Customer Reviews

Zojirushi NS-WAC10 Micom Fuzzy-Logic 5-1/2-Cup Rice Cooker and Warmer

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My Thai wife used to make fun of me because I made rice with a covered pan. For a couple of years she humored me, then told me she wanted me to get a rice cooker. After looking around some, I chose this one, and I have to give it to her, she was absolutely right. :) It is effortless to make perfect rice every time, once you learn the secret. The secret is to choose the right setting on the machine, and to use less water than you are probably used to. For Thai Jasmine rice, we use 1 measurement of rice to 1.5 measurements of water and use the white setting. (it does not matter if it is a half cup, cup, or one of the rice cookers cups, which is about 3/4 of a cup)

Just for the rice alone, this would be a good purchase, but the truth is, I use it for far more than rice. Being able to wake up to real grits, as opposed to the quick variety, steel cut oatmeal, my wife's rice porridge, etc. are all easily done with this cooker using the porridge setting. One accessory I would definitely recommend is The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook : 250 No-Fail Recipes for Pilafs, Risottos, Polenta, Chilis, Soups, Porridges, Puddings and More, from Start to Finish in Your Rice Cooker which provides a wide variety of possibilities for this handy time-saver. :) At the very least, it will give you ideas for how to use the cooker to widen your possibilities in the kitchen, though you may have to experiment a little with some of the recipes.

BTW...another reviewer said it was 'fussy to clean'. I HATE washing dishes, and I find it easy to clean. Remove the pan, wipe it down, remove the lid and wash with a kitchen sponge, rinse and dry, wipe down the lid of the cooker, and put it back together. All in all, it takes about a minute and a half. Heh, I do not consider that 'fussy'. :)

Highly recommended.

I bought this a couple months ago for use in my apartment and I'm very pleased with the purchase. It does a great job of cooking brown rice as well as white rice which is why I bought it. It keeps the rice warm for a very long time without drying it out too. The timer feature works great too, I just set it early in the day and my rice is always done at the exact minute I want.

I have absolutely no complaints with this purchase and would definitely buy it again if I had to.

I got this to replace a basic Panasonic rice cooker. Nothing wrong with the Panasonic's machinery, but the bowl's Teflon coating was damaged beyond repair. I decided to splurge on the Zojirushi because I thought the timer feature would be useful, which it is. I also like that it can make brown and sweet rice as well as white rice, and the white rice seems to come out with a better texture.

However, the Zojirushi is a hassle to clean: You have to not only wash the bowl, but also remove and wash the inner lining of the lid and then wipe down the inside of the lid itself (attached to the body) every time you use it. Not a huge burden, but annoying to someone who's used to just tossing the Panasonic's rice cooker lid in the dishwasher.

The Zojirushi's regular white rice setting also takes between 50-60 minutes to cook 2 cups of rice, as opposed to about 30 minutes for the Panasonic. The Zojirushi does have a quick cooking option that will cut the time to 30 minutes with no apparent loss of quality. However, as far as I can tell, it'll revert to the regular setting after it's done, so that you have to keep selecting the quick cooking option every time you want to use it as opposed to having it just sit there with quick cooking as the default. (Keep in mind, though, that this may be user error as I'm still learning how to use it.)

To sum up: Good rice, adequate controls, and fussy to clean. 4 stars.

Having owned 1 rice cooker before this one I was tempted to replace my old one with a similar one that cost about $20. It lasted me 22 years and was still going strong when someone in my household ran cold water on the hot glass lid. Quite a mess by the way. I assumed all rice cookers burned on the bottom before I can across the $50-$100-$200-$400 rice cookers. I had sticker shock for about week before I finally took the plunge and bought the Zojirushi WAC10 5 1/2 cup. Let me back up. I actually bought a 10 cup Aroma as a replacement. I liked it and the $40 price. The problem was everything I read said you had to cook at least 2 cups. It's just my wife and I and despite what I read all over the place the two of us cannot eat 2 cups of uncooked rice. I brought it home and verified 2 cups was too much and we don't like leftover rice. I am only a 230 pound fella so you can guess I am a pretty light eater (ha-ha). I sold it to a buddy at work and bought the Zoji. I am impressed in every way. I cooked 2 cups of brown rice tonight. It took about 1:45 minutes to cook and was great. If you didn't know it, brown rice takes a long time to cook. It will probably cook white rice in around 30-40 minutes. My old cheapie would cook it in 20. Time is key, not the speed mind you but the quality it gives you with even controlled heating. The fuzzy logic or whatever it is makes the rice in the Zoji come out far better without sticking to the bottom than my $20 unit. By the way, the $40 Aroma from Walmart didn't stick either. Is it worth 3 times as much or more to get the Zoji, don't know for sure, time will tell. I do know that by going ahead and spending the money now I won't have to look over my shoulder and wonder if I could have had better rice on the dinner table. Other stuff: I like the detachable cord for storage. I am not crazy about retractable cords. I replaced one on my vacuum and it cost $100. If I have to replace this one it will be cheap. Handle is neat but not needed. The etched fill lines inside are easy to read and should be easy to read years from now. Easy to program and use. Pretty small footprint. I think a 5.5 cup will easily feed 6 adults.

When I'd mentioned I was 'thinking about' buying a rice cooker a friend recommended the Zojirushi cookers above others.

Yes, this rice cooker delivers on its claims. It's easy to use. I haven't tried too many fancy recipes and I seldom if ever use the timer functions. This handsome model is well-designed and a breeze to clean. The fuzzy logic settings for various rices and porridge make sure whichever type of rice (or oats) I put in the cooker come out perfectly cooked. The warming settings work perfectly.

Its capacity is right sized for a couple or a small family.

The Zoji makes me feel like I have a 'helper' in my kitchen.

Cleaning this thing really is not bad... you just need to do it soon after you're done using it so the rice doesn't harden on. The first time I used it, I made brown rice and put it on the brown rice setting. After almost 2 hours, it still wasn't finished, so I was a bit suspicious and opened it up. The rice was already overcooked! It may have just been the brand I was using, but I was hoping that the "brown rice" setting was all-inclusive. :) Minor detail, though. Overall, I love it.

I'm not much of a cook, yes I can make decent white rice myself, but have to watch it constantly. Brown rice always gives me fits. How many rice meals have I had to scoop the rice off the top of the pot because the bottom of the pot was either soupy or scorched.

Two pots of brown rice so far this cooker has cooked perfectly while I was busy elsewhere in the house. When I dropped by the kitchen and noticed the "keep warm" light was lit I openned the cooker and fluffed perfectly cooked rice.

Its more expensive than a crock pot that has been rebranded as a rice cooker. But its clearly got a lot more smarts than a crock pot.

I'm not good at cooking rice, luckily this machine does it for me. Perfect rice every time, keeps it warm without drying it out too. The melody it plays when it starts and finishes makes me smile every time. One of the first things I did was break the "spatula holder" it was a little plastic thing that attached to the side, it's not important. Other small appliances I own rarely get used because I can cook better/faster/easier on something else or they're a pain to clean. I'd never cook rice without this; I got it last Christmas and use it about once a week. I disagree with the other reviewer on the cleaning part all of the pieces you clean come off and I've waited days after cooking (gross I know) and still didn't have stuck on rice. Bottom line: it's awesome.

I've been using the same simple on/off rice cooker (purchased for about $25.00) for years. It made cooking rice easy but it was time to replace it. I debated quite a bit on spending over $100 for this particular rice cooker...could it really be that much better? I thought I would give it a try....

I have to say, I'm so glad I did. This little gem cooks rice PERFECTLY. I always though my old rice cooker did a good job (despite the bit of burnt rice on the bottom of the pot), but i really had no idea that rice could come out like this!

This cooker has made me a rice fanatic. Brown rice is amazingly soft and tasty, and I have been trying different types of white rice as well.

The best part is that you can use this like a crockpot. You can really cook some great dishes right in the cooker. Put the ingredients hours before dinner, set the timer and come home to a perfectly cooked rice meal.

My kids have become huge fans of the porridge. A mix of oatmeal and cooked rice with a hint of cinnamon and sugar make for a healthy, hearty breakfast that my family can't get enough of.

I debated between the 3 cup and the 5 1/2 cup, but since the 5 1/2 cup was only a few dollars more I went with that and I'm glad I did. I don't think the 3 cup would have been enough - especially since I am using it to cook meals.

If you're in the market for a rice cooker, take a serious look at this. It's not just a rice cooker - be sure to get a rice cooker cookbook to compliment it though - the recipes that come with the machine are not that exciting.

Wow. Just wow. Stunning, simple, perfect rice, every time. Throw it in, press a button, and in just over an hour you've got perfectly cooked rice. Can't say enough positive things about this model. I've used it for a month now, and it continues to impress. One of these days I'll read the manual to see what the other buttons do, but since I got it I've just used the big red cook button, and the off button.