Customer Reviews

Aroma ARC-838TC 8-Cup Digital Rice Cooker & Food Steamer

5 star:		(142)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This is the fourth rice cooker I have owned and it is by far and away the best. The rice cooks right every time. The manual does give a guide of how much water to add for different types of rice but I have found that even when I screw up and do not use the right amount of water the rice has turned out pretty good.

I enjoy the fact that the device has a sealed top which really seems to help the rice be more consistent and also makes me feel better having this unit used with three small children in the house running around. The rice receptacle inside is a delightful non-stick surface that is more then easy to clean. The steam feature for other items works wonderful as well. I have left rice in the device for over two hours after cooking and it is still moist, tasty and not burnt. The one touch button cooking is a breeze and for me it takes about 30 minutes or so in most instances for the quantity I cook.

The only thing I learned I had to do is not place the device under anything when cooking. There is a starchy steam that is released during cooking that can coat wood and other surfaces. On wood this starch coating can be a pain to remove.

This is a great device to cook an entire meal or side in quick mindless ease. I can't think of a feature I would change on this unit. A great device that actually has increased the amount of rice and vegetables I and my family consume. Unless you need larger quantities of rice then this device is capable of I really can't see why anyone would need anything else. This is a great product at a great price. Wonderful!

This review has been updated over time. The original portion follows:

August 2007:

I'm amazed at just how well this basic rice cooker does its job! It's easy to clean, can keep cooked rice hot for hours and is extremely easy to use. I shopped around and considered the higher priced models but decided to start with something inexpensive to see if a rice cooker was really an appliance I needed in my kitchen. This one does a great job for a very reasonable price and I'm so glad I didn't pay more. We're using it to cook Basmati rice (bought in bulk) and with this cooker it turns out perfect every time. It really does wonders to help stretch our food budget.

Added December 2009:

Still going strong after years of use and many batches of perfect rice later. I just bought another one and donated the old one to my grown step-daughter's post graduation era kitchen. One of our favorite "new" things to do is make Vigo's Yellow Rice mix. In fact, it's super easy to make ANY pre-packaged (and flavored) rice mix. Here's what you do: Open the rice package and pour it into a measuring cup. Note the measurement, then pour it into the cooker. Then measure the same amount of warm water PLUS one half cup and add to the cooker. (If there are 2 cups of contents from your package you need 2.5 cups of warm water.) Stir well to dissolve & distribute the spices/flavorings and then press start. It's that easy. By the way, you can also do the same method to cook pre-packaged beans & rice, such as the Read Beans and Rice that Vigo makes. It's really good!

Added October 2010:

From time to time I look at the more expensive models and while I'm sure they do things that would impress me, this cooker meets my needs admirably. Just last night it saved dinner. I'd been planning to serve leftovers but noticed that someone had already been at them, leaving little to split among our family members. I added 2 bags of Vigo Red Beans and Rice to the cooker along with 4 cups of water. Then I added a frozen package of cocktail wieners that I had in the freezer (not thawed). The result was a hit with the whole family, though admittedly it wasn't exactly one of our healthier meals. I was impressed that I could add frozen ingredients to the cooker and have such great results using only the most basic of rice cooker abilities. Yes, this cooker was a great buy for our family.

Added June 2011:

We are a year and a half into our second cooker and it still operates like it did brand new. We use it frequently and because we take care to clean and store it properly we can expect to get quite a lot more use out of it. One of the best parts about this cooker is that it is SIMPLE. The more complicated a thing is, the more likely it is that something will break. With few moving parts and a basic programming interface, this cooker is just about as simple as they come and is a pretty good kitchen investment. If you want to get a long life out of this machine, it will be important to make sure that you don't use metal utensils inside the pot as scratches develop over time that will ruin the finish.

It cooks my rice perfect every time. It's important to always use there measurment guides. There cup size measures differently from traditional measures. (measuring cup is included). For those who complain about the rice sticking to the bottom of pan (reviews from Target website), the directions do state to add an extra cup of water - depending on the type of rice being cooked. Also, little things like if you rinse your rice also make a big difference, because it reduces starches and nutrients. Not to mention that if you are cooking your typical white rice (long-grain) always get rice that has been imported from Thialand, never rinse it. The rice is of better quality, cooks better and tastes great. You can buy Jasmine brand at Walmart $4 for a 5 lb bag, or find a specialty store. The Aroma rice cooker is just wonderful, I started out with a black n' decker brand and was very disappointed with it. It would cook veggies great, but the rice always held to much water. It was on of those clear open steamers. It was my first try at a rice/food steamer. In a way I am glad I waited a while to get another steamer, because you couldn't pick one up with a timer without spending a ton more money. I cook rice almost everyday, and by the time I get home from work my rice has already switched over to the warm setting. All I have to do is cook up my chicken on the grill or stirfry it and my family is ready to eat. Truely a great steamer from a good price. You won't be disappointed.

I also have been happy with this cooker. If you follow the instructions it will create perfect rice. Also, it beeps when its finished so that is nice. All in all good value for the price.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it takes longer than other rice cookers I've used. The cook time is about 50 minutes.

I eat imported long grain white rice everyday. I used basic models with unsealed lids, and high end Japanese brands with fuzzy logic. I gave this product 4 star for the unbeatable price and performance.

The cheaper basic models without sealed lids are pretty good too, for cooking rice. To prevent messy steam, the trick is to use an oversize cooker. If you only use half of the capacity, you shouldn't need to clean up the table after cooking. A non-stick coating saves you time cleaning and saves rice. The rice is usually on the soft and moist side of things, but that's most people prefer anyway. It's harder to do drier and crispier rice.

This model is almost perfect for cooking white rice. For the price I don't suppose you eat premium rice everyday from true Asian specialty shops, right? There's little difference for this model and high end models if your rice isn't that premium.

This cooker is primarily designed to prepare rice the way the Asians eat, particularly the Japanese and Chinese. This is not to make microwave multi-grain paste. You have to make the engineers and designers willing to eat your paste so they can understand how to cook it. No amount of high end fuzzy logic can make your paste the way you like it all by itself if the engineers haven't thought of it.

For cooking white rice, this one is as good as any, unless you have exquisite taste in premium rice. For steaming vegetable and other things, it's quite handy steaming alone or cooking rice at the same time. When steaming alone, it stops automatically when the water is all gone.

Everything is best eaten fresh. And with a delay timer, there's no reason to keep the rice in warm mode for long after cooking. The warm mode tend to dry out the rice a bit for long periods.

There's a bit of inconsistency in the manual. The steam vent of my model can only be pulled out from the outside, not from the inside. Lucky that I didn't damage the lid. You actually do not need to disconnect the electric cord when in the off state. But I'm sure it's not recommended for legal liability reasons, and to save some energy. In my opinion it's as safe as not unplugging the TV after watching. Also there's a flat little plastic cup below the lid hinge, for collecting condensed water from the lid, which the manual didn't mention. The little ring at the opposite side of the plastic cup is the temporary holder for the rice spatula.

For higher end models there is an extra electric plug at the bottom of the cookers, secured in position by magnetic force. Unplugging and plugging are as easy as pushing a button.

For more expensive models, basically there are two lids. The inner lid is easily detachable for you to rinse it in water together with the inner pot. The outer lid, fixed to the cooker, hardly ever needs cleaning or attention. For this model, even though the lid is directly exposed to the steam, the lid looked clean after cooking. I doubt very much if you need to clean it every time if you only cook rice in the normal way. If you steam vegetable or just put the steam tray in, you shouldn't be cleaning the lid at all.

With the single lid design, the steam condensed to water at the lid and soft plastic seal. When you open the lid, some of the condensed water will drain through the little plastic cup below the lid hinge. A small amount of water will be collected at the seals. It's not likely to happen, but if you close the lid again a few drop of water may drip down to the cooking surface, when you have taken the inner pot out. But then a few drops probably will not hurt the cooking surface or the inner pot.

I do not like that it beeps too loud, too high pitch, louder than my microwave. I do not like the - - sign shown when the delay timer is not in use. It's also too brightly red when in the off state. I prefer a green or yellow little dot, not too bright in the dark but easy to spot in day light.

As with all rice cookers, if you put it under anything, the wood above will be damaged because of the steam. I attach a thin plate of clear acrylic at the bottom of the wooden cabinet to protect it. Or you can just pull it out in the open while cooking, and push it back after.

If you are careful, the non-stick surface should last enough for your $40. I don't know about the plastic seal though. My experience with over the top kettles is that the seal is the first thing to go. But they sell replacement parts and the cost of the seal is still a small fraction of the kettle.

The cooker is on the slow side, taking about 30 min to cook. Higher end cookers don't cook a lot faster because you cannot boil away the water too fast. Big simple unsealed cookers can cook some 10 or more minutes faster. But the quality of the cook rice cannot be compared. I'm sure microwave can cook a lot faster.

Update: 2011/8

Everything works like new, even better. I don't wipe clean the lid every use, because it won't get dirty and messy that much. I don't empty the cup to hold condensed water, because it normally will not overflow for my normal volume of rice. I don't dry the inner pot completely before starting cooking because it's pretty tough.

The plastic seal at the rim is still in perfect condition. The inner pot did not have any dent on it. The all important non-stick surface is still intact. Nothing came off or scratched. Looks the same as other higher priced models that I used. There are minor signs of wear and tear at the rim but expected.

You have to add 50% more water when cooking brown rice. I read a couple of reviews that said it can only cook white rice. Follow the instructions it gives you for the different types of rice. That particular person must not have read the directions.

Do not place it under cabinets. It won't hurt it right away, but after several times, may cause problems with the wood.

Great value and product.

We first used one of these in Hawaii at a timeshare and fell in love with the ease of use and clean up. We came home and bought one just a few days later. We use it 4-5 times weekly (for over 2 months now) with no problems. The instructions tell you if you want softer rice to add more water so I add about 1/2 cup more water than called for. Super easy to make perfect rice every time! I make other dishes with rice and vegetables in mine also. I highly recommend this product for anyone who eats a lot of rice and wants to make it the easy way!

I've had this for a couple of weeks. I've used it several times, for a variety of things. It does make white rice well - and it's so easy to throw in the rice and water, close and hit start - by the time the rest of dinner's ready, your rice is done.

I've had no problems with it mechanically.
- The nonstick pan is really nonstick - it cleans up very easily, which is nice b/c it can't go in the dishwasher.
- The rice cup measure, steamer basket, paddle and ladle that come with it are very cheap, but they do the job.
- It is pretty large (only slightly smaller than my 5 quart crockpot), and I want to keep it out on the counter. But I don't think it could be any smaller and still cook the volume it does.
- The interior lid is kind of a challenge, b/c you have to clean it in place - but it does seem to wipe down pretty easily, and the steam vent fixture is removable so you can get it under running water and get any gunk out of it.
- The cord is NOT retractable, which I know it is on more expensive models, but I can live with that.
- The timer only allows you to select a 'ready time' by whole hours away. So, if you're setting it at 11:30pm, you could choose 6 hours (for a 5:30am breakfast) or 7 hours (for a 6:30am breakfast). kind of obnoxious if you wanted to eat at 6. But it does just flip over to warm when the food is ready, so depending on what you're cooking, just pick the earlier time and you should be fine.

I mostly bought this items to help in my quest to eat more whole grains, and I"m still experimenting. In addition to plain white rice, which it does fine with, I've tried other items with this cooker, with mixed results:
- Steel Cut Oats - I set up overnight and used the delay timer so they'd be ready for breakfast. (This is the time i learned about the timer only being whole hours - but the oats did fine being ready 30 minutes early and then just left on warm til i was ready to eat them.
- split pea soup - i tried cooking a soup mix i had. you were supposed to cook the dried split peas over a simmer after bringing water to a boil. I added the peas and water to the cooker all at once. I think 5 cups water was too much...I had a geyser! but the soup came out fine.
- fiesta rice (1 c rice, 1 c salsa, 1.5 c water, pinch salt) - my biggest success. threw it all together and by the time i had the taco filling browned and the cheese shredded, i had a delicious side for my tacos.
- kasha - not good. I'm not sure it was the cooker though. I wanted to have it ready when I got up in the morning, so i put it all in the night before and used the timer. Either I added too much water, or you shouldn't let the buckwheat groats soak overnight, or it sat on warm too long after cooking (see note on delay cook timer), but it was absolute mush - a very unpleasant texture. I'll try kasha again with a little less water and when i can check it for texture while cooking. it was such a disappointment, though, because it smelled so good when i woke up.

All in all, I think this cooker is a good value for the money. I wasn't willing to shell out close to $200 for something I wasn't sure i'd use all that often. I think if you want an 'entry-level' rice cooker in this price range (I paid $35 on amazon.com in January 2010), this one is fine.

We received this rice cooker as a gift since we have shorted out a few of the really cheap models. This cooker does perfect rice, and the bowl comes clean without any scrubbing at all. It is very easy to use and we don't bother with their measuring cups. The ratio for most rice is 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice, +/- up to 1/2 cup for stickier or softer rice. The cook time can be a bit too long, but the rice has never been overcooked.

I bought this cooker because I needed something small that wouldn't take up too much counterspace, that that was still of good quality. I make a lot of sushi at home and had previously been making my sticky rice on the stovetop which is really not the best way for consistent rice. So last night was the first time I used this cooker to make sticky rice and the rice came out soooo good. It was perfect consistency and evenly cooked and fluffy but sticky. The only thing I noticed is that when it's done steaming it automatically goes into warm mode, which is nice for other things, but for sushi rice it needs to be turned off right away to let the rice set...so I won't be able to use the timer feature for the sushi rice, but other than that I think it's a fabulous machine (especially for the price) and I'm looking forward to steaming my veggies on it tonight!