This is a high-quality piece of kit. So far, I've only used this a few times, but so far, I've found it excellent. I haven't used all of the various functions yet, but for cooking rice and a one-pot meal, it's great. Specifically, I will be using this when camping or traveling in a van. See below for info regarding using it with a power bank. Spoiler alert: the Jackery 1000 Plus kicks back in a sunchair with a margerita while running this thing. I bought the 3L Duo mini. It came with an instruction booklet, but there were no recipes, so I had to go online. Nor did it come with rice paddles or a measuring cup. I guess they don't offer those anymore. My first test was with rice. I had watched videos that said to cook rice from 3-5 minutes, but they didn't explain how to set the timer. So I pushed the rice button and expected the + and - buttons to set the time. That didn't work, so I just left it to it to do its thing with the automatic Rice function. Well, that turned out to be way too long. I cooked one cup of rice with one cup of water (as per instructions in videos) and the machine cooked it for 12 minutes. The rice was ok, but it was a bit tough and sticky. I then searched videos on how to set the timer. I now know that the way to do that is to bypass the automatic button, press the Pressure Cook button, and then, indeed, the + and - buttons work for timing. So, the next time I cook rice, I will do that. Also, I manually depressurised the rice, because I didn't know what I was doing, so that probably didn't help with the texture. But I did set it manually for the next thing I cooked, which was a soup of whole baby potatoes, 3 small pieces of frozen Polish sausage, a baby cabbage, an onion, and two cups of water (may have been too much water). I cooked it for 22 minutes (plus the heat up/cool down period). The potatoes were just right, the sausage was a bit crumbly but fine, and the cabbage and onions were cooked pretty much to mush. But the broth was great and it was a delicious meal. So, next time, I will thaw the meat, chop the potatoes, and cook for a shorter period. It's a trial-and-error process with pressure cooking. However, overall, I was very pleased with a one-pot meal that I could 'set and forget' as they say. I bought the glass lid in order to use the pot as a slow cooker (which apparently isn't quite like a normal slow cooker, as I've been hearing in videos). I will update once I try that. Now, the main point of this review is to comment on its use with a power bank, in this case, a Jackery 1000 Plus. When I cooked the rice, I used the Jackery. It was at 100% charge at beginning. The overall time of cooking the rice was about 16-17 minutes (because of the initial heating/pressurization period). And I depressurized manually (natural depressurising takes a few minutes). I also ran a Ninja Slim 700w on it to make a smoothie, which only took about 7 seconds, literally (brilliant machine!!). When the pot starts heating and pressurising, it pulls a lot of power, close to its 700w rating (the pot, not the Jackery). Then, after it's pressurised, the power drops way down. After both of those uses, the Jackery was still at 90%. I was impressed! This pot will suit me to a T when spending long periods in a van. The pros: 1) Relatively speaking, the size is a little bulky for a van, but it's smaller than an oven (I say oven because you can quasi-bake things in it, though they won't have a golden colour.) and worth every centimeter, in my opinion. Plus it doesn't weigh much. 2) It's safer, because you're not leaving a pot on an open flame (especially for rice, which can boil over and burn easily). You can walk away from it and go do what you need to do. 3) Throwing things in a pot and ending with a tasty stew makes life so much easier on the road and is exactly how I like to cook after a long day when I'm tired. 4) It's fast. I normally let stews/soups cook for a few hours. 5) Clean up is pretty easy. 6) And most importantly, I can use this with a power bank with no problem. I don't need a separate inverter/AC system. The Jackery charges via 12v and solar, so I can just plug this pot in and get cooking without a complex electrical system. The cons (not really cons, just minor issues): 1) It comes with an instruction booklet, which you absolutely must read, but to really understand how it works and how to cook with it, you have to find some videos. This isn't a big deal. I usually do this anyway, with most things I buy. 2) Some people have complained that the whole process of cooking something takes longer than the actual cooking time, due to heat up/cool down, but again, this isn't such a big deal. It could be if you have a 9-5 job and kids, etc, but if you're living in a van, then presumably, you have a lot more free time. And what's a few extra minutes for all the pros mentioned above? The bottom line: This thing is going to make cooking in a van so much easier for me and I highly recommend it!
