interface. A smartphone or tablet would spring right into our minds.
If you have any intriguing ways of using Instant Pot, please let us know. We’ll add them to the iPot. With iPot, the functionality is limitless.
Very, very good points made. Your ipad or iphone will fine tune the cooking. It almost will make the Instant Pot intuitive……..a Smart Pot!
I’m loving the IP DUO60. But I can certainly see the functionality of the iPot – and will probably get one as soon as it’s available. I hope that’s soon.
I do have a couple of questions.
1) Will we be able to custom-make our own programs?
2) Will we be able to select specific temperatures, and adjust temperature, pressure etc. on the fly?
3) Do you think you can write a program so we can use bluetooth from our computers to hook up to the pot, and then use our phones remotely to connect to the computer and change programming from away? For example, you go out with the pot set to finish dinner at 6PM but it turns out you’ll be out until 10, and want to change that setting. (Even if it means cancelling the program and entering a new one.)
Well that’s all I can think of for now. Thanks for making awesome products!
Hi Bettina,
Thank you for your support to the iPot. Here are the answers to your questions.
1. Yes, everyone can write their own programs and share with others.
2. Yes, you’ll be able to select temperatures. But adjusting means cancelling current program and starts a new one. The cooking process is not interrupted.
3. We see smart cooking to be a PAN (personal-area networking) application. The safety and security risk will be a lot higher if we extending it to WAN (accessible from anywhere on the internet. Perhaps it can be considered when all the issues are thought through.
Oh boy, I can’t wait!
As for my app idea, it’s more of a two-stage process.
I’m not saying the pot should have wifi connectivity. I’m saying, how about a PC and Mac application that will to the pot via bluetooth. Just another way to connect to the pot, using your computer if you don’t have a smartphone or tablet.
Once you had that, the next logical step could be to be able to use the phone to connect to the iPot application on the computer via the computer’s Internet connection.
The computer could then pass the instructions along to the pot via bluetooth.
The iPot would then be capable of being remotely controlled by the phone while away from home.
Please do consider making it work from a computer as well as smart phone. Some of us just don’t wish to have all the connectivity. But I do want to turn off the bells and whistles for sure! Sound sensitive. Flexibility means having it work off your smart phone if you wish and not if you don’t please! Thanks for considering my thoughts. Some people would prefer even simpler to not be overwhelmed. Might just want to give one to a not so hip senior in addition to the college student.
How precise is your temperature control (+/- holding temp) for sous vide? Also is the CNET MSRP ($135) accurate? If you can do a decent sous vide water over for that price it will be really impressive.
Hi Mat,
The temperature control on iPot is in the +/- 1C, or +/- 2F. This is not as accurate as those professional grade one, but sufficient to do sous vide. The MSRP is not finalized yet as we don’t have the production cost yet. I’d expect it to be in teh $230 range.
Thanks for the reply. I wish you could have gotten it to +/- 1F but I’m still intrigued. I use a sousvide magic (also Canadian) now, and it generally keeps to within 1 degree F. BTW, I saw that you replied to another comment that the iPot could be used as a deep fryer as well. If it’s able to do all of these things competently at that price point I’ll be very interested in picking one up.
Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Incredible IPOT,
with the Yogurt function from the IP-DUO Series 7 in 1, can I make Fermented Sweet Rice ?.
Would you please let me know,
Thanks.
Hi Teresa,
Yes you can make Fermented Sweet Rice using the JiuNiang function on IP-DUO.
What is JiuNiang function ? – (is it same as the Yogurt function label on the digital control panel ? ).
Thanks.
Yes, it’s in the same function key. Press Yogurt twice. The indicator Mode Indicator lights up the “Less” LED.
Hi Incredible Ipot,
Can Fermented Sweet Rice dessert be made by using the Yogurt function from the IP-Duo ?.
Please let me know, Thanks.
I was curious if there is any more info in the release date besides just sometime quarter 2 for the ipot
Hello Ben,
We underestimated the amount of testing that we need to do. Our current schedule is to go production in Sept and come to US/Canada/UK market in Oct.
is the iPot still on schedule to come to market in the US in October?
We’ve been doing a lot testing and the schedule is pushed to late Nov or Dec.
Wondering if the pre-orders on the Instant Pot Duo60 are shipping yet? I notice Amazon has them back in stock……
Hi Susie,
Our inventory was delayed by the trucker strike at Vancouver Port. We should receive our inventory before this Friday.
Thanks for the quick update! Excited with anticipation….
Any further word on the delayed inventory?
Hi Hari,
Our belated inventory arrived on Friday (April 11). We’ll try to ship out all orders in the coming week.
Thank you for your patience.
I have been looking for a pressure cooker that also could be used to make Natto (fermented soya beans).
So you can ad that to the functions as it ferments at 40 C +/- 1 degree.
Looking forward to the iPot which I think should be priced at 199 CAD.
Hi Allan,
Thank you for your suggestion. Indeed, Natto can be made with the iPot.
Can natto be made directly in the liner like yogurt or do I have to find an insert? Can’t wait to try!
Natto can be made in the inner pot. However the sealing ring will absorb the natto smell, difficult to clean. You’ll need a spare sealing ring.
How about if I used a regular lid instead? Would it maintain the right temp?
Will this app be only for apple products? Why not windows phone devices, android devices as well? Will there be an web based application as well?
Hi Kasi,
It’ll initially be release for iOS devices, then followed by an Android version. This is because Android BLE support is very flaky.
Is there a mailing list for notification when these become available? I can’t wait. Definitely gonna want one of these.
Please send an email to ipot@instantpot.com to be added to the waiting list and to receive special offers.
Thanks!
Yay, thanks!
Man, I wish I’d know about this last month. I literally just bought Duo60.
Thanks for making this product. I can’t buy this time but I’m defiantly going to be interested. I for one would like to see the PID curves so I can set a finish time, finish temperature and cook time and see the impact on the temperature. Just to nerd out.
What is the time table now for the iPot in Canada?
The current schedule is for iPot to be in production in early Nov. and arrival in US/Canada in late Nov.
Can’t wait. Can you let me know the approx price it will be selling at? Thanks!
Hi Thienly,
We haven’t finalize the price yet. When production cost is known, we’ll be able to decide.
“Canning with adjustment to elevation”
Can you comment more on this? Will this be capable of pressure canning?
iPot is in production and will arrive by the end of Nov. If you want to be notified and receive a special offer, please email to ipot@instantpot.com.
Is there an updated price range for the 6 quart iPot?
Also do you forsee selling the unit before December 2014 and will supply be an issue given the holidays?
what is going to be the retail price for the new model ipot?
Retail price will be $260~280/unit.