User:Drewmutt/sandbox/Instant Pot

The Instant Pot is a 7-in-1 kitchen appliance designed to consolidate the cooking and preparing of food to one device.

History
In 2008, former employeeds of Nortel, Robert Wang, Yi Quin, and another friend, started brainstorming on a product that be viable during a slowing economy. This led to the idea of a multi-purpose pressure cooker which later became the Instant Pot. In 2009, Double Insight Inc was formed, and with Midea Group as it production partner, the product was released in 2010. This beginning model, which was under development for 18 months, operated as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, sauté pan, steamer, and food warmer.

Function
The Instant Pot uses electronically-controlled heating elements along with seals to reduce cooking time.

2015 Recall
In July of 2015, the Instant Pot Smart-60 cooker was recalled. Affecting about 1140 units in the United States and Canada, the defect caused electric current to leak, which could potentially shock the user. There were four reported instances of this shock before it was recalled.

Manufacturing
Instant Pots are manufactured by the Midea Group in GuangDong, China.

Internet presence and marketing
Instant Pot has a significant following on Instagram and Pinterest, as well as a Facebook group with over 850,000 members. The group has an average of more than one-thousand posts a day, much of which are users of the Instant Pot sharing their recipes and advice. Double Insight promoted their product with few advertisements of their own; instead they gave their product to over 200 bloggers and authors. The internet community that associates themselves with the Instant Pot (commonly abbreviated IP) has come to be known as "Potheads". In 2016, Double Insight sold more than 215,000 Instant Pots on Amazon's Prime Day and in 2017, the Instant Pot was one of the top 5 products sold on Black Friday by Amazon and Target.