Customer Reviews

Sunpentown SC-886 3-Cup Stainless-Steel Rice Cooker and Steamer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We enjoy white rice each and every day for as long as I can remember and we have waited a long time for an 3-4 cup rice cooker that utilized a non-coated stainless inner steam pot. For the past two years Sunpentown's competitor's 8 cup stainless cooker has been our mainstay and though it has been a nice unit it was always an effort to clean the stainless pot and learned that soaking it with soapy water for 30 minutes was very helpful, but still two of us didn't require such a large cooker. By chance I happened to hear of the Sunpentown 3 cup rice cooker at a reasonable price and maintained it included a stainless steel inner cooking pot. I ordered one from Amazon and was so dissapointed after reading the opinion/review that the inner pot was or could be coated with some type of non-stick coating so I e-mailed Sunpentown asking if this was or wasn't true. Within an hour I received a cordial letter informing me that all of the inner cooking components were indeed stainless steel and were never coated with any PTFE or other non-stick coating. After receiving the cooker we enjoyed 3 cups of great tasting rice and because the pot sits in 1 cup of water the extreme temperature to the bottom of the inner pot is minimized and the rice is cooked evenly. We still soak the cooking pot for a short time but it is not necessary and cleaning is very easy. Thank you Sunpentown for developing exactly the right rice cooker this family wanted.

This is the first review I've written, after shopping with Amazon for years! I love this product and wanted to share my experience. It did take me a few months to get the best use out of this rice cooker, and to figure out the timing, type of rice to use, etc. Now I use it almost every day.

This is the first rice cooker that I've owned and really used (the first one sat in a closet until I got rid of it. I was not a big fan of rice, but found that eliminating wheat from my diet had some major health benefits for me. I am determined now to eat healthier foods, and willing to make the effort to cook them and learn how to make them appealing.

In my search for a rice cooker to make brown rice, I first bought a very reasonably priced appliance from Costco, and was appalled when I opened the package to find a mammoth appliance that would have had to be stored in the basement (I have a small kitchen), and would make way too much rice for one or two people (returned that one). So I began a search on the internet, learning that most cookers, including a brand I admire, Zojirushi, use non stick coating. Finally, I discovered the Sunpentown Mr.Rice, and decided to try it.
It took me a while to figure out the best way to cook the rice, and I want to share the process, since I finally got it down to a point where I can make perfect brown rice without thinking, effort or hassle. I'll cut the the chase: I buy a huge bag of Lundberg short grain organic brown rice at Costco, store it in the fridge, and make the rice thus:
One cup(a normal 8 oz. measuring cup) of rice with two cups of cold water, and a bit of olive oil into the inner pot. Two cups of cold water in the cooker. Put the inner pot into the cooker, cover, turn on the switch and the heating button, and leave it. It cooks in about 45 minutes (I don't time it, because I leave it a while after that...maybe another 20-30 minutes on warm) and when I open the pot the rice is PERFECT. If I don't do the warm cycle, there is a bit of water left in the rice...during the warming time it is absorbed. No rinsing is needed for this brand of rice (it is clean and has no debris). The texture and taste are great.
The pros, and this is major for me, is the size of the cooker...I can leave it on my counter, so it is always handy. Also, now that I have the method down, the ease of the process is a great plus.
The cons: The cooker does spurt out some water when it starts so I put down a terry dish towel folded in half under the machine. Yes, it does get some light rust spots on the inside of the cooker (mentioned in a negative review), but I don't care about that. The stainless steel inner pot is all that touches the food.
One cooker I don't recall seeing when I was shopping was the Miracle brand, which seems to have great reviews too. Not sure how that one compares with this, but right now, I just love my little rice cooker.

The Mr. Rice 3 Cups Stainless Steel Rice Cooker and Steamer - Model SC-886 Rice Cooker by Sunpentown is a well designed and quality product. I have cooked rice fast and effortlessly twice a day now for more than a month. The cooker's small
footprint works well on my boat where I have little counter space. It also matches and looks great along with all my other stainless steal pots, pans and kettle.
The inner pot cleans up easily with no sticking. There is only one caution. And that is the outer surface like any pot or pan can become extremely hot during the cooking process. I am very happy with this product.

I wanted to get a good SST rice cooker for my daily use. I found this one online, it looks good. So, I wanted to give it a try. I made the test run with one cup of rice:
1. Rust spots: As soon as the "cook" button turn off, I remove the inner pot and already found rusty spots at the bottom of outer pot (with hot water). Not even have a chance to pull the hot water out of the pot.
2. Noise: inner pot is floating on the water of outer pot, when the water start boiling, the inner pot vibrated and hitting the outer pot. It created the constant noise until "cook" button is turn off.
3. "keep-warm" button: It will not turn on by itself. You have to turn it on manually or rice would get cold quickly. Very inconvenience.

One good thing about this order is: the seller handled this unsatisfied product very professionally. As soon as I explained the problem of this product, he immediately credit the $ to my account without asking for return.

Now that I stuck with this FREE rusty rice cooker and my new challenge is how to dispose it in a greener way.

I was searching for a product to cook Irish Porridge in. Steel cut oats. The real deal. Cooking on the stove took too much attention and usually resulted in the porridge stuck to the pan. First thing I cooked in this rice cooker was brown rice. Easy. Follow the directions. Great results. Next morning was the real test. The porridge. Turned out to be equally easy and equally great. This is so simple to use and cooks rice or porridge in less than 30 minutes. Only shortterm drawback was that I accidentally purchased 2 of them (yeah, mess up sometimes). But problem solved when I gave the extra to my brother who also cooks porridge. He was using a pressure cooker to cook his porridge. He agrees this cooker is better than the pressure cooker. Two pleased customers. We'll see how it goes in the long run. Oh yeah, almost forgot, I was searching for a rice cooker that didn't have aluminum or coatings. Stainless steel is great too! Somewhat pricey to some, but you get what you pay for. Sometimes.

This is the 3rd and best rice cooker I have bought in the last ten years. I purchased it in August 2009. The previous one (Panasonic) was good, but after 5 years the non-stick coating was peeling off. Mr. Rice (model #866, 3 cup size) is compact, good looking, and has a stainless steel cooking pot. I have used it twice so far and the rice came out perfectly. I usually make 1 - 2 cups at a time.

This supposedly "stainless-steel" rice cooker rusted after only one use. Also, the inner pot in which the rice cooks emits a strong metallic odor and taste. Furthermore, I don't care for hard, grainy rice and this rice cooker does not cook brown rice very well (don't know about white rice). And the price seems high for what you get. In my search for a non-toxic rice cooker, I also purchased the Vita-Clay which SEVERELY BURNS brown rice (once again, I can't comment on white rice). I ended up keeping the Vita-Clay and avoid burning by turning it on and off a few times (before the burning occurs). Of course, this renders the programmable feature totally useless. When will someone invent a non-toxic rice cooker that works well!?

I just called Sunpentown to verify and I was told that all their rice cookers have nonstick coating on the inner pot, including the stainless steel models. Specifically, the SC-886 has a teflon coating.

For that reason, I am going to purchase the "Stainless Steel Rice Cooker Model ME81 (Formerly ME8) - by Miracle Exclusives" instead. I'm also looking at VitaClay.

UPDATE on 13-Dec-2008. It appears the above info may be wrong.
This comes from Sunpentown customer service:

I'm not sure where you received the info from the other source, but yes, this item is definitely stainless steel -- it is not non-stick.
Sincerely,
Maryanne

From: Mr. Mountain
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 1:09 PM
To: Maryanne
I called customer support on Friday and I was told that there is a non-stick coating. I am trying to avoid the non-stick coatings.
Now I have two conflicting replies. Would you mind double checking? Thank you.


On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Maryanne wrote:
Thank you for your inquiry. No, there is no non-stick coating. The inner
pot is entirely stainless steel.
Sincerely,
Maryanne

After 3 uses, the inserted stainless steel bowl is rusting. I do not want to eat rust with my rice. We are returning the product and will try another one. We didn't want to order the 8-cup rice cooker, but it has great reviews, so will go with that product.

We tried contacting the manufacturer and they never responded. The rice cooker is so expensive that we do not see an alternative to buying a different brand.

Below was our original review. It may never rust for you, so I'm leaving those details below. Good luck with your product.
******

Our first impression is that it is a nice compact model. The item isn't the same in appearance as the product image. The product we received is stainless steel, but is not brushed nickel or brushed s/s as it appears in the image. That's fine, but the product picture should be changed on Amazon.

I'm curious to try the floating s/s cooking pot. We'll update our feedback when we use the product. So far, we're happy with the way it looks.

Time to go make rice!
*******
Well, I made brown rice because that's what we'll use it for most often, though I'm curious to try lentils, etc. I used the plastic cup included, which holds 3/4 cup. It's not a 1 cup measuring cup.

This is what I did and it turned out perfectly:

1) rinsed 2 cups of brown rice in the cooking bowl. I used the included cup, so again it was more like 1 1/2 measured cups of rice.

2) included 3 cups of cold filtered water to the rice in the cooking bowl, again using the included cup, so basically 2 1/4 measured cups of rice. As long as you stick with the brown rice ratio of 1 part rice to 1.5 parts water, you'll be fine.

3) added 1 1/2 measured cups of water to the cooking unit and placed the cooking bowl into the unit.

4) closed the lid

5) plugged in the unit. ensured the unit was set to cook. ensured the unit was set to warm. left it alone.

Totally forgot that I cooked the rice (love the warm feature!). 2 hours later, I checked the rice and it was ready for dinner and leftovers. It was perfect. It was cooked through and still warm. The rice separated nicely. It was *not* stuck to the bottom of the bowl. Sure, I'll have to clean the bowl because rice leaves a glue-like paste, so it's soaking now.

I think the idea that the cooking bowl sits in water helps tremendously. Almost all of the water did dissipate from the cooking unit, so I'll be sure to add more water if I plan to set it and leave it alone.

I took a picture and will up load later if I can.

Happy customer!!

I bought this rice cooker because I wanted a small rice cooker that is stainless steel (no teflon or aluminum). I love that it is stainless steel.

In my previous cookers, I've not had a problem cooking brown rice or other grains, but in this one I do. When the cook cycle ends, the brown rice is hard and not edible. The pot also does not click on to a new cycle to cook longer. If I put more water in and unplug it and let it cool a few minutes, then I can get it to click on to a new cycle. It has taken me doing this 3-4 times before I can get the brown rice cooked enough to be able to eat it. Sometimes if I put extra water in the beginning, I can get it to cook in 2-3 cycles, but it's a pain!

There is also very little in the way of instructions. Only instructions it gives will cook great white rice.

I expected my rice cooker to be able to cook a variety of rice/grains, thus my poor review... Brown rice minimally... For the expensive price of this cooker, I'm a bit disappointed.