Last week I made a pound of pinto beans in my Instant Pot. They were very good beans and I didn’t have to worry about burning them or leaving them unattended to cook like I do when I cook them on the stove. I didn’t have to worry about them exploding like I did with my mom’s ancient pressure cooker as a kid, either. The Instant Pot cooks the beans very well. It cooks quite a few things very well. It’s reliable and affordable, and while it sucks at searing, it really does feel like a multipurpose device.

And right now, Instant Pot, despite making a very good product, is not doing so hot — today, its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while saying that a new deal for $132.5 million in financing from its lenders will support the company while it figures out a path forward. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported Instant Pot had hired restructuring advisers, a common tactic to help pull a company out of dire economic straits, and in March, dropped a story about the company’s quest to find another hit product. Which is fair; it might need one. While we don’t have exact numbers for Instant Pot’s decline, we do know sales in the electronic multicooker device category are down 50 percent since 2020. Given Instant Pot makes up the majority of that category, that’s one big reason it’s not doing well.

We also know that in 2021 it canceled $100 million worth of orders from retailers, which might have cre