Is it really ok to leave slow cooker on unattended

[sleepweelady]

So I love my slow cooker but I've never left it on when nobody has been at home but I'm starting a new job in a few weeks and I think it would make life easier if I could use it in this way so that we are eating dinner at a reasonable hour.

I do, leave it on low all day

We leave ours on like that. It's what they're intended for isn't it? Just make sure you put plenty water in so it doesn't boil dry. But it shouldn't do as they don't get the temperature high enough to boil water off at any speed

Thanks guys. I just was unsure if people actually did that in real life so excuse the stupid question lol

We accidentally left our on all night with nothing in it once. It had cracked a tiny bit so needed to buy a new one, but it didn't do anything serious!

Make sure it’s not near to anything.

I asked my DH to put ours on once and came home (earlier than planned luckily) to find it touching our wooden knife block…..

Yes I do and also put meat in with no liquid at all !! Having said that once I’d watched This Is Us slow cookers took on a new fear for me on the house fire front 🤣

Probably sensible to make sure they're not near anything, but I don't think they get got enough that they could set fire to an adjacent wooden knife block. Ours is not hotter than a radiator on the sides - you can touch it. It's possible to burn a stew dry though if you put it on the higher setting for long hours and not enough water. Nothing caught fire when we did this, though it made a bit of smoke.

Yes, I definitely do. It's the biggest advantage of a slow cooker - that you don't have to be around to keep an eye on it. Theoretically, my oven can be set to turn itself off but a) you need a degree in mechanical engineering to make it work and b) it always makes me nervous that if I've made a mistake no one will notice. But the slow cooker is fine. And in mine, while most recipes say 4 hours high or 8 hours low, I actually have found that most stews and casseroles do better with 5 hours on high or 10 hours on low so that works especially well if I want to put it on and leave.