Strange...I use dried beans and never soak them when I put them in the crock-pot, I just put the dried ones right in there and turn the pot on for 8-10 hours. THey always come out very soft.

One thing you can do if you forget to soak beans is boil them in water for a few minutes, then turn them off and let them rest in the water for an hour or so, then use as normal. this helps a lot.

Also, beans vary a lot depending on age - difficult to tell in advance. really old beans take an insanely long time.

OP here, I had no idea about the acid and there was tomato sauce in there. I did soak them for a good bit but apparently they needed longer. Also, too little, too late. I did kick it back to low and added some water, left the house and had DH turn them down later. Yeah, they're just a tad bit overcooked.

I've found that crockpot-low is too low to cook soaked dried beans. Go with crockpot-high.

You can probably fix this by cranking the crockpot up high for another 3-4 hours. Add a little more liquid and you'll be fine.

I cook beans all the time. If you put uncooked beans in with an acid, they'll never totally cook. Were there tomatoes in your chili? That would have done it.

Next time, cook the beans in the crock pot for 4 hours (no soaking needed) and then just use them like you would canned.

I'm new to dried beans but I noticed that the instructions on the goya package call for much less soaking than the store brand, and my (latino) nanny swears that goya beans are softer. so brand may make a difference.

Add more water and keep It in the crock a couple more hours. It'll be fine!

DH did the grocery run and accidentally picked up dried kidney beans instead of canned for chili. I did a fast soak yesterday, per package instructions, and actually left them in the water the remainder of the day. Put all my chili stuff in the crockpot last night, around midnight, on low, woke up to a heavenly smelling house. Put the crock pot on warm and went about my morning. Just tried a bowl and several of the beans are still a bit tough inside. What did I do wrong?

These have been in water since the fast soak yesterday. They're just regular grocery store brand dried beans, I didn't think brand would really make a big difference. When DH makes red beans and rice, he soaks overnight, equal to the amount of time I soaked yesterday, and they turn out great. Can they be saved if I add more water or kick the crock pot to high?