Instant Pot Milk Frother, 4-in-1 Electric Milk Steamer, 10oz/295ml Automatic Hot and Cold Foam Maker and Milk Warmer for Latte, Cappuccinos, Macchiato, From the Makers of Instant 500W, Black

Not perfect, but it makes really GREAT FROTH!
I have been using a handheld frother for a little over a year. It works really well, but since I use it so often, I decided the ease of an electric would be worth it. After much searching, I decided on this one as good for the price. I’ve had it for a little over a month, and I’m very happy with it so far.
There are four differen settings: cold foam, warm light foam, warm thick foam, and warm with no foam. Though it does foam a little in that setting, which is odd, but whatever.
I always drink skim milk, so I can’t speak for other types of milk.
– The most important thing to me is the froth. It makes GREAT froth. I gave it five stars solely for this reason, even though it’s not flawless. The froth is amazing. I typically use the warm thick foam setting. It’s so very thick, and smooth, and fluffy. Some pours out into the drink, but often there is a good portion that I need to coax out with a spoon, which I love. The light foam is also nice. I like it to mix in with a beverage, but generally my motto is why light froth when you can thick froth??? I tried the cold froth for my daughter, and it was equally smooth and fluffy.
– It’s super easy to run. Just press the button to choose the froath that you want and press the button to start. It starts and stops on it’s own.
– Fixing my negetive statement concerning the frother overflowing. It doesn’t. Review was due to my bad eyes and the difficult to see “min” “max” lines in the container.
– It’s not dishwasher safe. I wasn’t looking for dishwasher safe because I used my handheld once or twice a day. I knew I would want to use this one before I could run a cycle through the dishwasher. If you want dishwasher safe, keep looking.
– It IS easy to clean. Super easy to wash out with a cloth or sometimes I just put a drop of dishsoap and some water in the container and run the cold cycle. The one thing I dislike is that the mechanics are in the bottom of the container, rather than in the base it sits on. You have to be careful not to get it too wet, and I’m always paranoid I’m going to do something stupid to wet and ruin it. I haven’t yet. And I’m probably not.
– I think the cord is a little long for a countertop appliance, considerably longer than my coffee machine and WAY longer than my toaster. To me this is the most annoying thing about it because I really dislike seeing cords. A more “countertop appliance” friendly cord would be easier to tuck and hide.
UPDATE:
After using this great little frother 2/3 times daily for a year and a half, it died. I’ve had virtually no complaints during that time and stick to everything written in my original review….. for the dead frother at least. I replaced it with a duplicate. I missed my froth so much and was SO excited when it arrived. That one just wasn’t the same. I did everything exactly the same. Same milk, same amount. same setting, same kitchen, same everything. I tried over and over. It was worse than my handheld frother. 🙁 I sent it back and got them to send another one. It’s great… thankfully because this froth has become one of the little joys in my life. So if you get one and aren’t content with the way it froths, send it back and ask for a replacement. Maybe you got a lemon.

It’s okay once you learn the tricks
I’ve ben using this machine almost daily for around 5 months now, and usually it works well. At the start I had to experiment with different milk products before I found a system that produced the desired outcome. I wish the markings on the inside were easier to see, especially in low lighting. If you don’t have a strong light directly over head, you can’t read the markings. Lights under mounted microwaves won’t work unless the frother completely under the light, but then you can’t pour anything in. I’ve also gotten extremely frustrated with the actual frothing piece. Multiple mornings it jumps off the mount and wanders off. I’ve learned the sounds of when the machine is running with the frother attached, and detached. In the past week I’ve had two mornings when I’ve had to reattach the frother 5 times. Yet other mornings it works on the first try. There is no way to know until you turn it on if the frother will decide to go on an adventure or not.
As for cleaning, it isn’t hard, but you have to be mindful. You can’t get the bottom of the unit, or the buttons wet. If your washing many dishes you can’t just dunk this into the dish water, or rinse it quickly under running water. However, it has cleaned easily enough on the inside. I’m easily able to wipe it our with a dishcloth- it is neither too deep or narrow.

I originally rated this a 1 star as I had issues with the unit after only a few months after purchase. This was on me as I never followed up with Instant after my original complaint, so I just dealt with the issue of the whisk falling off intermittently. The latest was the whisk stopped spinning 3 months after the warranty expired!
I reached out to Instant this time and followed through with my complaint and provided what they asked for in terms of pictures and video and I just learned that they are going to ship me a new unit as a goodwill gesture. I am so happy that they are standing behind their product and believed what I said about the product just stopped working out of nowhere. Even though I believed this is the right thing to do on their part, the fact that I reached out 3 months after the warranty expired and they really could have said “too bad” like most places I’ve dealt with after warranty ends, really impressed me! So for that they get a 5 star.
I absolutely loved the unit when is did work as expected! It steamed the milk perfectly and created the most amazing froth! I am really hoping that my original unit was just a lemon and that my replacement unit will work as expected for a long time!

I ended up with 2 of these. First one was great for about a week – then is stopped foaming the milk and the milk did not get hot. I received a second one that after a week would not turn on at all. I now have 2 that don’t work as I was unable to return them in the timeframe required (medical stuff came up). This has got to be the worst purchase of my life.

If you’re considering this machine to make cold foam like you’ve had at Starbucks or seen in videos, this machine is INCREDIBLE!
Before buying it I tried to make this special super silky foam that pours almost like melted marshmallow using what I already own: a Ninja Blast blender and a very expensive microfoamer called Submimimal Nanofoamer. No luck, the cold foam was liquidy, nothing like what I hoped for. Could the Instant Frother really work?!
The key to success, it seems, is to not mix milk and cream as some cold foam recipes suggest (my first failed attempt) but to simply use milk.
The manual is also very clear about which settings can be used for alternative milks, by the way, so coconut milk for cold foam only, other milks like oat and soy for cold or warm (I imagine they might split for hot foam). I have no idea yet how this machine performs with heavy cream alone but cow’s milk + heavy cream split making cold foam.
I see a few negative reviews about the build quality but since I’m on Day 1, I can’t say and can only hope. There’s a sticker on the pitcher that it must not be submerged in water so care must be taken while washing it. I found that just pouring in enough 1% milk to cover the whisk then selecting Cold and starting gave me tons of unctuous cold foam after about 3 minutes and it was a breeze to clean under the faucet.
The price seems to vary a lot and I’m happy to have found it yesterday for just $40 CAD. If this machine can last it’ll be worth every penny!