Rice Cooker - How To Buy - What To Look For

You might be wondering what to look for in the best electric rice cooker nefore buying it? Merely searching for the best electric rice cooker won’t land you with the right product, as there’ll be hundreds of options displayed all over the web.

So, how to purchase a rice cooker? Well, you are purchasing a cooker to make cooking easier, so it shouldn’t be something with complicated features.

Here are a handful of factors you should check to buy an amazing rice cooker.

Type of Rice Cooker

Modern rice cookers come in three types:

Smart rice cookers

Smart rice cookers can make cooking a breeze. Most of these cookers come with “fuzzy logic” technology that’s essential for cooking a batch of rice perfectly.

You can make a variety of rice types using a smart cooker, and that’s a major advantage of using it. However, there are a few downsides as well, such as it takes time to cook and some features can be complicated to use.

Conventional rice cookers

These cookers are the easiest to use, and there are no such complicated features at all. InstantPot falls under conventional rice cookers, and people love using them for cooking rice.

Furthermore, they don’t cost you a fortune and can cook rice quickly, so you don’t get late for the office.

Combo rice cookers

With combo rice cookers, you can do more than just cooking rice. These cookers serve you as a streamer as well. If your kitchen’s counter is running low on space, going for a combo rice cooker will be a smart buy.

The Right Size

After choosing the type, comes the size of the rice cooker. If you need a cooker for preparing a small batch of rice, there’s no need to buy a massive cooker with a huge capacity.

These cooking appliances are available in a range of options with varying capacities. A cooker with a 3-cup capacity lets you add two cups of water and one cup of rice.

Depending on how much rice you want to cook, select the right size to not run short on it.

It Should Be Easy to Use

You are purchasing a rice cooker to make cooking easier, right? Go for a cooker that’s easy to use, and there should be no fuss about using its features.

Go for a cooker that has a clean design with fewer buttons so that even your 90-year-old not so geeky person can even find out how to use it.

Here are a few features to look for when choosing an easy-to-use rice cooker:

Lid Type

Before hitting the buy now button, look at the lid type, as it can significantly impact your experience with the cooker. Rice cookers have come with the following lid types:

Sealed lid

People love rice cookers with sealed lids as they don’t rattle while cooking. Moreover, there are no hassles in cleaning the splattered starchy water from the benchtop as the sealed lid keeps the moisture intact.

However, cleaning a cooker with a sealed lid can be a task.

Unsealed lid

Got a tight budget? A rice cooker with an unsealed lid is a catch for you. These cookers are cheap, but they rattle while cooking.

Also, the starchy water may spatter out on the benchtop because there’s no lid to stonewall the moisture.

Detachable power cord

You can quickly guess why a detachable power cord is essential when buying a cooker. Sometimes when storing a cooker, the cord bents, and breaks down.

If it has happened to you before, then you’ll surely agree that repairing the broken wire is a pain. But you can bid goodbye to these hassles by going for a cooker with a detachable power cord.

Just remove the power cord, and store the cooker wherever you want.

A few smart features to look for in a rice cooker:

Auto shutoff

Auto shutoff turns the cooker off when it reaches or exceeds the threshold temperature. This feature is basically essential to save the cooker from any damages.

Go for a rice cooker with a built-in fuse to protect it from over-voltage, over-current, and high temperature.

Delay start feature

Do you want to enjoy a bowl full of freshly cooked rice after coming home from the office? Well, if yes, go for a rice cooker with a delay start feature.

Just put the raw material in the cooker, set the timer, and the cooker will automatically cook the rice at the exact time set by you. What you get is a bowl full of steamy hot rice every day.

A digital display or indicator

How do you find out when the cooker has cooked the rice? Cooking rice in a cooker doesn’t have to rely on guesswork, and that’s why one with an LED indicator of a display should be your choice.

Warranty

Rice cookers don’t come cheap, so it is indispensable to buy one that comes with at least a 1-year warranty. The warranty depends on the manufacturer and the model you are going for.

Price

Lastly, you should have a budget in mind before searching for the best electric rice cookers. Always look for prominent brands to get a durable cooker that’s easy-to-operate and lasts longer.

Final Thoughts!

With all these things in mind, you can quickly select a good rice cooker. If you are still facing issues in buying a cooker, here are the best rice cooker reviews that you can skim through to get some recommendations.

A cooker can really make your life easier by cooking rice and other such stuff for you. So make a list of popular cookers, compare them based on these factors, and purchase the one that fits your budget and ticks all the aforementioned factors.