China since 2001 here. Most of the early rice cooker type pots didn't do 'pressure cooking' but obviously rice cooking in a confined space does have a pressure

China since 2001 here. Most of the early rice cooker type pots didn't do 'pressure cooking' but obviously rice cooking in a confined space does have a pressure element potentially so it's not a huge leap. Not sure when the first ones with this leap appeared. Definitely before this guy named it in English. Given that he didn't have huge capital it's 99-100% likely he just rebranded and/or slightly modified an existing device and paid to get safety approvals for North American markets, thus making it import-capable. Note that they had a recall in 2015 which sort of implies they are not engineering in North America for the North American market. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2015/Instant-Pot-Pressure-Cookers-Recalled-by-Double-Insight https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2015/Instant-Pot-Pressure-Cooke...