My question...do you know how long I would cook Instant Pot Pinto Beans at an altitude of 5000 ft?
Commenter Rhonda V
The rule of thumb for high altitude pressure cooking, Instant Pot or otherwise: For every 1,000 feet above 2,000-foot elevation, increase cooking time by 5 percent. In metric, that's 5% for every 300 meters above 600 meters.
Pressure Cooking Adjustment By Altitude
| Altitude | Increase % | Multiply Cooking Time By |
| 3000 ft / 900 m | 5% | 1.05 |
| 4000 ft / 1200 m | 10% | 1.10 |
| 5000 ft / 1500 m | 15% | 1.15 |
| 6000 ft / 1800 m | 20% | 1.20 |
| 7000 ft / 2100 m | 25% | 1.25 |
Pressure Cook America
Because I’m a habitual map looker, I stumbled across this list of the cities in the United States by elevation. Here are the cities with a population over 100,000 by elevation (according to Wikipedia):
| City | State | Altitude | Population | Increase % |
| CO Springs | CO | 6035 feet / 1839 m | 465,101 | 20% |
| Centennial | CO | 5830 ft / 1777 m | 110,250 | 15% |
| Lakewood | CO | 5518 ft / 1682 m | 154,393 | 15% |
| Aurora | CO | 5403 ft / 1647 m | 361,710 | 15% |
| Westminster | CO | 5384 ft / 1641 m | 113,479 | 15% |
| Thornton | CO | 5351 ft / 1631 m | 136,703 | 15% |
| Arvada | CO | 5344 ft / 1662 m | 117,453 | 15% |
| Boulder | CO | 5328 ft / 1624 m | 107,125 | 15% |
| Albuquerque | NM | 5312 ft / 1619.1 m | 558,545 | 15% |
| Denver | CO | 5278 ft / 1609 m | 716,492 | 15% |
| Fort Collins | CO | 5003 ft / 1525 m | 164,207 | 15% |
| Pueblo | CO | 4692 ft / 1430 m | 111,127 | 10% |
| Greeley | CO | 4675 ft / 1425 m | 105,448 | 10% |
| Provo | UT | 4551 ft / 1387 m | 117,335 | 10% |
| Reno | NV | 4505.6 ft / 1373 m | 248,853 | 10% |
| West Jordan | UT | 4373 ft / 1333 m | 113,905 | 10% |
| West Valley City | UT | 4304 ft / 1312 m | 136,170 | 10% |
| Salt Lake City | UT | 4226 ft / 1288 m | 200,544 | 10% |
| Las Cruces | NM | 3900 ft / 1200 m | 101,759 | 5% |
| El Paso | TX | 3740 ft / 1140 m | 683,577 | 5% |
| Amarillo | TX | 3605 ft / 1099 m | 199,248 | 5% |
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
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My Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Recipes list
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Greg says
So at elevation the only PC adjustment is time, but no need to adjust water amount?
Mike Vrobel says
Correct.
Dave Whittaker says
I live outside of Denver at about 6,300 ft above sea level and have a ski house over 9,k ft above sea level. I have never adjusted any of your pressure cooker recipes, or those from any other site.
Steven says
I have the same experience - I've lived in both Virginia and Denver, and the only adjustments I ever make to pressure cooker recipes are when the original called for a 15psi stovetop PC. But I can pour boiling water right onto coffee grounds without waiting for it to cool to 205 first 🙂
Great site BTW - as a fellow dad cooking dinner and instant pot aficionado, I respect and appreciate the effort you've put into this. Tip of the hat to you sir and thanks for the recipes!
San says
In your first paragraph you say "2,000-foot", Everything else is 3 000.
Mike Vrobel says
Fixed - thanks