Call me weird, but my favorite Christmas gift from last year was a multicooker, offering functions such as pressure cooking, air frying, sauteing, and dehydrating, to name a few. Much to my delight, I am not alone in my love of this product. My parents have become avid users of my multicooker, as well. So, what’s so great about a multicooker that appeases both environmentalists and average Joes?
What Is a Multicooker, and Why Do I Need One?
Pressure cookers, multi-function cookers, one-pot cookers… all of these are synonymous with multicookers. Multicookers, as the name suggests, can do the work of multiple different kitchen appliances, such as slow cookers, rice cookers, steamers, fryers, dehydrators, yogurt makers, breadmakers, conventional ovens, and stovetops. Multicookers have become increasingly popular in recent years, and now you can find countless different models with various combinations of functions. Do note that if a multicooker is advertised as being, say, 14-in-1, this indicates that the appliance can complete 14 different functions or programs, not that it replaces 14 different appliances[1].
This multi-function nature lends itself quite well to the life of a college student. By doing the work of multiple appliances, a multicooker eliminates the need for many miscellaneous appliances, saving you a great deal of both space and money. Additionally, they save space by having accessories (like steaming racks) that can easily fit within the cooker for storage[1]. Money-wise, multicookers are a very budget-friendly investment, with 6-quart machines being found for just $80, which is quite reasonable as far as kitchen appliances go[3].
A final reason multicookers are great for college students is that they make cooking extremely easy. For one, multicookers are great set-it-and-forget-it options, being able to hold your food on the warming setting for up to 12 hours. Thus, you can set up your multicooker when you have time and enjoy a ready-to-eat meal when you return from a busy day of classes. However, this isn’t the most sustainable move, as it could unintentionally or unnecessarily consume a lot of extra energy if you aren’t careful, so I recommend trying to minimize how long your food must be kept on warming mode[1,4]. Another factor making multicooker use much easier is the cooker’s wide variety of pre-programmed settings that streamline the process, eliminating the need to constantly monitor the food and ensure the proper temperature or cooking method. And, lastly, you don’t need to feel constrained by what you can cook in a multicooker, as there are thousands of quick and easy meals you can make, so you’ll never get bored[1].
An Energy-Efficient Wonder
Comparing Energy Efficiency
In addition to those personal benefits, multicookers offer several environmental benefits, the most celebrated being their energy efficiency. Of course, with so many different functions multicookers can complete, appliances they can replace, and foods they can cook (not to mention the varying efficiency of different models), it’s difficult to judge the energy efficiency of multicookers. But, with the most popular features replacing ovens, as well as deep fryers, slow cookers, and stovetops, those are the four comparisons I’ll be focusing on in this article.
The oven is hands-down the most commonly replaced kitchen appliance, with multicooker functions like baking, air frying, and broiling taking its place. And, this is a big win for the environment—multicookers are far more energy-efficient than ovens. First, let’s consider low-and-slow oven cooking and how it compares to multicooker settings like pressure cook or slow cook. To make ribs in the oven, 1.2 kWh of electricity is required, which is 4.5 times larger than the 0.26 kWh used when cooking them in a multicooker. Up next, we have chili, which consumes 8 times as much energy in the oven as compared to the multicooker (2.4 kWh and 0.31 kWh, respectively)[4]. As for a 6-lb pork shoulder, the multicooker uses over 13 times less energy than the oven preparation while also reducing cooking time by nearly 80% (from 7 hours to just 1.5)[3].
Multicookers are also more efficient than ovens when being used to quickly cook food, such as with the air-fry setting. A key factor making air fryers highly energy efficient is that they don’t require any preheating time (a process that typically takes a little over 5 minutes in a conventional large oven). On top of that, air fryers cut anywhere from 10-40 minutes from the time it takes to actually cook the food. For example, french fries take 30 minutes in the oven but just 20 in an air fryer. As for fried chicken, it takes 45 minutes to cook in an oven but only 30 in an air fryer[6]. As far as energy goes (especially considering that multicookers only pull ⅓ as much energy per hour), it’s clear that the shorter cooking times offered by multicookers make them far more energy-efficient than ovens.
Sticking with the topic of air fryers for a little while longer, let’s consider how they compare to deep fryers. Like ovens, deep fryers are accompanied by a sizable preheat time of 5-10 minutes. But, where this gets complicated is that deep fryers cook foods very quickly—sometimes even quicker than an air fryer can. For example, even when including the preheating time in the total cooking time, air fryers and deep fryers take about the same amount of time to make fried chicken. French fries also cook much quicker in the deep fryer, taking only 18 minutes from start to finish, including the time it takes to heat the oil[6]. Generally speaking, though, I don’t think it’s worth getting caught up on the slightly quicker cooking time (and thus slightly lower energy consumption) of deep fryers, seeing as how few people frequently go through the work of actually deep-frying an item—a sentiment that is especially true for college kids.
Multicookers also commonly take the place of two other appliances: slow cookers and stovetops. Going back to the 6-lb pork shoulder, multicookers using the slow-cook setting are able to use only 65% as much energy as slow cookers, while also shaving off over 80% of the cooking time (a reduction of 6.5 hours)[3]. As for the stovetop, saute settings on the multicooker allow you to use 10 times less energy than a traditional kitchen stove[1].
How It Works
So, how is it that multicookers are so energy efficient? The answer is that numerous factors have been manipulated to maximize energy efficiency. First, consider how multicookers get their energy. They are powered by an electric coil whose size corresponds to that of the cooking vessel, which greatly improves the efficiency; consider how with stovetop cooking, the burner is often far larger than the pan, allowing heat energy to escape. Also, the coil and cooking vessel are in perfect contact, which is important because low-contact cooking (such as if your pan had a warped bottom) can consume up to 50% more energy[2].
Another energy-efficiency factor that has been maximized in many ways is how well the multicooker retains energy during the cooking process. First, the cooking vessels are very well-insulated, so less heat is able to escape the system. Similarly, multicookers always use lids (other than when sauteing), and, particularly when pressure cooking, they are firmly sealed; even the simple act of putting a lid on a regular pot cuts energy use 8-fold, so the tight seal when pressure cooking is greatly beneficial. Additionally, if you have to use multiple different functions for your meal (such as first sauteing some onions for a soup, and then switching to pressure cooking once all of your remaining ingredients have been added), the majority of the energy used in the prior processes stays in the system as you transition to other functions because the heat is being retained in the singular cooking vessel[2]. Lastly, you can convert many meals into single-appliance ones because the multicooker will allow you to boil grains, steam vegetables, and broil a protein all at once[1]. In comparison, with traditional cooking, you might have to transition between multiple pans or appliances, consuming additional energy for each new item that needs to be heated up.
Lastly, multicookers have a few bonus tricks up their sleeve to conserve energy. First, they only apply heat when needed, meaning that once the device is up to temperature, minimal additional electricity will have to be pulled to cook the food. In contrast, an appliance like the stovetop has no way to know how hot your food is, so it keeps on heating it at full strength (unless you turn down the heat yourself). Another way that multicookers (particularly air fryers) save energy is by using the convection method (where hot air is quickly circulated around the food), which uses 20% less energy than the conventional method used by many ovens. The final factor maximizing their energy efficiency is their small size, for it means there is much less volume to heat and keep warm[3]. This is an issue that is particularly obvious in comparison to large ovens that are mostly filled with empty air instead of food, especially if you’re a college student only cooking for one or two people[5].
Other Environmental Benefits
The environmental benefits of multicookers extend far beyond their high energy efficiency. The most significant of these is that by owning a multicooker that can take the place of numerous appliances, there will be fewer appliances that you need to buy, repair, or replace[1]. Accordingly, all of the harmful environmental impacts associated with appliance lifecycles (particularly pertaining to manufacturing and disposal) will be greatly reduced.
Manufacturing appliances takes a great toll on our planet. For one, it requires a lot of resources to make new appliances. Because they all contain electrical components, we have to extract a variety of precious metals and rare earth metals, including gold, palladium, and cobalt. In doing so, not only are we faced with the issue of depleting our nonrenewable resources, but there’s also the issue that the more we mine them, the deeper we have to drill to find more, making the process even more damaging to the environment. The manufacturing process, both during mining and while at the factory, also boasts hefty carbon and water footprints. The carbon portion is due to the fact that these processes are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. As for the water footprint, this comes from the high volumes of water that are consumed (such as to cool manufacturing equipment or to help extract metals), much of which is later released into the environment as often-toxic wastewater[7].
Disposing of kitchen appliances is equally harmful. If they end up in a landfill, these appliances will release toxins into the soil, water, and air. Or, if incinerated, they will contribute to air pollution and acid rain, as well as release ash that is contaminated with toxins such as heavy metals. But, just because you shouldn’t throw them out doesn’t mean you can throw these appliances in your recycling bin, either. If you don’t seek out a special recycling service for these electrical devices—such as a household waste recycling center or a place with WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) certification—this pollution is still likely to happen, as there are many complex processes required to properly recycle kitchen appliances. For example, the insulation in appliances like refrigerators must be ground down, and a specialist then has to capture the ozone-depleting gases that are released and destroy them via incineration[7]. Failure to properly execute such processes would have great consequences for our planet.
Moving on to the other environmental perks of multicookers, we’ll begin with the cleaning process. The inner cooking surface of most multicookers is nonstick, making them very easy to clean. Because of this, you don’t need to use as harsh of cleaners as you would need to clean, say, an oven, and these gentler cleaning agents will result in a much less harmful version of water pollution[5]. Building on this, the ease of cleaning means you can also use less soap, reducing the amount that is able to pollute the environment. Lastly, easy-to-clean multicookers enable you to use less water, helping conserve this resource[6].
The final environmental benefit of multicookers (particularly air fryers) is reduced food waste. This comes in two main forms: cooking oil and leftovers. With cooking oil, using an air fryer instead of a deep fryer prevents the wasting of large quantities of used cooking oil, which can be difficult to dispose of[5]. As for leftovers, air fryers offer the unique ability to reheat food (particularly fried food) in a way that maintains its crispiness; by contrast, most foods get soggy when reheated in the microwave, and sometimes even the oven can’t replicate the desired texture[6]. By ensuring your leftovers are in a form you want to eat them in (because no one wants soggy onion rings), air fryers are a great way to prevent them from going to waste.
If you decide to purchase your own multicooker, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. However, while I’m sure you’re tired of me and the rest of the environmentalist community saying it, think twice before buying one if you don’t plan to use it often or you already own most of the appliances it would replace, as this would diminish its environmental benefits. And, of course, always try to buy used if possible. Until next week, bon appetit!
Sources:
- What Can a Multi-Cooker Do? Do I Need One in 2022?
- How efficient is your cooking?
- Save Money Using a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot Instead of the Oven
- Does an Instant Pot use a lot of electricity?
- Eco-Friendly & Zero Waste Cooking With Ninja Air Fryer
- Are Air Fryers Energy Efficient: A Definitive Answer
- Negative impacts of household appliances
Green Teens Unite 
Leave a comment