Hamilton Beach (33967A) Slow Cooker With Temperature Probe, 6 Quart, Programmable, Stainless Steel

I bought one for myself and one for a Christmas gift. I love it! I splurged on the Cooks Illustrated Slow Cooker cookbook (I and II) which is definitely a good addition. It gave tips and trick on how to get the most out of any slow cooker by a few minor additions, such as a few teaspoons of tomato paste or soy sauce to give greater depth of flavor. Or using dry herbs for the long cooking time but adding some fresh herbs at the end to zing things up. Some items do better cooked low and slow but then finished up under the broiler to crisp up skin or make ribs nice and glazed. Whatever you prepare, this pot is perfect. It has both a manual and programmed setting. Its very handy because chicken is not supposed to cook longer than 4 to 6 hours on low. So the slow cooker knows to switch to the warm mode at the pre-set time. It also has a probe for cooking large pieces of meat. Everything I have made in this pot has turned out great. The pulled pork, ribs and my own recipe of sticky chicken were fantastic. The ribs and sticky chicken I removed the meat at the end, strained the liquid into a 4 cup fat separator (available on Amazon) and reduce the liquid on the stove, adjusted the seasoning and painted it on the meat before putting it under the broiler for a few minutes. I keep my slow cooker on the counter and use it several times a week. Just be aware some meats need to be browned a bit and onions and herbs may need to be "bloomed" in the microwave for 90 seconds before putting in the pot. But these extra few minutes, will pay off in a delicious meal that cooks from 4 to 11 hours on it's own while you go about your day! Try this! But get the cookbook and large fat separator too. You will learn lots of tips and trick to make great slow cooker meals.

I LOVE My new Slow Cooker! I have a much older crockpot brand slow cooker that I love. It is a tank and I am its third long-term owner (its been passed through family). However, now that my kids are a little older and I am on the go much more, I found myself wishing that I had programmable slow cooker that could shut off if I didn't make it home as expected. I was also in the market for a second one for entertaining or bulk cooking anyway, so I took the plunge. This has become the main slow cooker in our house. I still use my oldie when I need to have both going at once, but this new one has so many conveniences that I've gotten used to. I didn't think I would use the temp probe, but I do! I also love the latching lid, because I travel pretty often with it. The best part of course, is that I can set it to finish cooking after "x" hours and it will automatically switch to warm, which has helped me out on more than one occasion when a kid runs late. It helps the most on gym nights. I set it, forget it and run to meet my husband at the gym after work - and get home to a full meal, perfectly cooked and piping hot. I also have found that this cooks far more evenly and consistently than my old slowcooker, I never get burnt edges here. Perhaps because of the timer or maybe the crock was just getting old? Either way, it took me a month to finally choose one, and I am glad I chose this! It also looks far more modern than puke cream with puke green flowers ;)

I've been kicking around the idea of getting a new crockpot to replace the old one. Nothing wrong with the old one, still works good, but I like the features with this new one and I also received a $50 Amazon gift card for Christmas (which was burning a hole in my pocket at that point). There were several reasons that pointed me toward this one. I like the idea of the locking lid and the handles for transporting. I also like the multi adjustable settings for time and temperature and also for food temperature. Want to cook something to an internal temperature of a setpoint. use the included plug-in probe. It's a nice-looking unit and seems to be quite durable. How does it work? Every dish I have cooked in it has turned out the way I expected, albeit with a little tinkering. Most of the things that I have cooked have taken up every inch of space inside so that probably explains why I have to cook everything a little longer than the recipe calls for. I made a corned beef and cabbage that called for 8 to 9 hours on low and it took it better than 10 hours before the potatoes were soft enough. Considering all the food inside was heaped to the top I was not surprised. I have also done a honey ham which turned out excellent. Does this do a better job than my old crockpot? Not really, cooking is cooking, I just like the additional features that this one has. And for 50 bucks you can't go wrong in my opinion.

This programmable slow cooker is a good, maybe great, appliance. It is almost exactly the same as the Hamilton Beach 33969 which is the same price. This one comes with a spoon, which the 33969 doesn't. The handles are different, too. This slow cooker does everything it claims to do and it works well. I am quite happy with it. There are a few things that keep it from being perfect... 1. I wish it could be programmed for a two-step cooking cycle, such as cook on low for so long then cook on high for so long, or vice-versa. It does automatically go to the warm setting after the programmed cycle is over, but it would be nice to be able to program two cycles before it switches to warm. 2. A delayed start would be nice too, a feature most bread machines have. This would allow the cooker to turn on after some preset amount of time, cook for another amount of time and then keep warm. 3. The program timer increment is 30 minutes. In other words, for example, you can set it to cook for 4:00 hours or 4:30, but not 4:15. Not a critical deficiency, but if it's going to be programmable, why not make it as flexible as possible? 4. This may not interest everyone, but the clamps that hold the lid in place for travel annoy me. The likelihood of my wanting to take some food somewhere in the car after preparing it is about zero. Other people might feel differently. Two minutes with a small drill allowed me to remove the rivets holding the metal clamps in place and take them off so they're not always hanging around in the way. Note that the clamps and handles on the very similar 33969 are of a different design, making it more difficult, if not impossible, to perform this simple surgery without damaging the handles.

Admittedly this crock pot is for the wife, as I can barely boil water. It has been nearly a year, and she still uses the appliance frequently. She now brings one of these meals to nearly every pot luck or family gathering. When choosing which slow-cooker to purchase, my primary criteria was the set-and-forget feature. It works as advertised, without risk of burning, overcooking, or coming home to a cold meal. The second decision-driving feature was the adjustable time & temperature settings. This device is just slightly more expensive than those simple crock pots with only Off / Warm / Hot settings. It's soooo worth the difference. My third criteria was price. Obviously this appliance fits the common man's budget. Although there are competing appliances costing several times as much, I can't think of any additional feature I would want. While I didn't set out to find a travel-ready cooker, I should have. The latching lid has made this crock pot a favorite option when bringing food to parties, with absolutely no risk of spilling during transit. I am moderately embarrassed to admit that I have no idea if my wife uses the thermometer while cooking, or if the dishwasher cleanup is a valuable feature. After trying to help for years, I'm not allowed in the kitchen when the real work happens. I only see the results from this slow-cooker, and I like 'em!

When my wife's 30 year old slow cooker finally stopped working, I was surprised that she picked this one as the replacement. Her old cooker had a relatively light metal cooking pan/pot that sat atop the heating element. That made it very easy to lift off the pot and clean it in the sink. This cooker has a ceramic crock insert insert that weighs a ton compared to the old cooker, and that makes it a bit of a bear to handle in the sink when cleaning. But that is my only complaint. It cooks everything wonderfully well, and after the first few times using the manual settings I decided to try the probe when cooking some chicken breasts. I'll never not use it again! Depending on how long I have to cook something, I simply insert the probe, set the temperature that I want to cook the meat to (generally 150-160 degrees), and set it either on "high" or "low". The digital temperature gauge displays what internal temp the meat is at, and when it reaches the desired temperature it automatically switches to "warm" and keeps it at an excellent eating temp. As with most items today, doubt it will last 30 years like the old one, but at this price no problem. Highly recommend.

I have had this almost a year now and I still love it. This replaced a crock pot brand cooker that went super nova on me and started to incinerate things - in retrospect I wonder if the darn thing ever worked right. It was the only one I ever owned so I didn't have anything to compare. It always sputtered like crazy, though... and burnt stuff on occasion. I just figured... that's how it was. But then it started to actually cremate my meals and I thought, maybe we need to see other people. I bought this in its place and while I have never used the meat probe thing so I can't comment on it - it does. Not. Sputter. Ever. I rarely even have to wash the lid with I use it. There are never puddles on my counter. Everything cooks as expected in the time expected and I am super happy with this. No, you can not set it to turn on at a certain hour but you can tell it exactly how long to cook before you go to warm - my old one you only have a choice of 4 or 8, low or high. This is a great size for my family of 6 and it cooks exactly how I expect it to.

This is the second Hamilton Beach product I have purchased in the last year. I have a Hamilton Beach Flexbrew. It is a piece of garbage that has failed on me twice now. I bring this up because it shows a trend in low quality from this company. Today I received my Hamilton Beach Set 'n Forget Programmable Slow Cooker. Upon removing the unit from the box (which was in decent condition) I noticed the bottom of the unit was out of place. One side is pushed in about half an inch causing the other side to be pushed out about the same amount. After further inspection, I discovered problem after problem with this product. On the inside of the main unit (with the crock pot removed) I found several dents around the perimeter. One of the two bolts that holds the black base to the aluminum section is pushed up into the unit (caused by the damage of the base being smashed out of place). There is corrosion around the outer rim of the aluminum basin. Build quality is poor. The aluminum basin is thin and flimsy. I have held drink cans that felt sturdier. The carrying handles aren’t wide enough for my 4 fingers to comfortably hold onto and even with the added plastic, the handle has a small diameter for a child’s hand. The hooks on the lid of the unit are flimsy yet brittle feeling, which is a matching characteristic of all the plastic on this product. I doubt it will take long for those metal clips to break the plastic hooks. I can now see why many people complained that the lid broke on them. There is nothing between the glass dome and the plastic handle except a metal pop rivet. The display panel is just a 1/4inch flimsy plastic panel. The buttons are mushy and unresponsive feeling. Every button I push flexes the whole display which is only held on by 4 cheap pop rivets. In full disclosure, due to the damage to the bottom of the unit, I didn't dare plug it in. Overall, this wouldn't pass as an acceptable proof of concept build let alone a finished and marketable product. If the lid didn't break on you or the bottom didn’t overheat and melt off the unit, you would certainly burn yourself on the handles. I am done with Hamilton Beach products. My flexbrew is an $80 product and it is built almost as badly as this. You don't even get what you pay for with this brand. If you are considering the updated version of this model, I wouldn’t. I looked at it in the store. It’s the same plastic, same housing, same hooks on the lid and same over all build quality. I bought this slightly older version because the metal handles and clips seemed like they would hold up longer. I chose poorly by even considering this brand. Buyer beware!

Just purchased this new slow cooker to replace my older simple crock pot. It does a great job cooking meat which didn't always turn out well in the older version. I used the temp probe and my roast came out perfectly. Still learning to use some of the newer features.

V good product but v expensive & it's power converter is too v expensive.

Compared to slow cookers of old, It's a great cooker. It works exactly as pictured. Does a good job of keeping warm, cooking tough foods (beans, chickpeas, etc). Great for overnight cooking, to bring something good for your lunch (it's cheaper to cook overnight in Ontario due to time-of-use pricing on energy). I'm still a bit concerned that the hole that the probe usually fits into lets quite a lot of steam escape, but I haven't seen it heavily affect the cooking as of yet. Cleans as easily as you'd expect for something this big (it is quite large). DOES make a heck of a loud beep when it starts cooking. Can be unwieldy when it's hot!

This is a wonderful slow cooker. It has high and low settings, and can have a manual or pre-set time to cook food. It has a warm function that keeps your food nice and hot after the cook time is over. So far I have been able to effectively slow cook beef stew, chicken fajitas, chili and other recipes obtained from the internet. The cooker offers a slot where your spoon and the lid can rest (though not at the same time) and the travel function works well (I have transported the cooker to work for a potluck where I made taco soup!) because the lid clamps down. The inside base is heavy and strong, the outside is very light. I would recommend it and think its a great price!

Excelente producto. Cumple con su cometido en toda la extensión de la palabra. Lo recomiendo ampliamente. Cuenta con un sello en la tapa que hace la cocción un proceso hermético y te evita tener que colocar trapos o papel aluminio para evitar que el calor se fuge como en otras crock pots. Simplemente genial.