Why does my Instantpot IP-LUX keep exploding?
At first, my Instantpot would blow its top only when it was overfilled. Then it started happening more and more and now it bursts every time I use it. No matter which setting or how much I cook, the seal breaks halfway through the cooktime and food shoots all over my kitchen. I've tried replacing the ring and I keep the lid clean. It's about 3 years old and except for the seal breaking, it works well.
Answers ( 1 )
ummm... what you are calling "...except for _______ it works well..." I am going to call "broken".
Which may or may not mean non-reparable, but what I can tell you is appliances like these aren't meant to be reparable; they are meant to be- and I know exactly how awful this sounds- replaced. Unless you know for certain what it is causing it to blow the seal- thermostat? bad heating element? bad handle seating?- you cannot possibly fix it, and, even if you knew, you likely cannot get the part- unless you are very familiar with appliance repair so that you know which company might sell the one widget you need, which would be unusual, given no one really repairs these things anymore. They replace them.
Last summer, our Keurig stopped working. Oh, I can say that, "...other than the fact the water would not drip through the coffee pod" it worked- made all the noises and such, but there was no coffee at the end of the noises; it was broken. Luckily, we had an old one in our RV, and used that while Dear Husband took the broken one apart to see if it could be fixed. He's a fixer guy; it's what he does.
Turned out the problem was a high-heat, high-pressure, food-grade, water tube had blown a small hole in itself on one of its coils through the Keurig's innards (luckily squirting the water into a water resevoir) and so-- broken. But, DH is a fixer guy, so he went looking for the needed part: About 8" of 2cm, high-heat, high-pressure, food-grade, water tubing, He searched and searched- but that simply was not a part anyone sold. Oh, they'd sell him a coil of it- 10 meters in a box for thirty bucks- but that didn't seem a really good deal. So... he had to call the Keurig non-reparable . Broken.
It sat on one of the work benches in the garage for a couple months- we bought a new Keurig, and it sat there still; he was loathe to call it unreparable. It irked him that all he needed was one small part, and it was fixed! But, it is an unfortunate sign of our times: Most small appliances are not meant to be fixed.
You got a good three years out of your InstaPot. Salute it for its service unto you and yours, and let it go to its rest. Dispose of it properly (your nearby landfill should have a place for appliances which allows the company to scavenge some parts for resale and- other parts) and go get a new one.
Gotta tell you, the Ninja Foodi is *amazing*