If your Instant Pot won’t turn on, don’t assume something’s wrong with the appliance right away; troubleshoot by checking a few basic parts inside and outside first. Start by looking at end of power cord where it inserts into the base. Gently pull on it; if it comes out slightly loose, insert it again, ensuring it clicks firmly in place.
Then plug the Instant Pot into an outlet and look for the screen to light up instantly. A lot of power problems is solved by this very quick fix; because the plug gets slightly loose over time from regular use.
Testing Internal Fuses
Next, see if there’s a blown fuse in the base unit. To do this, you’ll need to take out bottom cover and unscrew the unit. Then find the internal circuit board. Look for the fuse attached to red wire. This is typically your main protection.
A blown fuse may appear visually unbroken but that isn’t always true. Test the fuse with a multimeter on the continuity setting. If the fuse are not blown, the terminals will touch and the meter will beep.
If the pot still won’t turn on even though the first fuse tests good, you is looking for a second safety fuse nearby. A lot of cookers employ double fusing, meaning that BOTH has to be intact to pass electricity onto the main board.
To check the second fuse, touch your multimeter’s probes to its terminals. Silence from the meter means it has blown, time for a new fuse. That silence tells us there’s an open circuit; nothing will flow through this part.
Unscrew bottom cover, then cut the fuse wire leads at an angle using diagonal cutters and pull out faulty fuse. Replace it with another one of identical specs and snug down connections tightly with no slack.
Screw the bottom cover back on, plug the machine back in and press the power button to see if display is lit and the cooking settings show on-screen. It’s a job you can do yourself in under 20 minutes with minimal tools.
Before jumping to conclusions, it’s a good idea to check for blown fuses and loose connections as those issues can also cause appliances to fail but don’t need to be fixed by professionals. A multimeter is a great way to test whether the internal parts are still functional, since it will tell you immediately when there isn’t continuity.
First unplug the device, then check connection or use a multimeter to see if you need to replace the fuse. In many cases this will get things up and running again, at no additional cost to yourself. Actually, you should of checked for any moddern wiring issues too. A lot of cookers has problems with power cord based off regular use. If the pot dissapears from your counter it might be a different than usual problem. You’ll recieve better results if you check everything carefullyly.
