Before You Put Cold Water In Your Slow Cooker, Make Sure You Know This

The slow cooker is a convenient small appliance that allows you to cook food for a long period of time, meaning you can turn it on before work and have a hot meal when you come home. While they're easy to use, most slow cookers are considered stoneware, so you need to be careful about sudden temperature changes. Never put cold water in a hot slow cooker, or you risk making a big mistake and cracking the appliance.

Many slow cookers are made from stoneware, a type of ceramic — the material helps stabilize and evenly distribute the heat within the appliance as the food cooks. The downside is that stoneware is susceptible to thermal shock, which is a response to sudden, major temperature changes (such as going from a cold freezer to a hot oven). The temperature change results in uneven expansion or contraction, putting strain on the stoneware and ultimately potentially resulting in shattering or cracking. Slow cookers use a "low and slow" method to heat, so they're not often subjected to a shock-causing environment and aren't meant to be preheated before adding cold ingredients. 

To avoid breaking your slow cooker's ceramic insert, be mindful of temperature exposure. When your food is done cooking, cleaning the appliance is easy, but let the ceramic cool completely before removing it and running it under cold water to clean it. If you have hot food that you want to cool down quickly, do not put the hot ceramic in the refrigerator or freezer. Instead, remove the food and place it onto a sheet pan or a wide, shallow bowl, where the greater surface area will help it cool faster. 

A ceramic slow cooker insert is generally oven-safe up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but keep in mind that the thermal shock situation is very real when putting anything into a hot oven. If you placed the ceramic insert into the fridge with the leftover food, make sure you let it come to room temperature before you place it in the oven. To reduce the risk even further, place the room-temperature ceramic pot in the oven before preheating, and let it heat up as the oven does. Finally, never place the stoneware slow cooker insert directly on the stovetop, or you risk cracking it that way, too.