It was among the hottest gifts of the holiday season, but now some owners of the Instant Pot are complaining about one model overheating.
The cookware maker has asked users of the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker to discontinue usage immediately due to "overheating, resulting in localized melting damage to the underside of the product," it announced on Facebook. The issue doesn't affect its other models.
"We believe the problem only affects batchcodes 1728, 1730, 1731, 1734, and 1746. To verify the 4-digit batchcode, locate the silver label on the underside of the product. The batchcode is the 4-digit number located at the bottom right of the label."
Instant Pot said it will announce next steps for receiving a free replacement Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker "within the next few weeks." The company said it's cooperating with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The announcement provoked the ire of some Instant Pot owners, who have been waiting for a solution.
"It's not a few customers tho. There are countless people who have been waiting MONTHS since receiving this message as an email," Raina Lincicum commented on the Facebook post, which has since disabled comments.
Katie Hughes added, "Now you are posting the same form letter you send when anyone asks what the next step is? It was a few weeks, weeks ago. Stop resetting the clock and make this right."
"I have seen bubbles forming on the bottom of mine," Roxana Chee wrote.
Multicooker sales surged last year, rising 79 percent to more than $300 million in the 12 months ended November 2017, according to market tracker NPD Group. During the past holiday season, it was a hot gift item, with numerous retailers selling out of it during the busy Black Friday weekend and Amazon saying it was one of its top sellers.
The device went viral as countless Facebook groups dedicated to sharing recipes have cropped up and fans raved about how the gadget had changed their lives.
The pot — which costs from about $60 to $350, depending on retailer and model — functions as both a pressure cooker (cooking things rapidly by trapping steam) and a slow cooker (heating food low and slow).
— CNBC's Angelica LaVito contributed to this report.
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