Aroma Housewares Select Stainless Rice Cooker & Warmer with Uncoated Inner Pot, 6-Cup(cooked) / 1.4Qt, ARC-753SG, White
$33
- COATING FREE INNER POT: The food-grade 304 stainless steel cooking pot is durable and dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning.
- ONE-TOUCH: Pour in up to 3 cups of uncooked rice, add water, and push down the lever to start. The one-touch, automated design is fool-proof. Just set it and forget it!
- AUTOMATIC COOKING: This smart rice cooker detects when your rice is ready, so you don’t even have to set a timer. Then, it automatically switches modes to keep your rice warm!
- COMPACT SIZE: This powerful rice cooker is a must-have kitchen tool in a small package. The 6-cup capacity is perfect for rice, omelets, soups, oatmeal, pasta, and more.
- COMPLETE SET: We include a bonus rice spatula and measuring cup, which are BPA-free. Plus, the spatula can be held in the handle for easy storage.
- Item Shape: Round
Specification: Aroma Housewares Select Stainless Rice Cooker & Warmer with Uncoated Inner Pot, 6-Cup(cooked) / 1.4Qt, ARC-753SG, White
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Nocere –
I have really love this little rice cooker. The inner pot it Stainless steel (a priority for me) and is smooth without any sharp edges. It and the glass lid are sturdy, light, and easily washed by hand (with non scratching scotch-brite pad) or dishwasher. I’ve left both soaked in the sink and then wash in the dishwasher with regular detergent for countless times and both have come out cleaned and shiny without any tarnish. The outer pot wipes down easy. It is a perfect size for my family of 3; max of ~2 cup uncooked rice. The controls are very simple: warm and cook. You have to plug-in and unplug in order to ‘turn’ it on and off respectively, which may be a negative but it hasn’t been a problem for me. It does automatically goes from cook to warm when done. A pot of rice takes about 15-20 minutes and has been perfectly cooked every time. It has not burn on warm but there’s not been reason to leave it on warm for long periods of time since it cooks so quickly that I start the pot at the beginning of meal prep and ‘turn it off/unplug’ at serving time.
Of note, this cooker is not for cooking the sticky sweet rice and I learned this the hard way. Mine is still working as of 3 years and I bought this second one to have a second stainless steel pot and lid.
Overall, definitely a great appliance that makes my life easier and that I use often.
Marie –
I made sticky rice in the 6 cup aroma rice cooker and it came out perfect. I almost didn’t buy it because several reviews, except for one, said it didn’t work for the sticky rice. But the texture came out perfect-not too wet or dry. I rinsed the rice well for about 2 minutes. Then I used the measurements stated on the bag of sticky rice-1/2 cup rice to 3/4 cup water. I didn’t pay attention to how long it took to cook, but it didn’t seem any longer than if I had made it in a pot on the stove. There was one layer of rice left stuck on on the bottom of the pot so I filled it with hot water and a little Dawn, let it soak for not too long, and the rice came off easily. I love this rice cooker!
Elle –
Pros:
It’s really small and compact, easy to use and mostly easy to clean. Since the pot is stainless steel rice does stick to the bottom as expected, but nothing a little soaking can’t get out and you don’t have to worry about scratching it.
Cons:
Doesn’t actually cook 3 cups of uncooked rice well. Top layers of rice doesn’t get enough water or heat and ends up undercooked. I find 2.5 cups is max it cooks evenly throughout.
Steam hole on lid allows for a lot of mess to spatter out onto the counter during the cooking process.
And lastly, it doesn’t have any options other than cook and keep warm….including a power button. You need to pull the plug out of the wall EVERY TIME you’re done with it. That will increase wear and tear on both your outlet and cord. I get that its only $50ish, however, I have previously bought a brand that was the same price, at least a cup bigger in capacity that had many more cooking options including an automatic shut-off for safety. I guess I will have to make the drive out to the store cities away for it again.
L Rollie –
We bought this to replace a National brand rice cooker that made perfect rice for 39 years before it stopped working. I have yet to make satisfactory rice with this cooker. I hate the “warm” function. If I don’t unplug it immediately after the button pops up, the rice on the bottom of the pot gets cooked to a crisp, so some of the rice is inedible AND the pot must be soaked to get the rice out. This never happened with my old rice cooker. Even though there is a crunchy layer on the bottom, the rice does not cook all the way through. I’ve tried adding more water than the instructions call for, but haven’t found a proportion that works yet. I will probably have to replace it. I do not recommend this product.
Midnight Surfer –
Product looks great but did not appreciate getting a used product that had been repacked! First clue was that the box was bulging at the top because of a poor repack. Also the extra strips of tape. When I opened it the plastic was not on all the pieces, some were not properly packed and extra bags were under the product. When I looked inside I noticed the stainless pot had some food residue on the inside edge and the lid was still wet!
Colleen G. –
I use this rice cooker to make Japanese sushi rice. It works beautifully! Yes, this is sticky rice, so it sticks to the bottom of the pot. But if I just leave the cook pot in the sink for a while, with some dish soap and water in it, then it washes out easily!
The main reason I got this rice cooker is because I wanted one that didn’t have any plastic parts touching the rice as it cooks. So it is perfect! The lid is glass and the cooking pot is stainless steel.
The only negative thing I can say is: I don’t see any way possible that the 3-cup option could be used at all. I don’t know why they have that option in the instructions. I use the 2-cup option and, when cooked, it fills the whole pot. If you want to cook more than 2 cups of (dry) rice, buy the bigger size for sure. Overall, very good rice cooker!
Jérémie L. –
I have been using rice cookers for 15 years, both to cook rice and grains. Here is what I have learned:
– Lesson 1: As a millennial, I don’t have the attention span to cook rice/grains on the stove without something terrible happening. Rice-cookers main feature is that they “know” the cooking time, and switch to “warm” when needed. (Does not mean you can leave a rice-cooker on warming for hours, but means you can get caught in deep thought with no dire consequences.)
– Lesson 2: There is no reason to buy a rice-cooker that is more than $50. Indeed, the convenience of a rice-cooker comes in large part from being able to toss it in the dishwasher. More expensive (and producing better tasting rice) devices are just not worth the hassle in my opinion.
– Lesson 3: Most cheap rice cookers either use an aluminum or teflon-coated pot. No matter the convenience for anti-stick purposes, there is good evidence that suggests that neither material is ideal to store food. In particular, if ever you use something a bit acidic (like tomato juice, or lemon juice) in the pot, it can exacerbate the amount of aluminum that leeches into your food.
After years of using a cheap Continental rice-cooker I bought when I first moved here (see it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KEJQEC), it broke one day, and I finally decided to do something about the worrisome aluminum pot.
You would not believe how impossible it is to find a rice-cooker that meets all the above criteria: Essentially, when you are looking for non-Teflon/non-aluminum alternatives, you get a LOT of weird products: From “ceramic coating” (which is just a buzz word), to “steel” that isn’t steel, it is very difficult to find something that is inert.
This product fulfills absolutely all the marks. I was very concerned by the claims that the “plating” comes off.
First, that has not been my experience—I have used this rice-cooker about a dozen times now, and there have been no issues. It is worth remarking that there are DIFFERENT kinds of stainless steel. This is advertised as being in 304 stainless steel: This is an austenitic stainless steel, which is not magnetic (magnets won’t stick to it and that is normal), that is very heat resistant, but will have a sensibility to prolonged exposure to SALT. Perhaps reviewers who had trouble with the plating left salt water in the pot.
Second, it is worth noting that this device is both sold from Amazon.com but also from a multitude of third-party sellers. It seems like a lucrative scam to sell a $40 stainless steel rice cooker, with some cheaper pot. If you pay attention, you will notice that all rice-cookers of this kind look VERY similar, down to the specific moldings and components used.
I included some photos:
– The first one shows my pot in use, cooking 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water.
– The second shows the quinoa as it is being removed from the pot—not that I used olive oil to avoid sticking.
– The third picture shows the difference between my previous Continental rice-cooker (lid with triangular grip) and the Aroma rice-cooker (lid with rectangular hold). You will notice that the diameter of the air duct is twice the size. This is why this device is slightly more prone to “sputtering”.
– The fourth picture shows the weird corrosion of a typical aluminum pot, here from my Continental rice-cooker. This is what I was hoping to avoid by buying a model with a stainless steel pot.
Here are a few tips for using this:
– First, pick a model for 2.5x the largest amount you intend to cook. I never put more than 2 cups of grain in my 6 cup rice-cooker, and I *never* have any problem with sputtering. (Two things that affect sputtering are the amount of rice + liquid in the pot; and also how much starch is in the liquid, that is, you can also rinse your grain as suggested in these reviews).
– Second, rub a paper towel with a bit of olive oil inside the pan, before you pour the grain and liquid. It may feel confusing to add a bit of oil before pouring liquid, but the oil adheres to the pot, and ensures a clean removal of the cooked grain (see photo for evidence).
Overall, I am very, very happy with this rice-cooker. I am glad I did not let a few worrisome reviews discourage me from giving it a try. I am also happy a few reviewers went ahead and posted positive reviews about this product to help me make my choice.
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Yuki –
If you are used to a japanese-style rice cooker that controls humidity precisely and ensures evenly cooked rice that you can keep warm in the rice cooker for 24+ hours after cooking, the Aroma ARC-753-SG is NOT THE RICE COOKER FOR YOU. Japanese short grain rice cooked in this cooker comes out unevenly cooked (too wet on top, too dry underneath) and it sticks to the bottom of the pan. Also, this cooker is not equipped to manage condensation adequately, so if you leave rice in the cooker longer than 1 hour, it becomes very soggy.
We bought this rice cooker because for safety reasons we wanted an alternative to the teflon pan rice cookers that are the norm in mainstream Japanese brands. Unfortunately this did not do the trick and we are returning it.