Best Food Steamer Under $50

This Magic Chef steamer is slightly more expensive than the Hamilton Beach model, but it does come with 3 tiers instead of 2, which increases your steaming capacity by a third. It has 7 easy-touch settings for the most common food types to increase convenience. It also benefits from a large digital display.

Unlike the Hamilton Beach model, all the removable elements are dishwasher safe, so again this ticks all the boxes for convenience. It has an auto shut-off feature so you don’t boil the steamer dry, and with its stainless steel exterior, it looks good and should fit into most modern kitchen decors.

On the downside, the timer only allows you to operate the steamer according to the preset menus and doesn’t let you enter your own steaming times. Also, the State of California recognizes that the plastic elements of this steamer may contain harmful chemicals that could cause health issues.

This 3-tier food steamer is the last word in simplicity. It’s operated by a manual dial that allows you to select the cooking times up to a maximum of 60-minutes. Rosewill has tried to make life as easy as possible by printing suggested cooking times on the body of the steamer as a guide. What makes this product unique is the turbo boost element that generates steam in less than 40-seconds for quicker results.

It has 9.5 quarts of capacity so it can handle most family-size tasks, and because the base has wide inlets that let you top up the reservoir during steaming, you remove the risk of running dry. The baskets are constructed from BPA-free materials and are dishwasher safe, so there’s no messing about with hand washing.

There is one issue that might put you off: the numbers around the dial and the suggested cooking times rub off over time. This leaves you guessing the cook times, which can be a significant inconvenience.

This Mockins set is the first cooktop steamer and not an electric variety. It has a 3-quart sauce pot and a 2-quart steamer pot, so the size isn’t going to match up to others in this list, but not everyone needs massive capacity.

This steamer is ideal for couples or single people, and because it’s a cooktop variety it’ll last for years and years. It operates on all styles of ranges, from induction to gas, and its high-grade stainless steel construction will keep it looking good too.

This pot has large bakelite handles that stay cool during the cooking process, and the vented glass lid allows you to see what’s happening inside the pot. This set also has a lifetime replacement or refund warranty for the ultimate peace of mind, which beats the standard 1-year warranty offered on the electric steamers into the shadows.

The downside with this set is the fact that it takes up valuable space on the stove, whereas stand-alone models free your cooktop space for other things. Moreover, it isn’t as energy friendly as the electric varieties and lacks the finesse of these smarter steamers too. You also won’t get any clever gadgets on this, because this model is of the old-fashioned variety.

This 2-tier Aroma electric steamer is one of the cheapest around, at less than $30, which means it’s fantastic value for money. It doesn’t have the largest capacity, at 5 quarts, but it should be ample for the average user, and it has an easy to use manual dial that makes selecting the correct steaming times simple.

Aroma also list the average cook times of the most popular foods like rice, asparagus, chicken, and potatoes on the body of the steamer. The plastic is BPA-free, and the detachable elements are dishwasher safe, so cleaning will be easy. Aroma claims that it delivers steam in under a minute, so there won’t be extended periods to wait while it heats up, and the 60-minute timer automatically shuts off when it’s done.

On the downside, the steamer is quite cheaply made, with flimsy plastic baskets, so if you do intend to put them in the dishwasher, you may shorten their lifespan considerably. Also, the tiers don’t snap together like other steamers so they feel loose and unstable. What’s more, the tiers are poorly designed such that they tend to leak water everywhere.

This Oster model is one of the best value food steamers on this list, and it retails at less than $25, which means it’s a real bargain. Along with its low price comes a surprising array of features, including auto shut-off, a 60-minute timer, 2 tiers for multi-level steaming, and the detachable parts are dishwasher safe and all supported by  a 2-year limited warranty.

What we liked about this model was the large baskets that give plenty of room to your vegetables or fish. Clearly, the price point is a winner for Oster, because they’ve shifted well over 1,000 of these units on Amazon alone.

The downside to this steamer is that the plastic elements are not BPA-free, meaning that you could be exposed to small traces of harmful chemicals which may exceed your Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI). It also leaks like a sieve and takes forever to heat up, but at this price, it’s still great value for money.

This 2-tier Bella steamer has a manual control dial that makes operating it easy, and it also has a boil dry protection feature to ensure that you don’t burn out the heating elements. It comes with auto shut-off as well as a pull-out filler tray to top up the water reservoir during steaming.

The clever thing about this steamer is the quick start function that produces steam in under 30-seconds, which means that you can start steaming straight away. The capacity is a generous 7.4 quarts, making it ideal for family mealtimes. In addition, Bella has taken the guesswork out of steaming with a handy guide to different food types and cooking times.

There are issues with this steamer; the timer is inaccurate, for instance, which means that greens can be overcooked and turn mushy. It also leaks water on the countertop, the numbers on the dial are hard to read, and it makes a ticking noise like an egg-timer when in use, which can become annoying. Putting all those negatives aside, we think this steamer deserves to be on the list for capacity, price, and performance.