Please help me choose a slow cooker!

[SoonMeansNever]

I'm a bit blinded by the choice, do you have any advice please?
They all seem to be so similar, and mostly have 5* reviews so it's really hard for me to know which will suit us!

Are the 'sear and stew' ones a good buy? I imagine we'll mostly be making stews etc, and gather that meat/onions need browning first.

We have a tiny galley kitchen, so I assumed we'd get a small one, but have read that the bigger ones are a better buy long term? It'll have to sit out on the worktop (probably usurping the breadbin, which mostly stores biscuits anyway).

We're a family of four, 2 adults, toddler, baby, but it'd be good to have some leftovers to use/freeze sometimes.

Timers/settings, what's important?
DH has shown me a £17 and a £90 one, both at John Lewis, and I can't tell if price means much - people often seem to say they bought theirs for thruppence twenty years ago and it's still going strong!

Morphy Richards contender

we have a 3.5 litre one that is now about 25 years old and was pretty cheap at the time. its not big enough for large joints but is perfect size for family of 4/5 for everything else. i would go for cheap one and then if you don't like it, it doesn't matter. i don't brown anything except sausages and these are easily done on the hob.

low/high/auto settings and a removable pot are important.

the key thing is that you will have to change the way you cook - but you will get lots of tips on here. once you have mastered how to tweak the ingredients its really just a case of slinging things in, in the morning - espec good with frozen chopped onions

actually it does fit joints, as long as they don't have massive long bones in.

Blow the budget and get and InstantPot...slow cooker, rice cooker, pressure cooker all in one. Truly fab.

I'd say spend about £10.

Not everyone gets on with them, I love mine (have 2 at the moment) and use one at least once a week.

Tesco usually have one for £10-15.

If you get on with it then you can invest later, if you don't then you have not spent a lot and you can give it freecycle

www.johnlewis.com/russell-hobbs-19790-slow-cooker-stainless-steel/p1107289

if i was getting one from john lewis this is the one i would choose. has everything u need

Brilliant advice, thank you!

I think we're going to get the £17 JL one and see how we get on, as you say, we can always upgrade in future if necessary!

Really looking forward to trying it :)