Rice Cookers Reviews

Rice cookers are available in two main types. Basic rice cookers shut off or turn themselves down when the rice has absorbed all the cooking liquid. More expensive fuzzy logic rice cookers continuously self-adjust for different rice types and textures.

Cook's Illustrated has published the largest and most detailed rice cooker review we read. Editors prepare brown, white and sushi rice in eight cookers in quantities of one and three cups (some cookers don't perform as well with small quantities of rice). Each cooker is judged on quality of finished rice, efficiency, ease of use and features.

The L.A. Times, Fine Cooking and The New York Times have all published rice cooker reviews, although they vary in quality. Editors at the L.A. Times prepare three types of rice in six cookers, which they rate mainly on the basis of rice quality. Fine Cooking tests five cookers with long-grain, brown, sweet and sushi rice, reporting that all but one model made excellent white rice. (Unfortunately, editors don't reveal which model missed the mark.) Elaine Louie of The New York Times interviews Chef David Bouley, who recommends separate cookers for brown and white rice but doesn't explain why.

Owner-written rice cooker reviews at Amazon.com and Epinions provide a wealth of useful rice cooker information. We found that many owners press their rice cookers into service as slow cookers, steamers and even "ovens." Unlike professional reviewers, owners report problems that crop up only over time, such as flaking non-stick coatings.

Cook's Illustrated downgraded two rice cookers for uneven cooking and rapid heat loss on the keep-warm setting: the glass-lidded 6-cup Rival RC61 (*est. $15) rice cooker and the Breville Gourmet Rice Duo Cooker BRC350XL (*est. $60) . The Rival rice cooker earns a middling average rating from owners posting to Amazon.com, several of whom say that it burns rice, boils over or stops working within months. A few suggest that problems are to be expected when you're paying so little. In professional tests at Cook's Illustrated and the L.A. Times, the more expensive Breville rice cooker cooked white rice until it was dry, slightly underdone and crusty on the bottom.

Although the Oster Multi-Use Deluxe Rice Cooker (*est. $40) performed well in the L.A. Times' tests -- it made brown rice in the least amount of time and produced slightly crusty yet tender white rice -- owners posting to Amazon.com and Epinions give it low scores. They say that this rice cooker lacks an on/off switch (it's only "off" when it's unplugged) and doesn't signal when rice is finished. These are minor problems, however, compared to its main fault: Many owners say it burns rice.

Although it has an unusually long warranty (three years to the usual one year), the Cuisinart CRC-800 (*est. $80) , which has a glass lid, performed poorly in the L.A. Times' tests. Not only did white rice emerge crusty in spots and underdone in others, this rice cooker spat water from its steam vent and proved tedious to clean. The Cuisinart CRC-800 receives an average rating of just two and a half stars (out of five) in about 25 owner-written reviews at Amazon.com, with complaints centering on spillover and mess.

Although neither rice cooker is included in any professional reviews, the Aroma ARC703G (*est. $18) and the Salton RA3A (*est. $30) have each accumulated more than a dozen owner-written reviews at Amazon.com. Unlike the majority of rice cookers on the market, the Aroma ARC703G lacks a non-stick coating, creates a crusty bottom layer of rice and sprays water through its vent. Even owners who like this unit agree that it burns rice occasionally. The Salton RA3A receives a paltry average rating of two stars (out of five) in almost 150 reviews at Amazon.com. Dozens of owners say that the build quality is poor.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

Interestingly, we found consistently better reviews for rice cookers from Zojirushi, Panasonic and Sanyo than we did for rice cookers from Cuisinart, Rival or Aroma. The very best scores go to the Zojirushi Neuro, but we also found good evaluations for less expensive rice cookers.