Sainsbury's 123677151 4.5 litre Slow Cooker
Strange instructions in the manual for this slow cooker led us to test it out carefully. Unusual maximum capacities, inability to cook curries on a low setting had us concerned. How does this slow cooker perform? Surprisingly well in truth!
The rubber feet provide a stable base that stands 2cm or so above the surface. The handles on the main unit remain cool even at the high setting although the handles on the pot are hot to touch.
As far as looks go it's not out of place in most kitchen settings. The front dial is possibly rather bland and chunky looking but it is a practical size and clear to read.
Control Panel of Sainsbury's 123677151 Slow Cooker
The cooking pot is plain black and proportionally rather high compared to other slow cookers but it's fine for serving direct to a table with a heat protector cover.
Sainsbury's 12367751 cooking bowl
We were intrigued when we read the instruction manual because it says "this slow cooker has a total volume of 4.5 litres including the lid capacity .....". So it would appear that the actual capacity is slightly less than 4.5 litres when the bulge in the lid is not taken into account. The manual also states that "... leave a minimum of 0.5cm between the rim where the lid sits and the top of the liquid." - that seems very, very full up as far as we are concerned for the sake of safety and ability to move the unit.
The cooker bowl weighs 3kg which is average. We could find no dimensions for the unit anywhere so we measured it as approximately H:230 mm W:365 mm D:282. Energy consumption is from 175W to 190W depending on the setting selected which is good for a slow cooker of this size. The length of the electric lead is 90cm / 3 foot which is long enough in most circumstances.
We tested out the cooking performance first by cooking a lamb stew for 2 hours on high and then 4½ hours on low. Both the vegetables and the meat were cooked very well and we found no fault with the slow cooker on this practical test other than it cooked slightly faster than the average.
Then we did our standard test of filling the slow cooker two thirds full with water (lid on) and turning it to the low setting. It reached it's maximum temperature on low of 84°C after 2 hours 45 minutes and on high the maximum temperature was 94°C. This is 4 or 5 degrees higher than average (for both high and low settings) and it reached that temperature slightly quicker than normal. This is backed up by our practical cooking test above. So, if you decide to buy the Sainsbury's 123677151 4.5 litre slow cooker then expect it to cook quicker than the average. On the keep warm setting the temperature was 78°C which again is a few degrees higher than required. See our page on food temperatures and slow cookers here.
Both the lid and cooking pot need to be washed by hand, neither is dishwasher safe. The exterior of the unit is easily cleaned with a cloth.
Note that the manufacturers website states that the bowl and glass lid are dishwasher safe but the instruction manual says they must be washed by hand. The instruction manual is basic and provides no suggested recipes. The manual suggests filling the cooking bowl with liquids and solids when it is outside of the main metal housing. When full, the pot should be lifted into the metal housing - this is a practice which seems unnecessarily complicated and liable to spillage.
We found no other reviews for this slow cooker.
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