What a Kitchen Gadget Actually Costs You in Counter Space

The roster has two real countertop gadgets, not a dozen. Here's what each one actually costs in space, time, and planning before you clear a spot for it.

Read Vault’s product roster includes exactly two appliances built to live permanently on a kitchen counter: the Instant Pot Pro and the Ninja CREAMi. That is a short list, and stretching it to include a vacuum or a power bank would not make it more useful. The fairer comparison between the two is not price but the trade each one asks a kitchen to make — how much surface area it claims, how heavy it is to shift for cleaning, and how much advance planning it demands before it produces anything edible. Judged that way, they are not really interchangeable.

Footprint and warranty

• Instant Pot Pro: 13.0 x 12.7 x 12.8 in, 6 qt, 1,200 W, 1-year limited warranty
• Ninja CREAMi NC301: 17.44 x 8.58 x 18.39 in, 15.94 lb, 800 W, 1-year warranty
• CREAMi needs a 24-hour freeze before its base recipe can be processed
• Cheaper CREAMi option: NC351 at 199.99 dollars vs the NC301’s 229.99 dollars

Frequency Decides Whether a Footprint Is Worth It

A countertop appliance is a standing decision rather than a one-time purchase: once it has a spot, it either earns that spot by getting used most days or it becomes storage clutter that happens to have a plug. The two kitchen items in Read Vault’s roster sit at very different points on that scale, and the difference is less about their footprint on paper than about how often that footprint has to be tolerated before dinner or dessert actually happens.

The Instant Pot Pro is a daily-use tool with a fixed job list. The Ninja CREAMi is an occasional-use tool that requires the user to think a full day ahead of wanting it. Neither fact makes one gadget better than the other — it makes them suited to different kitchens and different levels of patience.

That framing also explains why price alone is the wrong way to compare them. CREAMi’s own listing puts the NC301 at 229.99 dollars, and Instant Pot doesn’t publish a current list price in the material available for this piece — but even where prices are close, a gap of a few dollars either way wouldn’t settle much. What actually decides it is whether a household already cooks something most nights and would freeze a base the night before dessert, or does neither.

The Instant Pot Pro Claims 13 Inches and Replaces Several Single-Use Tools

The Instant Pot Pro measures 13.0 by 12.7 by 12.8 inches, a footprint close enough to square that it tucks into a corner of a standard counter. Its 6-quart bowl runs at 1,200 watts across 10 cooking functions and 28 Smart Programs — pressure cooking, slow cooking, and steaming among them — which is the appliance’s real argument for the space: it replaces several single-task devices rather than adding one more.

It carries a 1-year limited warranty, according to Instant Pot’s own product page, a modest guarantee for an appliance meant to become a daily fixture. The company behind it, Instant Brands, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 12 June 2023, CBS News reported, and was acquired by Centre Lane Partners later that year, emerging as a standalone company under CEO Chris Robins, according to Retail Dive. The Pro has since been pushed down the lineup — Instant now sells a WiFi-enabled Pro Plus and a Pro Max above it — but it remains in production, which is the fact that matters for anyone buying one today.

The ‘Pro’ name no longer signals the top of the range the way it once did, in other words — a buyer choosing the base Pro over the WiFi-enabled models above it is trading app connectivity for a smaller, simpler unit that still fits comfortably in that 13-inch footprint. What it doesn’t trade away is the job list: rice, beans, stock, a weeknight braise are all grocery-adjacent tasks, which is a large part of why this is the appliance most likely to get opened on an ordinary Tuesday.

The Ninja CREAMi Claims More Room and a Day of Your Time Before It Does Anything

The Ninja CREAMi NC301 is a larger commitment in every sense. It stands 18.39 inches tall on a 17.44 by 8.58-inch base and weighs 15.94 pounds — heavy enough that shifting it in and out of a cabinet between uses isn’t realistic for most kitchens. It draws 800 watts across 8 programs and processes two 16-ounce pints at a time.

The catch isn’t the machine, it’s the schedule: the base recipe needs a 24-hour freeze before the CREAMi can turn it into ice cream or sorbet, according to SharkNinja’s own product listing. That means the appliance can’t answer a same-day craving — it has to be planned the day before, every time, which is a very different relationship with a counter than an appliance someone reaches for on impulse. It carries a 1-year warranty, matching the Instant Pot Pro.

Two 16-ounce pints per batch also sets a practical ceiling: this is built for a household serving two to four people at a sitting, not for stocking a freezer with days of dessert in one run. Combined with the 24-hour lead time, the CREAMi suits a household that plans its desserts a little like it plans its groceries, rather than one that wants something ready the moment it’s craved.

A Cheaper CREAMi Exists, and a Bigger One

SharkNinja has built the NC301 into a full line since its release, and the base model is no longer the only — or even the cheapest — option:

• NC351, listed at 199.99 dollars, a step down from the NC301’s 229.99 dollars
• NC501 Deluxe, an 11-in-1 version
• NC601 XL, a larger-capacity version
• NC701 Swirl, a 13-in-1 version at 299.99 dollars

Which One a Small Kitchen Should Actually Clear Space For

For a kitchen with one appliance slot to give, the Instant Pot Pro is the safer claim on that space: it gets used more often, by design, because its 28 programs cover routine cooking rather than a dessert that has to be requested a day in advance. The CREAMi earns its space only in a kitchen that already has somewhere to store 15.94 pounds of appliance between uses, and a household that will actually remember to freeze the base the day before.

There’s a version of this decision that has nothing to do with either machine’s merits: a kitchen that has already committed its counter to a coffee setup, a kettle, and a knife block simply doesn’t have 18.39 inches of clearance to spare, whatever the CREAMi promises to do with it. In that kitchen, the more honest answer is neither appliance — or the Instant Pot Pro alone, since its footprint is the one most standard counters can actually absorb.

Neither is a bad product on its own terms. The mismatch, when there is one, is between the appliance and the kitchen it’s asked to live in — and that’s worth working out before either one takes up permanent residence on the counter.

Sources: Instant Pot Pro · SharkNinja CREAMi · Retail Dive · CBS News