Skip to content
DD

HUB 01 · Multicookers

Instant Pot Duo Crisp Review

The one Instant Pot that both pressurizes and crisps under a single Ultimate Lid — which is the whole argument against buying a pressure cooker and an air fryer separately. Here is what it does well, the trade-off nobody warns you about, and the buyer who should get something else.

By Stephen V.Updated How we rank
#ad

We earn a commission if you buy through our links. It does not change the price you pay, and it does not decide our picks — the scoring rubric is published in full, including what disqualifies a pick. How this works.

The short answer

Quick picks

#CookerBest forScorePrice
01
Instant Pot Instant Pot Duo Crisp Ultimate Lid, 13-in-1 Air Fryer & Pressure Cooker, 6.5 Quart
Instant Pot Duo Crisp Ultimate Lid, 13-in-1 Air Fryer & Pressure Cooker, 6.5 Quart

Pressure cook and air fry under one lid

1,500 W
8.4
$199.99Amazon

#ad · Prices pulled live from the Amazon Product API, last checked Aug 5, 2026. Where we have no verified live price we show none — we would rather leave a gap than print a number that has gone stale. The wattage column is what the manufacturer publishes; “not published” means exactly that, and we have not estimated one. Scores are ours, compiled from published specifications, and are not test results.

The one-lid promise, and whether it holds

The Duo Crisp's entire reason to exist is the Ultimate Lid: a single lid that seals for pressure cooking and then crisps with a high-heat convection element, so a pot roast can go from fall-apart tender to browned on top without changing pots or firing up a separate air fryer. It holds. This is a genuine pressure-plus-crisp machine, not a pressure cooker with a weak reheat element pretending to air-fry — and the 1,500 W rating, the highest of any Instant Pot on this site, is the proof that the crisping element is doing real work.

What it does well

Beyond the headline combo, the function set is the one people actually asked for: pressure, air fry, bake, dehydrate, sous vide and proof — thirteen functions where most of the extras are real modes rather than the same element relabeled. The inner pot is stainless, and Instant Brands publishes the full specification (wattage, capacity and pot material) in its own manual, which is unusual for a combo unit — most combos are where documentation gets thin. At 6.5 quarts it is large enough for a family without being unwieldy.

The trade-off nobody warns you about

The crisping lid is heavy, and while you pressure-cook it has to go somewhere. A combo unit solves counter space and then eats cupboard space with the lid you are not currently using — every combo owner learns this in the first week. The single Ultimate Lid is also more complex than a plain pressure lid, which means more to go wrong over years of use, and at 1,500 W it is the most expensive Instant Pot here to run per minute (the running-cost figure is on the card, computed at the US average rate).

Duo Crisp vs the Ninja Foodi

Its direct rival is the Ninja Foodi, which uses two separate lids instead of one convertible lid. On capability they are close; the Duo Crisp's edge today is availability — it ships new with a full warranty on the current SKU, while the Foodi is largely sold as a certified-renewed unit. If you want a brand-new combo from a first-hand seller, the Duo Crisp is the safer buy. Both are ranked in our air-fryer multicooker roundup.

Who should skip it

Skip the Duo Crisp if you already own an air fryer you like. The combo's whole premium is putting both jobs in one box; if crisping is already handled, a plain Instant Pot Pro does the pressure half just as well, costs less to buy and run, and spares you storing a second lid. Buy the Duo Crisp when you are short a counter and want one appliance to do both — that is exactly the buyer it is built for.

In detail

The full spec

01
Instant Pot Instant Pot Duo Crisp Ultimate Lid, 13-in-1 Air Fryer & Pressure Cooker, 6.5 Quart

Pressure cook and air fry under one lid

Instant Pot Duo Crisp Ultimate Lid, 13-in-1 Air Fryer & Pressure Cooker, 6.5 Quart

Rated power:1500 WCapacity:6.5 Qt / 6.2 LFunctions:13-in-1 (pressure, air fry, bake, dehydrate, sous vide, proof)Inner pot:Stainless steel
One lid, both jobsHighest draw here
8.4/10

The one lid that both pressurizes and crisps, which is the whole argument against buying a pressure cooker and an air fryer separately. It draws 1,500 W — the most of any Instant Pot here — and that higher draw is the air-fry element doing real work, not a spec-sheet flourish.

Capability
9.5
Capacity
8.5
Documentation
8.5
Build
8
Value
7.5

What it gets right

  • The Ultimate Lid does pressure and air fry without swapping hardware, which is the genuine space-saving argument for the combo
  • Thirteen functions here include the ones people actually asked for — sous vide, dehydrate and proof, not just relabeled heat
  • Instant Brands publishes the 1,500 W rating and a stainless inner pot in its own manual — full documentation on a combo unit, which is rare

What it doesn't

  • 1,500 W is the highest draw of any Instant Pot on this site, so it is the most expensive per minute to run
  • The crisping lid is heavy and has to go somewhere while you pressure cook — combo units solve counter space and then eat cupboard space
  • The single Ultimate Lid is more complex than a plain pressure lid, so there is more to go wrong over years of use

What it costs to run

About 28.2¢ an hour at full rated draw, at the US average of 18.83¢ per kWh.

1,500 W ÷ 1000 × 1 h × 18.83¢ = 28.2¢

1500 W at 120 V / 60 Hz, published on Instant Brands' own Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid product page and confirmed in the model SLCO65000 user manual specification table. This is an upper bound: the element only draws full power while it is heating up or pressurizing, then cycles off to hold temperature, and no manufacturer publishes a duty cycle — so we compute at full rated draw rather than invent a correction factor. The full method is published.

Skip this if…

…you already own a separate air fryer you are happy with. The combo's entire premium is putting both jobs in one box; if crisping is already handled, the plain Pro does the pressure half better for less.

$199.99on Amazon

$219.999% off

Price last checked Aug 5, 2026. Prices move constantly — Amazon's at checkout is the one that counts.

#ad · we may earn a commission from this link to Instant Pot Duo Crisp Ultimate Lid, 13-in-1 Air Fryer & Pressure Cooker, 6.5 Quart

How we picked

Machines we claim to have tested: 0

Everyone in this category tells you they tested twenty cookers. We have tested none, and we say so. Here is what we do instead: read the manufacturer's manual and spec page, record the published wattage, capacity, pressure or temperature figure and warranty term, work out what the machine costs to run per hour, show the arithmetic so you can redo it with your own electricity rate, and cite all of it. Where a brand publishes no wattage, we print no running cost rather than borrowing a number from a similar model. Prices come live from Amazon's API and disappear rather than go stale.

The scores above are judgments from that documented research — not test results. One of the five metrics is Documentation: whether the manufacturer will tell you what its cooker draws at all. The full rubric, including what disqualifies a pick, is published in full.

Questions

Frequently asked

Is the Instant Pot Duo Crisp a good air fryer?
Yes, within reason. Its 1,500-watt convection element gives a genuine high-heat crisp, not a weak reheat, and it air-fries a family-sized batch. It will not match a large dedicated air fryer for capacity, but as the crisping half of a pressure-cook-then-brown workflow it does the job well.
What is the difference between the Instant Pot Duo and Duo Crisp?
The Duo pressure-cooks only; the Duo Crisp adds an Ultimate Lid that also air-fries, bakes and dehydrates, and draws 1,500 watts to the Duo's 1,000. The Duo Crisp costs more, runs more expensively and comes with a second lid to store — buy it only if you want the crisping. See the Duo family compared.
Does the Duo Crisp need a separate lid for pressure cooking?
No — the Ultimate Lid version does both pressure and crisping from one convertible lid, which is its main advantage over the two-lid Ninja Foodi. That single lid is heavier and more complex than a plain pressure lid, and it still has to be stored when not in use.

Keep reading

Related

Receipts

Sources

We have not tested these machines in a lab and we do not pretend to have. Specifications come from the manufacturer's own published documents; electricity rates come from the US Energy Information Administration; prices come from the live Amazon API. Where a figure is not published, the page says “not published” rather than guessing. Read the full method.