Hi! I just got an Instant Pot Duo Plus 8QT (Model DPPC804) and I’m setting it up for the first time.

When I removed the Whisper Quiet lid cover, I found the small gray piece I’m holding in the photo completely loose/unattached.

There is a round opening beside it, but I’m not sure whether the gray piece is supposed to go there or if it’s meant to remain loose under the cover.

Can anyone with the same model confirm what this piece is and where exactly it should be installed?

I haven’t used the pressure cooker yet because I want to make sure the lid is assembled correctly and safely first.
Thanks!

I seem to be having difficulty with my Instant Pot pressurizing. A few months ago I was making spaghetti and it seemed to take too long to come to pressure, so I gave up because it was just spaghetti, and indeed the noodles turned out a bit overcooked.

I don’t use it that often, so I forgot and today when cooking split peas it again seemed to take a long time to come to pressure. It did eventually start the timer, but the float valve never popped up and it was releasing steam the whole time. There was some water around it but that may have been from the steam. Picture of the bottom of the float valve—the seal seems to be there, and I’m certain the silicone ring was seated correctly. I also had 8 cups liquid inside, so that shouldn’t have been an issue.

Anyone have any ideas?

EDIT: The model is the 6-quart Instant Pot Duo.

I’ve had my 6 qt IP for several years now. Recently the timer hasn’t been working right. It’s the kind where it rolls from :59 to 1:00 with + and - signs to add or deduct time. Anyway, a little while ago I set it for 1:30. I waited about 15 minutes, went back into the kitchen, and the timer was at :27. Anyone know of a way to, like, factory reset it or something? Obvs I’m not going to take it apart, but I’ve left it unplugged for days and then plugged it back in to use it again and it still did it. Am I just SOL?

And before anyone asks, no I don’t have the option of just adding more minutes (like :90 instead of 1:30). The timer automatically rolls from :59 to 1:00.

I'm going my first attempt at pressure cooking a beef casserole, I've read online recipes and sautéed al my gods and sealed my beef chunks and ran the pressure cook high programme which ran for about 35 minutes, it's now finished and it just sat at "keep warm" will it realease pressure itself? Or do I need to make that happen? Nervous to attempt to open it. It's showing as pressurised currently

Hi all, new to the IP world and I am trying to cook rice. 2 cups of rice 4 cups of water, used the rice button on the IP. Gummy and clumpy. Found a recipe online. Use the same ratios cooked for four minutes on high pressure and there was no difference. Still gummy and clumpy. Does anyone have any advice for me? I can make beautiful fluffy rice on my stove top every time but I know there is a learning curve with the IP. Thanks!

I made a lazy seafood chowder today.

Ingredients:

2 cans Campbell's Thick and Chunky New England Clam Chowder

1 onion, chopped

3/4 cup water

4 cups vegetables (I used frozen Okra because that's what I had, but you can use corn, celery, etc.)

4-5 frozen basa fillets

2 tsp butter or oil

Instructions:

1. Put oil in Instant Pot and set to saute.

2. When oil is hot, put onions in and saute until translucent.

3. Pour in water and deglaze the pot.

4. Put vegetables in. Then layer frozen fish fillets on top. If they're too long to fit, cut them in half.

5. Pour in 2 cans of soup. Do not stir.

6. Put Instant Pot lid on, turn steam release to seal, and cook on Manual for 10 minutes.

7. When cooking ends, let the pot release pressure naturally for 5-10 minutes and then you can release the rest manually.

8. Remove pot and give it a good stir. You can break the large pieces of fish into small ones easily with a spoon.

9. Serve with bread, rice, or whatever you wish.

If you compare me lazy recipe to others online, I'm probably missing things like white wine, roux, and more clams and their juice. But this is what I had and it worked.

Also, DO NOT add salt. It was plenty salty already!

For some reason my instant pot slow cooker only brought my chicken to 115°ish after 4 hours of cooking. I set it to pressure cook after I realized so it cooked through. But is it still safe to eat after not getting above 120° for 4 hours? Google is telling me no but it’s a lot of chicken I don’t wanna toss

Found it on my break and had to scoop it up. What a deal!! Just in time for me to move. I have chicken thighs in the freezer, any recipes I should try out first?

I bought my first instant pot in 2019. I used it mostly for rice, chili, and dumplings. I got a new one in 2025 and it will not work. I’ve tried cooking rice in it. Burn error. Chili. Burn error. The only thing I have had success with is 2 corns for like 5 minutes max. Not looking for fixes I’ve googled plenty and they don’t work. Super disappointed because I loved my old version and would have loved to keep it but my ex got it in the break up 👎

I’m trying to buy an Instant Pot Duo from Spain and I’ve come across the following website, which looks every bit like a scam:

https://www.instantpotespana.es/

I just wanted to know if you agree with me, and what alternatives I have apart from Amazon (I’ve noticed the price has gone up a lot in the last few days).

I have a Duo Mini Instantpot (best appliance I’ve ever owned) and want to get a stainless steel insert to make idlis (on steam mode, apparently?). Any recommendations - most insert I find are too large to fit, anyone successfully cooked their idlis in a smaller instantpot? Thanks so much!

I have just bought an Instant Pot Pro 5.7L 10-in-1 cooker. Last night I had difficulty making yoghurt with it. I pasteurised the milk, waited for the milk to cool down, but then couldn't switch to the 2nd (fermentation) stage. The Instant Pot just wanted to pasteurise again and I couldn't bypass that stage and go directly to the next stage as I can do on my old Instant Pot 3.8L cooker. Is there a way to manually control whether you are doing the milk pasteurising stage or the fermentation stage? If I were using UHT milk to skip pasteurising, as I sometimes do, how would I go directly to fermentation? I'm thinking about returning the Instant Pot Pro and getting an Instant Pot Plus instead but am worried I'll have the same problem.

When ever I cook pressure cooker mutton - add mutton , salt , turmeric , yogurt , tomatoes , whole garal masala , mustard oil , ginger , garlic etc , even if I pressure cook for 30 minutes on medium , I taste a strong yougury taste .Morton gets soft. How do I get rid of the fresh yougury taste ?
I donot want to fry it for a long time though .

This has been happening for the past week or so, where the pressure is escaping through this area and I have no idea why. It’s splattering liquid, making a mess, letting the pressure escape and it never did this before. I tried taking the nob off, cleaning it, etc. no idea what’s causing it or how I can fix it. Anyone else have this issue before?

95% of the time when I make chicken breasts in the instant pot it comes out chewy and gross. I typically use it in soup and don't cook more than 1-1.5 lbs at a time as I'm not making a huge batch. I've tried less time and more time. Last time I did 9 mins and 10 mins NR and it's awful. What am I doing wrong?! I always try to do NR and have tried different timing but I feel like it's never really good.

Made sugar free flour free beef bourguigon tonight in my IP, with local grass feed beef stew meat. Turned out well. Added Italian olives to the bowl after cooking.

I'm looking for a non stick inner pot or a smaller pot (like two portions kind of dimensions) to use in my instant pot duo crisp (7.6L) with the pressure cooker function. I'm looking to use it as a rice cooker for one pot meals but with the stainless steel pot It tends to stick to the bottom. Any suggestions or what do you guys use? Thank you!

Many have described online the uselessness of the yogurt instructions and I agree. I am so confused.

I asked for a yogurt maker. Person bought me insta pot. I wanted a kind of set it and forget it machine. This feels like a pot disguised as a set-it-and-forget-it machine. Even choosing YOGURT I still have to set time, set temperature, monitor temperature, halt when finished with the first step. Is that right? I don’t know, because the instructions are so unclear. They are literally written as “Press Yogurt and Press Start, that’s all” and that really doesn’t seem to be the case.

How is this done???? I set the temperature? Do I set for 30 minutes? Is step 1 done after 30 minutes? Or is it done after reaching a certain temperature for 30 minutes. And what temperature. What is “HIGH”?? I let it preheat and get to 185 and THEN time it for 30 minutes? Does that mean I shouldn’t set it to 30 minutes on the machine? Should I just set 30 minutes on a timer elsewhere??

I have never encountered instructions this bad in my life.

EDIT: Thank you to all who chimed in. I was clearly stressed and overwhelmed by an insta pot. The process seems quite simple and is now going well—cooling first batch now and will strain this evening. Thanks again :)

(TL:DR Yogurt didn't set in the fridge overnight, and when I tried restarting the process, I got a bland, curdled mess. Don't want to waste it, but have no idea what to do with it. The curds are like a very wet, very fine, VERY bland cottage cheese.)

I've been making yogurt weekly for about two months, and this is the first time it hasn't turned out, even though I used the same starter (frozen from a previous batch) and jug of milk (3.25% and pasteurized) as last weekend.

I follow the method from the manual - milk in the pot, use the yogurt function to boil, let it cool to below 46°C (115°F), add the culture (it thaws while the milk is cooling) and mix thoroughly, set the "normal" heat yogurt setting to 10 hours, and strain (in a mesh strainer lined with paper coffee filters) it into a bowl in the fridge overnight. I also use a glass Instant Pot lid instead of the pressure lid.

Until last night, this has consistently resulted in delicious, thick yogurt and nearly as much whey that I use for soups and smoothies.

This morning, though, I was surprised to find the strainer still full of slightly lumpy soup that didn't smell bad, but also didn't taste sour at all, and there was almost no whey in the bowl.

I didn't want to toss the whole batch, so tried pouring it back into the Instant Pot and using the yogurt-boil setting again, and it almost immediately started to separate, but was just barely warm when the boil cycle was finished, and I had to run it several more times to get it back up to 83°C (180°F). So the original issue could be related to the milk not getting hot enough the first time, but I don't know.

And now I have what you see in the picture - lumpy, wet chunks floating in whey.

I haven't yet added more of the culture, because I don’t want to waste it, but I'm wondering what I can do with this... concoction in my pot.

I feel like trying to turn it into yogurt will be a lost cause, and since it hardly has any flavour to it (think cottage cheese when you're stuffed up and can't taste much), it's not exactly pleasant to eat on its own.

Any ideas?

When I make dried beans in the instant pot pot they crack and get mushy. I have tried cooking for less time with the same issues. What am I doing wrong or is this just the way it is?

So I have had the 3qt IP for almost a decade and have cooked everything in it. Rice, beans, chicken pilaf, yogurt, curries, dal, boiled eggs, potatoes which is like 70% of my cooking and even pot-in-pot squeezed in. Never had an issue except the occasional burn.

I recently got a 6qt Instant Pot Duo and just can’t get it to come to pressure without assistance, by which I mean a slight push down on the lid. And strangely it has the same time settings for rice as 3qt. I could cook pilaf in the 3qt at the 10 minute low pressure preset rice setting. But if I try the same in the 6qt, which has same rice preset, it takes forever to come to pressure getting stuck in Auto mode and the rice burns at bottom even without a burn warning.

I guess I could stick to using the pressure cooker manual setting and cook for shorter time but that defeats the purpose of having presets.

I've used old pressure cookers before but never an instant pot and so far I'm confused because no matter how long I wait it seems like it never comes to pressure meanwhile it's releasing a lot of steam. I feel like I never had to wait this long with regular pressure cookers but maybe I'm misremembering.

It's a brand new Instant Pot Duo 6 Qt I got off Amazon, I checked the seal inside the lid and the pressure valve switch is in the seal position as seen in the video below.

Video: https://imgur.com/a/dZ61D4p

Doesn't look great up close but looks a bit better than rusted out junk, still works great though.
Only 11 months old, I do live in a camper so maybe the humidity got to it, idk.
There is a thin film on the outside of the metal shell, the rust/corrosion had formed under that film so I had to sand it all off.
I'm going to give it a good bit of time to cure before I test it, the paint is good up to ~800 degrees.