I bought some new crock pots, they are pretty and were on sale, I had no choice
Seriously, crock pots can be good if you are in the middle of a project (I'm painting two rooms) because you set up your chili or whatever and just don't worry about it for hours.
I was searching the internet for some interesting crock pot recipes and came across a warning that I had to be sure to cook beans correctly(just a misc. recipe, not for chili) in a crock pot in order to get rid of lectins.
So then I had to do a search and study about lectins. Interesting stuff.
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-lectins