After every cook
The inner pot washes like any other pot, in the sink or the dishwasher, once it has cooled enough to handle. Wash it the same day. Food left sitting in it only gets harder to remove, and nobody wants the next cook to start with old flavours baked in.
The lid needs a little more attention. Take the sealing ring out and wash it along with the lid. Rinse the small shield that covers the steam vent and the float valve beside it, since both collect splashes. Empty the little condensation cup on the back of the cooker, the one everyone forgets until it reminds them. Dry the parts before they go back together, and the cooker is ready for the next round.
The sealing ring problem
Sooner or later the ring will smell like dinner. Strong foods leave their mark: chili, curry, garlic heavy stews. You wash the ring, you dry it, and the next morning it still smells like last night.
Nothing is wrong with your ring. Silicone is porous stuff, and it holds onto smells the way a wooden spoon does. The smell does not mean the ring is dirty, and it does not mean the ring is worn out. Rings do wear out over time and start to seal badly, but smell alone is not the sign. It is an annoyance, and it has a few good fixes.
Getting the smell out
Start with the steam clean. Put a cup of water and a cup of white vinegar in the pot, add a lemon rind if you have one, and run Steam or Pressure Cook for 2 minutes. Let the pressure drop on its own, then wash the ring and leave it out to dry. The vinegar smell fades fast, and it takes most food smells with it.
For a stubborn ring, make a paste of baking soda and a little water, rub it over the ring, and let it sit for an hour before washing. A few hours in plain sunlight helps too, the way it does with cutting boards. And store the lid upside down on top of the cooker instead of latched shut. The ring gets air that way, and the smell has somewhere to go.
The second ring rule
The fix that ends the problem for good is a second ring. Keep one ring for savoury cooking and one for sweet, and swap them the way you would swap a cutting board between onions and fruit. Rings are cheap, they store flat in a drawer, and the swap takes ten seconds.
It sounds fussy until you make a cheesecake with the chili ring. Cheesecake that smells faintly of chili is a real and sad thing, and once you have served it, you understand the second ring rule. Buy the spare before dessert night, not after.
Burnt bottom fixes
If food burns onto the bottom of the inner pot, do not attack it right away. Fill the pot with hot water and a squirt of dish soap and let it soak for half an hour. Most of the damage lifts with a sponge after that, no force needed.
For what is left, put an inch of water in the pot, simmer it on Sauté for a few minutes, and scrape gently with a wooden spoon as the burnt layer loosens. Baking soda sprinkled on a damp pot works as a mild scrub for the last stubborn shadows. Skip the steel wool. A scouring pad made for the surface and a bit of patience will clean any pot you own, and the pot you eat from deserves both.
