How to Fix POT ERROR on the Ninja Foodi: Beginner & Advanced Steps
Can be frustrating as hell when you are on one of the most advanced devices for cooking foods in any household and it’s broken.
Many people are surprised to find that their Ninja Foodi, a highly advanced pressure cooker, is showing an error message on its screen.
The question today we want to ask is how do you fix a POT error on your Ninja Foodi?
The reason why you are getting a POT error is due to a sensor failure. Make sure you wipe down the inside of your Foodi including the heater element which houses the sensor. Sit your pot snugly inside while looking for any small objects that may be blocking your pot from sitting flush onto the seams.
If in the unfortunate case that this doesn’t work, there are still a few other things you can do to potentially get rid of this error.
Let’s talk about this in detail.
How to fix POT ERROR on the Ninja Foodi
Let’s focus on a detailed step-by-step procedure of everything you need to do before deciding if you need professional help.
- Start off with a typical restart. You’re going to have to pull the power plug from the Ninja Foodi and then put it back in. Sometimes, it just needs a reboot.
- Look for the spring-loaded sensor underneath where the pot should be. It’s usually located at the center of the heating element. Make sure this sensor can freely move up and down without any obstruction. There’s a likely chance maybe some food or crumbs may have gotten lodged underneath. Push it up and down several times to hopefully break up any debris or whatever it is underneath.
- It would also help if you clean the inside of your Ninja Foodi thoroughly. This means a hard scrubbing along with flipping it over hopefully forcing bits of crumbs and food out of the areas that you can’t reach. Lift the Foodi upside down after it’s dry and give it a hard shake.
- When placing the pot into the Foodi body, try to make sure that it goes in snugly and freely without any obstruction. The pot should practically sink in without any gaps between the seams.
What is a POT error on the Ninja Foodi?
The Ninja Foodie is a highly advanced pressure cooker with all the bells and whistles. It comes with a ton of sensors in order to keep the user informed and safe.
The pot sensor is a specialized sensor that works by trying to recognize if the pot has been placed into the Foodi before it cooks.
If the Ninja Foodi’s pot sensor is unable to recognize the actual pot placed inside itself, then it will not cook. The sensor will automatically shut off the cooking processes and basically render the device inoperable.
Funny enough, this is a safety precaution for anyone who forgets to put the pot inside the pressure cooker when cooking.
I do not think it happens often, but I know one or two people myself who have forgotten about it.
Unfortunately for us, this sensor is highly sensitive and often times prone to failing. When it fails, it can be impossible to get your Ninja Foodi to cook unless the problem is fixed or bypassed by a professional.
What Causes the POT Error on the Ninja Foodi?
There could be a multitude of reasons why the pot sensor would fail suddenly. The most common technical reason would be that the switch that disables the pot sensing feature is no longer functioning properly.
It can be due to debris, food, or just wear from the electrical wiring. It’s hard to tell unless you open up the device and go into it.
Repairs or replacements made within the warranty
When you purchase a Ninja Foodie, the company guarantees a one-year warranty. They will repair and even replace any products within that time frame of when you first purchased them. Make sure you hold on to the receipt.
The warranty will cover any electrical or malfunction issues on the device itself. The warranty doesn’t cover any of the loose parts that come with the pressure cooker.
Step 1: Call Ninja’s customer service department
The service department’s number is 1-866-826-6941. Make sure you have the receipt with you since it will be used as proof of purchase.
Step 2: Perform over the phone troubleshooting
The customer service representative will likely ask you a few questions as well as try to help you with troubleshooting the device. They will ask if you can look into the device and see if there are any obstructions like leftover food and debris. They’ll also ask you to try a few different settings.
Finally, they will ask you if you could readjust the pot and see if it works.
Step 3: Ship it out for repair or replacement
At this point, there’s a likely chance that the problem still exists. The customer service representative will then create a return merchandise authorization (RMA) ticket along with a shipping label for you to print out.
Make sure you provide a copy of your receipt within one year of purchase.
The process of getting your repaired or replaced Ninja Foodi back will take roughly one month.
Repairs made out of warranty
There’s going to be a possibility that you were Ninja Foodi is no longer within warranty.
This means that the manufacturer is no longer liable to repair the device as an agreement with the purchase.
In this case, you’re pretty much on your own.
| Out of warranty repair options | Estimated costs |
|---|---|
| Buy a new Ninja Foodi | $150 to $215 |
| Take it to a professional repair center | $50 to $75 |
| Fix it yourself | $0 |
Here you have about three options and I’ve taken the liberty to list them from the most expensive to the cheapest route.
Option 1: Buy a new Ninja Foodi
This is probably going to be the easiest option on the list.
My guess is that your Ninja Foodi is really old and it’s time for a replacement anyways.
Ninja Foodi’s, these days, range anywhere from $150 on a good Black Friday deal to just over $200 for the high-end versions.
Your best bet is just to go to your local major grocery store and pick one of these things up if you really don’t want to make the extra effort of the next few choices in line.
Option 2: Professional repair shop
Most local electronic repair shops would be capable of opening up and repairing this ninja device pretty easily.
If you hire someone to repair the Ninja Foodi, a fair price would probably be somewhere around $50 to $75.
If the repairman doesn’t have a replacement sensor for your pressure cooker then it’s likely you’ll have to wait a little while for it to comment before he can start on the repairs.
This can be a bit of an inconvenience because you have to wait and come back at another time when it is finished.
Again, you going to have to decide if it’s worth the time and effort to repair one small part on a device and pay almost half of its value.
I would almost recommend that you should just buy a new Ninja Foodi.
Option 3: Bypass the electrical sensor
This is the do-it-yourself part. Now, just a warning. The insides of a Ninja Foodi can look rather daunting. There are wires everywhere, and there’s no guarantee that after you’re done with this method, it will be fixed.
However, if you like to tinker around and you have some time on your belt then this might be the option for you to begin with.
It costs virtually nothing but your time and effort. Leave about 1 hour of free time for this.
- Unplug the power from the Ninja Foodi.
- Flip the cooker upside down.
- Use a T10 screwdriver and remove the one screw that holds in the bottom plate.
- Rotate the bottom plate to pull it out.
- At the very center, there is a silver circle. This is the pot sensor that failed.
- Using a wrench with a 5.5 mm socket, you can remove the bolts that connect the two black wires.
- There are screws (4) all around the bottom exterior of the Foodi that you’ll need to remove. These are the screws that are holding the inner heating plate inside the Foodi.
- You noticed that there are also a few wires that are traveling through from the bottom and into the inner chamber of the Foodi. These wires are connected to the bottom heating plate. Make sure to unscrew these and record where they came from.
- By now you should be able to pull off most of the heating plate with the pot sensor in the middle out.
- Unscrew the two screws from the pot sensor casing and take out the pot sensor and spring.
- Also, another two screws are deep within between the pot sensor and the full casing. Remove these. You can use a thinner pair of screwdrivers since it will be hard to reach into this area and unscrew.
- There’s a very high chance that these pieces are all pretty dirty due to food and debris. Make sure you wipe them perfectly clean. Use a toothbrush if it helps to get between the small areas. You can also use WD-40 to break up the crust of old food. This is a spring-loaded sensor that just needs to make contact with the other end, so it’s best to make sure that there is nothing in between like food that is blocking the contact.
- Now it’s time to reverse the entire process and put it all back together.
- If it starts to work then congratulations!
How to prevent errors like POT from occurring with your Ninja Foodi
In almost all cases, you’re going to have to be careful not to spill any food into the chamber of the Ninja Foodi. Once the food gets into the crevices of the sensors, it would be almost impossible to clean up unless you want to spend an hour or so dismantling the entire device.
I also recommend cleaning your Foodi as frequently as possible. Wipe down the insides of the pressure cooker as often as every time you cook something so that the residue doesn’t end up building up and seeping into the sensors hard to reach places.
Keeping your Foodi clean and being extra careful around it is crucial to keep it working properly for as long as it can.
Common mistakes when using the Ninja Foodi
Do not ever spill liquid or food into the inside of the Foodi where the pot goes in
This right here is probably the main reason why your Ninja Foodi pot sensor has failed. As I’ve stated before, if food or liquids find their way into the pot sensor then it may block contact that allows the system to cook. This is why you get the POT error.
You didn’t put enough liquid into the Ninja Foodi
This pot requires at least one cup of liquid when cooking anything. Just make sure you add enough liquid or broth to the cooking process.
Don’t fill the Ninja Foodi beyond the max fill line
Filling food in the pot beyond the max fill line can cause the Ninja Foodi to overfill and expand far beyond the pot when cooking. This can also lead to food and liquids falling off the side and into the pot sensor cavity where it will cause the sensor to fail.
You’re cooking all types of foods at the same time
Different types of foods require different amounts of time to cook. Make sure you understand the types of food you place inside and in what order it needs to go in.
You can’t add these ingredients to a pressure cooker
There are certain things you can’t add to a pressure cooker such as cornstarch, potato starch, or any other flours or thickeners. These things burn pretty easily inside a pressure cooker.
The bottom line
If you’re like me and you’ve owned a Ninja Foodi pressure cooker for over a year now, you might have come across this POT error message. The truth is, cleaning this device has to be done each and every time you use it.
You have to also be very careful when handling food in the pot while not allowing any of the food or liquid to tip over and pour into the chamber. This part is not waterproof and getting anything inside will likely damage the sensor almost immediately.
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