Rival Smart Set Premium Crock Pot Review

Rival Smart Set Premium Crock Pot

You may ask yourself, "What can possibly be new and exciting about a crock pot?" Well, you'd be surprised.

Crock pot cooking can be a lifesaver for busy families, but if you don't hit the timing just right, you're out of luck. You have to get your food on early and cook it on low all day. Otherwise, you need to put your food in mid-day and cook it on high for a shorter period of time. And who, I ask you, is home in the middle of the day to start their crock pot?

Right. None of us. And that's what Rival had in mind when it designed the Rival Smart Set Crock Pot.

The Smart Set has more features than you can shake a stick at. You can set a timer, controlling the dual-cycle cooking time in increments of 30 minutes. You can set the temperature and time combinations for the same meal. You can monitor timer and temperature on the LED display. You can even check the internal food temperature using the included food probe.

Plus, the stainless steel styling on the Rival Smart Set Crock Pot is sleek enough that you won't mind leaving it out on your countertop all day-or always. While we didn't have any problems when we tested the Smart Set, other users have had mixed results in two areas in particular: the warm setting and the hinged lid.

Apparently the warm setting, which you can manually set or which the Smart Set automatically switches to when food is done cooking at a higher temperature, tends to run hot. Some users have complained about overdone or scorched food. Of course, plenty of others just rave about the results. Your mileage may vary.

As for the lid, apparently the hinge tends to break very easily. This may be a manufacturing problem, or it may be the result of rough handling. In either case, Rival stands behind its product and replaces the lid hinge for users' who bring the problem to the company's attention.