Which size slow cooker to buy 3.5 or 6.6 litres?

[selee]

I am wanting to buy a slow cooker, I am new to these but am keen!
I have two young boys plus myself and my dh - so would like to cook for us.
Would a smaller 3.5 be ok or should I go for a 6.5 litre one? I would like to cook enough to freeze but not all the time feel I have to fill it up.

And which one should I buy!?

Many thanks.

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MNHQ

I have the 3.5l for myself, DH and DD (toddler). It comfortably does two piggy adult portions and a smaller one but I don't do anything with it iyswim. All veg and potatoes go in as well so the portion is the entire meal.

When DH smashes the pot as he inevitably will, I'm going for a bigger one so that I can freeze portions.

Meant to say, you don't need to fill it up so you could get a bigger one and put in what you need. Actually, I don't think you're supposed to fill them up anyway. I'm sure my instruction booklet mentioned 2/3 as ideal...might have dreamt that.

It depends if you regularly feed more than 4 people. I have friends who come over every couple of weeks so there are 6/7 of us and we have the 6.5litre one. I love it.

I have a 6.5 litre one and it's a little on the large size for some things (2 dc plus 2 adults at the mo), but 3.5litre would be too small. Ideally I'd have a 4.5 to 5 litre one (which you can get). My last one (which dh smashed) was 4.5litre I think.

LOL obviously husbands and crock pots aren't a good mix

Thanks so much for the advice.
My boys are young but I worry if I get the smaller one i'll regret it later!

I've got the big one - there are 2 adults 1 child and 1 baby at our house, and wouldn't go much smaller - but then, my slow cooked meals tend to be casseroley type things that I can portion up, puree down or freeze for later (although have just bought slow cooker spicy food book and am quite excited!

Much better to have a big one half full than a small one overflowing.

6.5 litre so you can fit whole joints in it.

I've got a huge one and always freeze what we don't eat. It feels like I'm getting ahead even more than just getting dinner ready ahead of time!

That great info many thanks, I think I will go for the 6.5 litre one I like to freeze extra food - any suggetions as to which one to get?

I've got a Morphy Richards - I do find it cooks slightly unevenly (food seems to 'stick' in one bottom corner) but overall rate it very highly.

I've got a 6.5l one and it's huuuuuuuuge!

Big enough to cook for 10 adults, so good if you want to make and freeze.

But you don't have to fill it up if you want to make less!

Thanks for all the info! I have been looking online at Crock-pot, Morphy Richards, Cookworks, Breville etc... any recomendations or personal favourites?

My morphy richards is great, and it was really easy to get a spare knob online when I cracked it.

I have a small £10 tesco version which is great .
I was given a larger one but never ever used it and have got rid of it. I generally freeze half even from the smaller size one.

We have the cuisinart one because it got the best review from Which?.

Thanks for all the tips. It was hard to decide but in the end I popped to Argos today and bought the Breville 5.5 litre slow cooker - I thought it seemed a good size for our family.
Will be testing it out very soon!