Everyone take a deep breath. Your Instant Pot pressure cooker has not been recalled.
Last weekend, Instant Pot shared a post on its Facebook page about some of its products potentially melting and asked customers to stop using them. The story started gaining traction online, seemingly kicked off by the venerable, reliable Consumer Reports on Wednesday, but there are two things to keep in mind.
First - and a very big first: This has nothing to do with the company's pressure cookers, the whiz-bang, do-everything devices that have gained a cult following.
REPEAT: Your Instant Pot pressure cooker is not a safety hazard.
Second, there is no official recall (yet) on the affected appliance, a multicooker that does not have a pressure-cooking function (it does, however, have settings for baking, steaming, roasting and slow-cooking, among others).
According to the post from Instant Pot, "We have received a small number of reports of the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker overheating, resulting in localized melting damage to the underside of the product." Owners are asked to look on the silver label on the underside of the cooker; if the batch code is 1728, 1730, 1731, 1734, and 1746, Instant Pot wants you "to immediately stop use of the product."
The company said it is working on coordinating replacements for customers with the affected models.