food

I'm a big fan of multicookers (like instant pot). You basically get a slow cooker, pressure cooker, and rice cooker all in one machine.

the instapot does all of those things and you can also use it as just a pot for frying and boiling

If you only want one thing, instant pot is the way to go. You can still make decent rice with it, but it’s also great to have the option to pressure cook.

well, an instant pot is basically an "intelligent" pressure cooker. an instant pot is an upgraded crock pot (cooks in the same manner, but uses pressure to accelerate the process dramatically). also has functions where you can saute some ingredients prior to the pressure cook phase, which makes things a lot easier and keeps the dirty dishes small.

and i think most instant pots have a little set up so you can cook rice simultaneously. so it sounds like instant pot is what you want. just read through the quick start manual and do the tutorial there where you "cook" water and you'll be an expert in 20 mins on the thing.

if i can make a case of a standalone rice cooker, they can be found really cheap and are crazy versatile. steam vegetables / dumplings while you cook rice, cook noodles instead of rice, i've made steel cut oats in mine, and frankly it's nice to have an appliance that just handles the rice so you can set it to make a little or make a lot and then focus on the other parts of the dish while the rice comes out perfect every time and is held warm for like an hour.

Instapot.

Takes up less space and uses less electricity (I think this more than know this). Generates way less heat than a crock pot (which IS useful in the winter months) and cook things way faster.

Downsides:

At least with the instapot we use, there are lots of nooks and crannies that gunk builds up in that are very difficult to get out.

The InstaPot brand that used to be all the rage was bought out by a private equity firm years ago and the build quality is kinda garbage and instruction book is just a whole bunch of pages that say "see the website" that doesn't exist. One of the functions never worked (wasn't a useful one so no biggie) and within 6 months the digital display started bugging out and after a few years its become something that looks like an AI image generater having a hallucination of what the disply of an instapot is supposed to look like.

I think you're going to get the most from an instant pot. I believe you can slow cook, sautee, and cook rice. So you're getting max versatility. Though I know I underrate the air fryer, I doubt you'll get as much if it's your one thing.

Pressure cooker/instantpot is the most versatile.

Instant pot does all of the others, so I would recommend it.

You can get an instapot that has all those things plus an air fryer.

if you eat a lot of rice, the rice cooker might be worth it
however, if i had to choose one, personally i would pick anything else as you can cook rice easily on the stove but pressure cooking without a dedicated thing for it is difficult if not impossible

If you want to make a stew with rice all of the combo-devices people in this thread are recommending are going to be an expensive waste. Just get a rice cooker and an ordinary pot that can go in the oven.

Pressure cooker loud whistling drives me insane but it does the job well. I used to panic thinking it would explode.

I thought the were all the same so i got a crocpot and now everyone tells me I need an instapot to cook xyz recipes.