What is the best one of these to buy please. I currently have a Breville 6ltr but want a small one now.

chookpan - 2019-10-21 18:33:00

I recently went looking for a 3.5ltr one too and found they were scarce. I ended up with a WH one, Living & Co. is the brand, costing all of $25! Don't know how long it will last, but have used it 4 or 5 times and it is excellent!
Plenty of Russell Hobbs 3.5ltrs around - that's what my last one was and I hated it from the start......"high" heated about as high as "low" should, and
"low" hardly heated at all. Also the with the black bowl I found it rather difficult to see whether it was properly clean....unfortunately most brands have black bowls these days, but not the Living & Co which is the old creamy colour.

Edited by veejay13 at 8:15 am, Tue 22 Oct

veejay13 - 2019-10-22 08:13:00

veejay13 wrote:

I recently went looking for a 3.5ltr one too and found they were scarce. I ended up with a WH one, Living & Co. is the brand, costing all of $25! Don't know how long it will last, but have used it 4 or 5 times and it is excellent!
Plenty of Russell Hobbs 3.5ltrs around - that's what my last one was and I hated it from the start......"high" heated about as high as "low" should, and
"low" hardly heated at all. Also the with the black bowl I found it rather difficult to see whether it was properly clean....unfortunately most brands have black bowls these days, but not the Living & Co which is the old creamy colour.

Thanks for that. Have just purchased the Russell Hobbs one and have complained so taking it back today. Does not heat up enough to cook anything. I was looking at the Warehouse one and wondered what it was like. Guess it will be worth a try

chookpan - 2019-10-22 08:50:00

Buy a smaller Breville then, I've had one for a long time, had no problems with it whatsoever

rainrain1 - 2019-10-22 09:43:00

rainrain1 wrote:

Buy a smaller Breville then, I've had one for a long time, had no problems with it whatsoever

Unfortunately not available in my neck of the woods (Tauranga) just now.

veejay13 - 2019-10-22 09:53:00

I bought one from New World for $29 and have had it for 3 years and no problems. I use it a lot. I used to have a Russell Hobbs one and was not impressed as things didn't seem to cook properly. Good luck.

ffloss - 2019-10-22 15:24:00

Pretty sure you can't get Breville ones now. Have looked everywhere for one

chookpan - 2019-10-22 18:36:00

Living & Co rate well on the Consumer site, compared to expensive ones.

jan2242 - 2019-10-23 07:57:00

I bought a Zip one from Briscoes, its great.

articferrit - 2019-10-23 08:01:00

articferrit wrote:

I bought a Zip one from Briscoes, its great.

I have been looking at this one but haven't been able to find any reviews Can you tell me what sort of cooking times it takes please. i.e. lamb shanks, chicken pieces etc

chookpan - 2019-10-23 09:09:00

Sorry, Im not going to be much help, I make up recipes, and have been putting 2 oven bags in it at the same time and cooking 2 meals at once, most of the time its easy things like curries etc and theyre about 4 hours on low. I have just looked and there arent many reviews.

articferrit - 2019-10-23 09:26:00

Articferrit I hadn't ever thought of using oven bags that way, Thanks.

calista - 2019-10-23 10:14:00

chookpan wrote:

I have been looking at this one but haven't been able to find any reviews Can you tell me what sort of cooking times it takes please. i.e. lamb shanks, chicken pieces etc

We have a small Zip and it works fine. Mostly used for casseroles and the like. I usually brown the onions and meat, etc, put those in then boil a pottle of stock (from frozen) and add that hot liquid to the SC. That gets the whole mix up to temperature to start with so can turn it down from high to slow after a half hour or so then well cooked in 3-4 hours.

harm_less - 2019-10-23 11:45:00

articferrit wrote:

Sorry, Im not going to be much help, I make up recipes, and have been putting 2 oven bags in it at the same time and cooking 2 meals at once, most of the time its easy things like curries etc and theyre about 4 hours on low. I have just looked and there arent many reviews.

I'm following this thread with interest.
Do you need to put any baking paper down first or do the oven bags just rest on the base? TIA

botim - 2019-10-29 14:46:00

Just tie the oven bags loosely and rest it/them evenly over the bottom of the crock pot. You wont need much liquid in the bag, I turn them after a couple of hours and tuck the tied end under the edge of the lid to keep the liquid in and it probably steams it a bit, cook on low and it doesnt seem to take as long to cook as some recipes suggest. I tend to make things up so its a wee bit of a guessing game to start with. You can eat 1 meal that night and freeze the other oven bag for later.

articferrit - 2019-10-29 15:12:00