believe it or not, Philips makes fantastic rice cookers as well, on par with the japanese brands. I chose them over the others because of the 2 year international warranty while all the others come with a 1 year domestic warranty which isnt valid in the UK.

i got their entry level fuzzy logic model, which has a capacity for 10 cups of rice, but has a small portion option which does 2 cups very well with no burnt bottom bit.

it sure helped me through my student days with the keep warm feature, as well as the soup making and slow cooking features. Its great to be able to go to class in the cold winter morning after just dumping the herbs and spices and meat into the cooker, and setting it on slow cook mode, and come back to a hot soupy meal that's pretty much been cooked for you automatically!

the steaming function also does well for making vegetables. By the way, most upmarket/fuzzy logic rice cookers do not use teflon. Much newer, harder substance with bits of industrial diamonds in it to avoid damage from people using metal utensils on it.

for most of my life i used the basic rice cookers because of the comparitively high price of the fuzzy logic models, but only after getting a fuzzy logic one (it was on discount, so i went for it) i discovered what i had been missing out on!


this is the basic fuzzy logic model i got: http://www.philips.com.sg/c/home-coo...hd4746_00/prd/

was 35 pounds after discount

this is one i want to upgrade to at some point! http://www.philips.com.sg/c/home-coo...hd4763_00/prd/

pressurised function would be nice for soups...


and this is their most advanced one

http://www.philips.com.sg/c/home-coo...hd4777_00/prd/



the small 5 cup models are not big enough for soup making/slow cooking, better to get a bigger one which has a small quantity menu option, so you get the best of both.

What's the ZAQ10? It's not listed on Zojirushi's world site (http://www.zojirushi.com/user/script..._category_id=1).

Is it just the 240v version of the NS-ZCC10? (http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NS-Z...bs_678540011_5 or http://www.zojirushi.com/products/nszcc)

This may very well be the second sign.

Yes

Ended up with this one as well - have been using it since Nov and works great... perhaps not as fancy as some other models, but no more burned pans of rice

The best rice I've had (or managed to make myself) has not used a rice cooker, but rather was done using a regular metal pot with an escape valve for steam if even that. And it's easily done without crusting the bottom if using cold-water washed rice, adding already boiling water in the correct proportion, and then finally leaving it on one of the lower heat settings (before or after the rice with the added hot water is boiling doesn't make any difference in terms of crusting with any decent metal pot).

As far as what to avoid in rice cookers, I avoid the microwave rice cookers.

Hey uk1 and other Zojirushi owners - do you find that brown rice sticks to the cooking pot? Do you have to pre-soak brown rice?

I'd like to get a rice cooker so I can make whole meals with one button, but I'd mostly be making brown rice. I was also considering this Sanyo (which is $50 cheaper than the Zoji NS-ZCC10 and seems like it does more - includes a steaming tray and can function as a crock pot), but the reviews say that brown rice sticks to the nonstick surface. This would be too much of a pain for me.

Basically, I want to be able to throw rice, veggies, and maybe chicken or fish in the rice cooker and have dinner ready. I would also like to be able to make oatmeal. Do I even need a fancy rice cooker, or will a simple one suffice for this? If so, which simple one do people recommend? I want the fancy Zoji because I want a new toy...but I can't quite justify the expense.

So far no rice has stuck!

Thrilled to bits with the Zoji but as I have no other rice cooker experience (previously manual) I cannot compare.

The thing is that once you've bought it it should last so it's a one-off expense. I'm shortly off to our other base in the UK and I'm wondering how we're going to survive down there without Zoji but boot space (non-existant) doesn't allow him to join us on our trip ..... everything else is duplicated right down to the fully automatic Gaggia - so I'm thinking of a second one!

I tend to buy specialist equipment for different tasks so all I want from a rice cooker is perfect rice ... not stews or other things. Like many things, you don't think you need one until you have one then you regret the time you didn't have it. For the first time I've recognised why more of the world's populations' daily staple is rice than any other staple.

It is my instinct that if you are making a dish that has rice in it ie with meat and everything then a rice cooker isn't for you because the process you're describing simply cooks the rice for the same length of time it takes to make the meat tender. So you could do the same by substituting potato for rice. So a slow cook pot would do it probably far better. But also so would a decent oven pot on a very low temperature.

I own the EU version of that same Sanyo model.

I use brown Japonica rice and brown Spanish rice (Balilla x Solana) and I've never ever had a problem with these or any other rice sticking to the Sanyo.

I can't imagine what the reviewers you were referring to were doing to this poor machine

I try to soak brown rice where possible, but even without this stage it always comes out fine.

I've had absolutely no sticking to the pot of my Zojirushi. This includes unrinsed brown rice and steel-cut oats with chopped dates. The timer function on my Zo is great, esp. for having the oatmeal ready when I wake up in the morning. I read on Chowhound that the Zoji 'neuro-fuzzy' cookers are the ones to get if you'll be doing much with grains other than rice (e.g., oats, quinoa, etc.). Apparently the 'micom' is not the same as the 'neuro-fuzzy'.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong (or right), but I've always made rice in a regular pot on the stove. I've made nearly every kind of rice I can find at the store and have never experienced sticking or any other problems. Why would anyone need a uni-tasking rice cooker? I don't get it.

I make rice once a month if that. Half the time it is Mexican style (fried in oil in a skillet, then liquid added). It would be nuts for me to have a rice cooker around taking up space. If I ate near the quantity that most on this thread do, you bet I'd own one.

I'll try and help. You've made the same comment about breadmakers.

Firstly, do you or have you ever owned a rice cooker, or breadmaker?

FWIW, my family makes about a pot of rice a week with our rice cooker (which is about as old as I am, if not older). We also use it to steam some items, but it's main function is as a rice cooker.

Not sure what the difference would be, as I've already mentioned here, my own Sanyo makes quinoa quickly and beautifully.