Customer Reviews

Wolfgang Puck WPDRCR10 10-Cup Rice Cooker and Steamer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have owned this cooker for just over one year. I rarely take time to write reviews because I usually have nothing significant to add. This time is different! I hope everyone reads what I have to say because their and their family's health depend upon it. What is also disturbing is that Wolfgang Puck's company could not care any less.

Upon receiving this rice cooker, I was shocked at the POOR QUALITY of the cooking pot itself, which is light-weight aluminum sprayed with a very thin, teflon-like coating to keep the rice from sticking. I usually only buy the very best cookware, and rarely buy any with a non-stick coating because it is well known that these coatings contain toxic substances that we can ingest as they break down. I bought this sight-unseen, though, because I was only going to be steaming food in it and I trusted this would be up to my high standards. After all, Wolfgang's "spiel" for this item includes these words: "... he brings that same (unparalleled) level of excellence to his own line of professional-quality cookware." If this is his idea of professional-quality cookware, I now think he must be an idiot - or a fraud. While I am not one who likes to complain, I called his company twice over the past year to discuss this problem. I got nowhere. They just do not care about design issues that can affect public health, so I decided to write about this problem instead.

As careful as I have been to use the special plastic spoon provided with the cooker to prevent scratching, the pot's toxic finish began to show marks of wear within two weeks of once-a-day use. A replacement pot that I recently began to use has shown the same undue wear. I see now it is a design problem. The cooking pot is one layer of thin aluminum with no extra layers at its bottom where it sits directly over a hot heating element. Although the element is covered, it obviously is not enough to protect the bottom of the pot from heating temperatures that cause the ultra-thin, non-stick coating to break down. It only breaks down at the bottom, not at the sides. Both cooking pots began to show wear and tear within just a couple of weeks of light daily use, and leaving food in it to keep it warm probably hastens the breakdown. The problem is not an aesthetic one. This breakdown of a toxic surface contaminates the food you eat and can lead to cancer and contribute to other health problems.

As I said above, I see no recourse but to throw the whole thing out. What good does it do to keep replacing a cooking pot that is simply not built to specs that can withstand sitting on top of its heating element? After going through two cooking pots in less than 6 months of usage, I believe it is fair to say that the coating on the pot is simply not heat-resistant enough to be safely used as instructed in this rice cooker. Shame on Wolfgang Puck for putting his name on it and misleading so many of us!

This rice cooker makes the perfect sticky rice. Don't follow the recipe on the bag of rice...instead, try pouring 2 cups of rinsed long grain or medium rice into the nonstick bowl, and then fill the water to the 2 1/2 cup line (the bowl has measuring lines on the sides of the bowl). This recipe makes great sticky rice! Also, the rice cooker turns off automatically when it's ready to eat, and defaults to a warming mode that keeps rice fresh.

I was skeptical buying this one because there were so few reviews, however, the other rice cookers/steamers in this price range had such mixed reviews that I took my chances on this one. I love it! The rice was cook perfectly, no burnt rice on the bottom at all. Also, the keep warm feature does not burn the rice either. Additionally, the lid and the inside of the rice cooker are removable making for very easy cleaning. Really great!

It was time for me to get a new Rice cooker I thought I would get something a little fancier than the my last one. We have Rice with dinner almost every night. This Rice cooker either burns the bottom or spews white goo from the top all over the counter. The cover / lid gets in the way when serving and is not that easy to remove. I am much happier with a rice cooker that has a glass lid, To bad it took me $40.00 to learn that! Learn from my mistake and be happy you did...

Maybe it's because I'm Hispanic, and we eat rice practically everyday, but something as simple as cooking rice should not be so complicated! I've gone through many rice cookers. I read the reviews and thought this must be great! Boy was I wrong. I returned it after reading the instructions. The fact that the lid cannot be removed and immersed in water to be cleaned was a MAJOR turnoff, aside from a number of other things. I definitely would not recommend this rice cooker.

I follow the rice cookers directions for cooking WHITE rice when I do my BROWN rice. I like it a bit chewy and this thing does it perfect. PERFECT!

We wanted a rice cooker with no fancy bells or whistles and would just do a good job of cooking rice. So we decided on this one. We've gone through a couple of rice cookers over the years and come to expect no excitement from them. Rice cookers are supposed to be grumpy and quiet, steaming away in the corner leaving all the sizzling, popping, grinding excitement for the other appliances. You put the rice and water in, plug it in and press the button. It cooks rice and turns itself off when done. Simple enough, right?

Well, the first time we tried it, things didn't go very well. It took us a while to notice the burning smell permeating the kitchen. We managed to turn it off before the fire alarm went off. Adding insult to injury, I managed to run a few bad scrapes on the bottom of the pot while trying to remove the thick black layer of burnt rice.

There it sat for a couple more days before I worked up the courage to give it a second chance. Somehow this time it worked fine, and it has been working relatively well since. I'm still not sure what went wrong the first time. Once in a while, it can slightly overcook the rice. But this goes largely unnoticed due to the less than stellar cooking ability with which I prepare the rest of the meal. In addition to rice, I also use it to cook pasta which I learnt from reading the recipe book that came with the cooker.

So, there it is. Quiet and grumpy. But it cooks rice and then some.

I have used this product as directed over and over and the food keeps burning. I have wasted over 5 dinners with this machine and will not give it another chance. Too much food had to go in the garbage because it was not edible. I wish it had more settings than just "cook" to prevent burning or over cooking because when it shuts off automatically your food is already black!

Well, the good news is that the rice was good! But at what cost? I thought having a locking lid would help with filmy, gooey liquid boiling out, but although I only made 2 cups of rice and did rinse it first, stuff gooped out of the vent at the top and down the sides and onto the counter. This is a BIG steamer, takes up a lot of space. It's a pain to clean, I thought, because the lid doesn't come off and it was hard to clean the stuff out of the vent. Way too much work and fuss for a pot of rice. I returned and am getting something else. If you cook for ALOT of people and have someone willing to do the clean up chore, this is for you!

Sure, I went cheap for a rice cooker, but I was drawn in by all the features and the few but decent reviews. My brother gave me crap for buying a cheap rice cooker, and I have to admit -- he is right. First of all, in terms of basic rice, for some reason my rice turned out too sticky. I used their measuring cup and the lines in the receptacle, even tried reducing the water, but the rice never seemed that great. Weird. I'm Asian and eat rice often and have had rice cookers all of my life. I had the expectation that even without trying to use the steamer basket or all these funky rice cooker recipes, basic rice would be hard to screw up. Secondly, I did try some of the recipes that came in the booklet that came with the cooker. A couple of them were good, like the risotto and pasta dishes, but the downsides overshadow the fairly good results; you can't double up the recipes so you're really cooking smaller portions that may be good for 2-3 ppl MAX, and the cooker has too many components you have to remove and clean to make it worth it. It would be different if there was hardly anything to clean, but you have to detach the little condensation receptacle and pull apart the lid to really get it clean. For me personally, it was not worth the buy, and I am considering selling it or giving it away and resorting back to my basic Japanese rice cooker, which doesn't have the bells and whistles but makes a helluva rice. Embarrassed for my Asian friends to read this!