Virtually any model of Zojirushi. It pretty much is the Japanese standard of excellence when it comes to rice cookers.
EDIT: I am specifically referring to their "Micom" cookers. I can't personally speak to the simpler ones.
Micom
Interesting that thing looks like it has a pretty tight seal around the interior pot. How is it with getting rice water crust around the hinge the plastic channel around the lid? Mine is always getting nasty, and it's hard to get into those tight spaces to clean.
I've had mine for 4 years, and never had to really clean anything except the interior removable pot and pressure lid. And that takes all of 2-3 mins.
We have a simple one (push a single button and walk away style) and love it. It's not that much different from the cheap $20 we got at the store, but the quality of the insert is much higher.
Zojirushi. Bifl and their website you can buy replacement parts if needed iirc. I bought a replacement lid for a 10 year old water boiler from their website.
I had to replace my bowl because my kids used metal spoons on it so much the coating was coming off. Annoying but great that I could buy a part for a 12 yo machine.
My single annoyance is the non replaceable battery. It lasted a decade, but I had to desolder it from the board to replace it. I ended up replacing the battery with a battery holder I got off ebay, so in several years when I have to replace it again I won't have to solder anything.
Basically anything by Zojirushi.
The cheaper NHS-10 or NSH-18 if you just want one with a lever and will eat the rice as soon as it finishes
Anything from the Micom line if you want to be able to keep the rice warm if you're waiting on someone else to get home before you eat (also, it sings a cute little song).The cheaper NHS is easier to clean, but does not keep rice like the Micoms.
I've used the Micom (NS-LGC05 I think) 5-7 times a week for 10+ years
Stainless steel pan. Never felt the need to get a dedicated rice cooker.
Yeah, this was me. I was happy with using a saucepan for decades. Then some friends were moving back to India and gave me theirs. A rice cooker is a game-changer. Two cups of rice, three cups of water, hit the switch. That's it. You can now go do whatever you are doing and know that the rice is taken care of. It's almost as simple as a toaster.
I don't know what brand of rice cooker I have, It's a simple one that does the job. I don't know how old it is, but I assume it was 10 years old when we got it 5 years ago, as our friends were in the country 10 years.
I'd say an InstantPot. Stainless steel pot, very easy to clean, versatile, built like a tank, and a fraction of the cost of a Zojirushi.
We've had an 8 quart model that gets used more than once a day on average, and we paid under $100 Canadian back in 20217. Never had a problem with making rice in it.
This is a silly but ...
I had planned on using the instant pot as a rice cooker, but 90% of the time I want rice, it is to go with the thing cooking in the instant pot , so I end up making rice on the stove.
Had nothing but problems making rice in my instant pot. Either it’s too hard, or too soft.
Tried different salt amounts, different water ratios, rinsing, draining, using the rice mode, using the manual mode.
Never had perfect rice from it.
That's because the rice setting is a bit of a sham. The rice mode just sets a timer for the rice to cook, assuming you are just using cheap, commodity-level white rice, but any other type of rice, you have to adjust. You can make good rice in an instant pot, it just takes more work. You need to know the right amount of time and pressure for that specific type of rice.
Rice cookers have one or more sensors that detect when the rice is done (e.g., when the pot gets hotter than the boiling temp of water, so it knows all the water is absorbed). That makes purpose built rice cookers more foolproof.
That's a shame. I've made all kinds of rice in ours, from delicate Jasmine rice to parboiled, and even wild rice. We just use the rice setting and let it cook.
We do have a small rice cooker for 1 or 2 servings, too. It has a nonstick pot and I wouldn't consider it a BIFL product because of that. It's also not as versatile as the IP.
But, really. Use whatever gets the results you want. I'm not a fan of wasted/ruined food 😖
Instant Pots aren't a fad anymore, either, so you can probably pick one up used cheap or on a buy nothing group.
I don't use my instant pot for rice because a saucepan is simpler and easier to clean, but I'm happy with it and I'm sure it would work just fine for rice.
I use mine for rice, and it works well. No issues with cleaning, just throw it in the dishwasher.
I use mine for rice but it also gets used as a slow cooker and steamer (also, soft boiled eggs are super easy) when necessary
i go regular pot. had a cheap rice cooker but hated cleaning it.
I feel ya. That's the trade off. Less time paying attention to the rice, but more time cleaning the stupid thing.
yep. and im usually standing there for that 15 minutes cooking whatever goes with the rice so its not a bother.
I'm confused by all the issues people have had cleaning it. All of the ones I've used have a non stick inner pot thing. The rice just dumps out of there with minimal effort. Are there really cheap brands that don't have this or am I missing something about cleaning it?
The non-stick interior isn't my biggest complaint, it's all the groves around the seals gaskets that icky with rice water.
I find that, to clean it, I need to wrap a paper towel around a sharp chopstick or toothpick to get in to all the little corners. And when I look at all of my friend's rice cookers, they have the same problem. Rice water crustys all around the seals that are hard to hit with a disk sponge.
Edit: mine is pretty clean right now, but I just spent a good amount to time getting into all the little crevices. Of all then stuff in my kitchen, its one of the more annoying things to clean.
It's all the other parts that might get dirty. Mine has a tendency to form bubbles, which means starchy foam can get around this metal disk above the pot and starches everything. I have to disassemble everything to get it really clean again.
I'm rather curious about this, too.
I'll chime in with what I've personally dealt with.
Both Aroma brand
Glass lid, metal cooking pan has a lip that rolls outside of the heating base. Just a simple switch, cooking & warm. Does boil over once in a while, and fairly small...ease of cleaning, really really easy.
Enclosed unit, has a metal pan that goes inside and a steamer basket, has a removeable metal top to clean...haven't had it for long, but I can imagine the seals will deteriorate and make it not as long lasting as the other pan...However, those seals do make cleaning more difficult.
Yeah, that's what I have as well. An Aroma with the plastic seals. They're super annoying to clean. I've been considering one of those simple glass top versions simply because they don't have a ton of tight spaces that collect rice water crust.
What is the purpose of the seals? I don't think any of the rice cookers my family has owned have seals. The lid just sits in place by gravity.
been considering one of those simple glass top versions
I've got one of those myself at the moment, and it's super easy to clean.
Seconded.
For the past couple of years, I've been using an Aroma rice cooker as well (ARC-753SG if you're curious), and have been very pleased with it. It was one of the few rice cookers I could find with a stainless steel pot instead of Teflon. Makes perfect rice every time, easy to clean, and shows no signs of wear so far.
Aroma stainless steel for a cheap rice cooker that will last forever but will make bad rice if your water rice ratio is off by a little, if you wait too long after it finishes, etc.
Zojurishi for top of the line premium quality for a premium price.
There are some other Japanese and Korean premium rice cookers that make rice just slightly worse than zojurishi but have a much cheaper price (relative to zojurishi). Tiger and Sakura are two of them.
We own a Tiger and it's fine. Does what it's supposed to.
Do you care about exposure to potentially toxic/carcinogenic materials? Asian (especially Japanese) rice cookers such as Zoujirushi do an excellent job, but AFAIK they all utilize non-stick pots (Teflon).
Yeah, I’m not super into teflon. This is the only piece of teflon cookware that I have left. Makes me think that I might want to try something like a ceramic or stainless rice cooker.
Aroma has stainless steel stuff. Tiger has a ceramic one.
I've had a stainless steel rice cooker for about a year now. Works well with the two types of rice I tend to cook and is easy to clean. Would recommend
It looks like you can buy aftermarket inner pots that don't have teflon. I tried poking around the website here in Japan and it looks like the new ones use a different coating (there was something in the news about teflon a couple years ago so this is entirely possible), but I can't be sure without downloading and pouring through manuals. You could probably do the same on Zojirushi's US website.
Get a duo pressure cooker. You will be able to have whute rice ready in about 20 min and you can cook almost anything in it, not just rice
My normal rice cooker makes rice in 15 min. $25 Oster.
Ok but can you cook a roast in it, or a soup, or roasted potatoes?
Cuckoo. It's a Korean brand, probably better than the Japanese brands imo. If you have an H-mart near you they'll have a couple models on the floor you can look at, but I bought mine on amazon. It's big, fast, can cook all types of rice with special settings, and everything that comes in contact with the rice pot is removable for cleaning. It's been going strong for about 5 years and I use it at least once a week.
You can also cook anything in there. It comes with a steamer tray too for vegetables or sweet potatoes. Apparently mine can cook a whole chicken but I have yet to try that. Oh and it talks too, plus it makes a cute choo-choo train sound to signal it'll vent steam in a second.
It's a Korean brand, probably better than the Japanese brands
Citation? My Japanese one is > 8 years old and still going strong making perfect rice. My in-laws have had theirs longer. I've never used a Korean one to compare anything, but no complaints with mine.
I've had a super cheap, simple rice cooker for ages and it's awesome. IIRC, it was only $10. The bowl is removable and easy to clean and it's so super basic, there's very few points of failure.
The brand is Ouyou or something like that. Not home rn to see.
Edit: Oster. That's the brand.
+1 for cheap rice cookers. Dead simple cooking mechanism, no seals or gaskets that get super gross, it's great
Technology Connections (YouTube channel) did an examination on rice cookers.
Spoiler: you only need one of the cheapest rice cookers out there to make perfect rice every time, so long as you get the water ratio correct.
Yeah, I saw that and followed his advice. My rice is great, but cleaning the cooker is a pain.
I bought a Zojirushi NP-NWC10XB and it is amazing. I have probably made more oatmeal than rice in it. It was pricey but using it has been a dream.
doesn't easily get nasty AF
Background? What the hell are you doing with your rice cooker?!
I have a Japanese zojirushi I bought about 8 years ago. Fuzzy logic, induction, etc. Still going strong and I don't find it hard to clean. Every one I used (such as my first year in Japan at a sharehouse) worked well and lasted.
I bought a cheap Xiaomi because it has wifi, the remote control and monitoring interest wore off but its a great device in it's own right. Produces excellent rice and is very easy to clean. Quick wipe of the non-stick bowl, run the steam chimney under the tap, done.
Married into an Asian family so rice cookers are used all day. We tried a few of the 50 dollar ones. They were OK but the rice tended to overcook and sometimes even burn on the bottom. Then I got my wife a zojirushi neuro fuzzy. I don't recall any household item that has pleased her more than this cooker in our 22 years together. Perfect rice every time, easy to clean. The only issue we had was the inner lid gasket wore out. But we really do abuse this cooker. It is used so much. Zojirushi customer service shipped us a new inner lid for a reasonable price.
Usually rice cookers are used in Asian countries on daily basis, it's like one of few things that won't ever break, even the cheapest
I've been reall happy with the Sage/Breville brand. I have both a blender and a pressure cooker/rice cooker from them and they are really well build. Sturdy and super easy to clean and use.
