How To Fix Instant Pot Overheating? Oh no, its the dreaded OvHt code. OvHt is the Instant Pot’s Overheat code – and is both a blessing and a curse as I develop recipes for the Instant Pot. From the InstantPot.com “Questions after your purchase”:
The Overheat blessing: it saves dinners. The sensors in the pot notice food sticking to the bottom – it starts to overheat – and turns off the power right when I’m about to burn something. In the old days of stovetop pressure cooking, I wouldn’t get Overheat mode – I’d get a layer of burnt food on the bottom of the pot. I didn’t have a digital brain in my cooker, warning me that a disaster was about to happen.
Unfortunately, burnt food is the nature of pressure cookers. Once the lid is locked, the food can’t be stirred to even out the heat. If there is a thick layer of food on the bottom of the pot, and it heats up faster than the food on top, it can burn. Especially tomatoes, or starchy foods like rice. Lorna Sass’s Cooking Under Pressure taught me to float tomatoes on top of the other ingredients – if they are stirred in, they’ll sink to the bottom and scorch. And, about starch…like my Jambalaya recipe from Tuesday…Instant Pot specifically warns:
The Jambalaya rice (with tomatoes! Extra danger!) was definitely sinking to the bottom and starting to burn before the rest of the pot could heat up enough to start pressure cooking.
A related problem is a big batch of a thick recipe. Like, say, a big batch of chili that fills the pot to the max fill line. The ingredients are too thick, and heat builds up on the bottom of the pot before the top starts to boil and bring the pot up to pressure. Again, the result is overheat mode.
Instant Pots have sensors that report when the temperature at the bottom of the pot is getting too hot. This feature is designed to prevent someone from opening the pot to a pile of scorched food. The screen will either read “BURN,” “HOT,” “OvHt,” or “Food Burn,” depending on your machine.
Why do you know so much about overheat mode?
Um…well…because I keep pushing my pot to the edge of overheating. The pressure cooker is a sealed pot that traps steam to build pressure. Sealed pot equals no evaporation in a pressure cooker. Recipes that would normally thicken up over long cooking times in a traditional pot – like chili and stew – tend to come out watery from the pressure cooker. To avoid runny chili, I cut way back on the liquid in my recipes…and sometimes, I don’t get that balance right. The result? OvHt.
Is the pot about to explode?
Relax, it will be fine. (Everyones first worry – the pressure cooker is about to explode.) This is the opposite problem – before it can even come up to pressure, it is overheating, and the digital brain in the Instant Pot turned off the heat. (Now, I’ve never had an overheat code after the pot comes up to pressure, but to be on the safe side, make sure the lid is not locked. If it is locked, the pot is pressurized. Quick release the pressure and wait for the lid to unlock before continuing. But, almost all the time, overheat will happen before the pot can pressurize, and you can open it safely.)
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker – Natural Pressure Release – Keep Warm Mode On or Off
FAQ
What does hot warning mean on Instant Pot?
How do I fix my Instant Pot from overheating?
Should my Instant Pot say keep warm?
Why does my Instant Pot keep shutting off?
Why does my Instant Pot say Burn?
Why Does My Instant Pot Say “Burn?” The Instant Pot’s burn message simply means that your Instant Pot has detected that its inner pot has gotten too hot. There may be a slight amount of burned food at the bottom of your pot, but not enough to ruin whatever you’re cooking.
Why does my Instant Pot stop cooking?
There may be a slight amount of burned food at the bottom of your pot, but not enough to ruin whatever you’re cooking. Instead of continuing on with this warning, your Instant Pot will actually stop the cooking process to prevent further burning.
Why is my Instant Pot bursting?
When there’s not enough thin cooking liquid in the Instant Pot, it may not be able to generate enough steam to come up to pressure. The bottom of the pot will become too hot, thus triggering the “Burn” code. *Pro Tip: This issue happens more often when cooking very high starch content (i.e. beans, rice).
Why is my Instant Pot overheating?
When your Instant Pot is overheating and displaying the burn notice, this is simply a sign to inform you that the temperature at the bottom of your Instant Pot is very high. The Instant Pot is simply giving you a hint that there could be an issue, or that your food might end up burning.