Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 6-Qt Review (2026)

Why you should trust this review

I bought this Duo Plus with my own money and tested it for two months before drawing any conclusions. Nobody at Instant Brands sent it or knew I was writing about it, which is the only honest way to judge whether the added modes are useful or just marketing bullet points. I had used the base Duo before, so I could feel exactly where the Plus improves on it and where it does not.

Over those weeks I ran pressure cooks several times a week, made chicken broth on repeat to time the ramp, used the sous vide function for steak and pork, and tested the sterilize cycle with a probe thermometer. I am reporting what the food and the readings actually showed, including the parts that are merely fine rather than impressive.

How we evaluated

I timed the cold-start ramp to full pressure using a consistent broth recipe across several runs. For sous vide I set a three-hour bath and parked a separate probe in the water to log how far the real temperature drifted from the target. I ran the sterilize cycle twice with the probe in place to confirm it reached and held a high enough internal temperature to be meaningful for safety. I judged the new blue LED display against the older Duo backlight in a dim kitchen, and I cleaned the unit by hand and in the dishwasher throughout to see how the finish held up.

Pressure cooking is quick and reliable

The fundamentals are strong. My chicken broth reached full pressure in under nine minutes, a touch faster than the base Duo in my experience, and once there it held steady without spitting from the valve. Beans cooked through evenly, tougher cuts broke down cleanly, and rice came out without a scorched bottom layer. This is the part of the appliance you will use most, and it behaves exactly as a good electric pressure cooker should. Nothing surprising here, which is the point.

Sous vide actually works, with one caveat

The sous vide mode is the headline reason to choose the Plus over the base Duo, and it earns its keep. In my three-hour bath the water held within about a degree of target the whole time, which produced a properly even medium-rare steak and tender pork. That is genuinely useful for a built-in function. The caveat is that there is no circulation pump, so the temperature near the bag edges drifted slightly more than the center. The practical fix is to flip the bag halfway through a long cook, which I did, and the results were excellent. You also supply your own zip-lock or vacuum bags, since none are included. Treat this as a capable convenience feature, not a replacement for a dedicated circulator if you sous vide constantly.

Sterilize, display, and everyday handling

The sterilize function is a real addition. With a probe in place across two cycles, the unit reached a high internal temperature suitable for sanitizing jars and utensils, though as always you should follow established canning guidelines and never treat any electric multi-cooker as a substitute for a tested stovetop pressure canner with low-acid foods. The new blue LED display is a clear win over the older Duo backlight, easier to read across the room and at an angle. My one ergonomic complaint is the lid handle placement, which feels slightly awkward compared with the older design until you get used to it. After a couple of weeks my hand found it automatically, but the first dozen uses had me reaching twice.

Build quality and cleanup

The Plus simply feels tighter than the base Duo. The lid seats with more confidence, the controls have a cleaner action, and after two months of dishwasher cycles the inner pot showed no wear. Sauté heats evenly enough to brown meat before a pressure cook without scorching, and deglazing lifts the fond without a fight. None of this is flashy, but it is the kind of solid, no-drama experience that keeps an appliance on the counter rather than in a cupboard. The improvements over the base model are incremental, but they stack into a noticeably more refined unit.

Who should buy the Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 6-Qt?

Buy it if: you want a better-built Duo and you will genuinely use sous vide or sterilize. It suits cooks who want pressure cooking as the core job but appreciate having a capable water-bath mode and a sanitize cycle without buying separate gadgets. The cleaner display and tighter feel are real quality-of-life gains.

Skip it if: you will never touch sous vide or sterilize, in which case the base Duo does the core pressure cooking just as well for less. Skip it too if you want laboratory-grade sous vide precision, since a dedicated immersion circulator will beat the onboard mode, or if you want an air-fry lid, which this model does not offer.

The verdict

The Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 6-Qt is a smart upgrade for the right cook. Its pressure cooking is fast and dependable, its sous vide mode is legitimately useful as long as you flip the bag on long cooks, and its sterilize function and brighter display add real value. The only real demerit is a lid handle that takes a little getting used to. If sous vide and sterilize are on your wish list, the modest step up from the base Duo is money well spent. If they are not, the base model remains the better value.