Cheapest 👏 Aroma Housewares ARC-914SBD Digital Cool-Touch Rice Grain Cooker And Food Steamer, Stainless, Silver, 4-Cup (Uncooked) / 8-Cup (Cooked) 🔥

5 reviews for Cheapest 👏 Aroma Housewares ARC-914SBD Digital Cool-Touch Rice Grain Cooker And Food Steamer, Stainless, Silver, 4-Cup (Uncooked) / 8-Cup (Cooked) 🔥

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   P. Schmidt – January 19, 2015

   I bought this AROMA brand rice cooker to replace a larger vegetable steamer (by a different manufacturer) that had an attachment for cooking rice. I wanted to have a cooker that was primarily for rice, with the option to steam vegetables and/or cook other foods, while being smaller when stored on the countertop, and easier to clean than my old one. Based on other Amazon reviews, I selected this one.Before I forget to write it, I think it is important to point out that this cooker is rated for 8 cups of COOKED rice, NOT 8 cups of uncooked rice. The usual ratio for regular white rice is 1:2, meaning that if you put in 1 cup of uncooked rice, you will have 2 cups of cooked rice when done. So with this product you can put in a maximum of 4 cups of uncooked rice, and will end up with a maximum of 8 cups of cooked rice.It is also important to note that if you choose to use the optional (included) vegetable steamer/food cooker tray, this fits inside the rice cooker pot and therefore takes up some of the space in that pot; you can cook rice AND steam vegetables/cook food simultaneously, but you cannot fit the full measure of rice when doing so. In my estimate, if you put in a cup or two of uncooked rice, the vegetable steamer/food cooker tray holds about enough to feed two people when combined with the rice. It is certainly not large enough to simultaneously cook rice and other food in quantities for a family; AROMA makes a similar product with a larger capacity if you need it.I shopped in several stores (Sears, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Macy’s) before buying this cooker. They all carried electric rice cookers, but none had this product. Sears has AROMA products, but only in a less expensive non-digital version, while BB&B had a similar cooker by West Bend that did not look as good in terms of quality. But the majority of places I looked carried only non-digital rice cookers. I mention this because I think the digital ones have a couple of advantages that are significant enough to comment on:- The cooker is not simply based on cooking time; there is some sort of measurement going on that assures properly cooked rice.- The cooker can be programmed to start cooking while you are away, so that the rice (or other food) will be ready when you want to eat it.- The cooker automatically goes into a ‘keep warm’ mode once cooking is done, and will work well in this regard for at least a few hours.This cooker includes the following:- Cooker itself (included the digital controller and the heating element)- Teflon coated (non-stick) rice cooker pot- Plastic vegetable steamer/food cooker tray- Plastic stirring spatula (used once rice is cooked)- Clear plastic measuring cup (1 cup capacity)- Users manual- Quick start guide- Rice recipesBasic rice cooking goes like this:- Measure uncooked rice, using included cup or any other measuring cup- Pour rice into pot- If cooking white rice, pour in some water, stir with included spatula (or wooden spoon, etc), drain water (this optional step helps rinse away excess starch)- Add water to pot (which already contains rice) until water level reaches measuring mark on inside of pot that corresponds with amount of rice- Close cooker lid- Press POWER button- Press either the WHITE RICE or BROWN RICE button- Cooking starts, and is monitored by the digital controller; display shows rotating LED pattern, ‘Cooking’ LED illuminates- When digital controller estimates that about 12 minutes remain, display stops rotating pattern and starts showing count down minutes until done- Cooker beeps loudly for a few seconds, automatically enters KEEP WARM mode, ‘Keep Warm’ LED illuminates- When ready to eat, press POWER button twice to turn cooker off, open lid and remove pot- Stir cooked in pot using included spatula (or wooden spoon, etc)The manual includes a chart for estimating cooking time, but in general white rice takes 20-30 minutes, and brown rice takes twice that time.I have done small and large batches of both white rice, brown rice, and also a batch of wild rice, and all came out perfectly, properly cooked but not mushy. White rice had a nice level of stickiness of the sort that lends itself to eating with chopsticks, but without being TOO sticky, so you can easily break it up by stirring more with the spatula.In my tests, I always used the recommended water amount (i.e. I filled the pot to the measurement line that matched the amount of uncooked rice I put in), EXCEPT for the wild rice; the cooker does not have a setting for wild rice, so I followed the instructions on the rice bag, putting in 1-3/4 cup of water for each cup of uncooked rice, and then using the BROWN RICE mode on the cooker.I have not used the optional vegetable steamer/food cooker tray, so I cannot comment on that very much. But the manual includes extra steps for setting up cooking in the tray only (i.e. no rice cooking), as well as simultaneous cooking of rice and other foods. There are ways to specify time values that apply to the foods in the optional tray, so the cooker is not going only on its normal method for rice-only cooking.Besides using the product for cooking rice, and other things in the optional tray, it can be used as a sort of ‘crock pot’ for heating soups, chili, stews, etc. In this case, you just put the food to be heated into the pot directly and select the WHITE RICE mode. The food will be heated and then the cooker will keep it warm until you are ready to eat it. I tested this using a can of chili, and it worked well. This use of the cooker is mostly useful if you want to program it to start cooking while you are away, with cooking completed soon before you ARE ready to eat, OR to keep the food warm if you are uncertain about when you will be ready to eat.The pot is easy to clean. Since neither water or food are ever put into the body of the cooker, there should rarely be any need to clean it, other than wiping the inside of the lid in case any food splashed up onto it during cooking.The quality of this product seems very good. Nothing feels cheap. My only quibbles are that the power cord is quite short (obviously intended for use on a counter top, whereas I prefer to use it on a table that is further from the nearest outlet), and the ‘control panel’ area is quite reflective, and sometimes I have to view from different angles in order to read the buttons and/or the display and other LEDs.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Sherri – August 26, 2020

   I always use brown rice and was leery about buying this kind of steamer. I had a vegetable and rice steamer for over 10 years that I loved. It was just an oval one with the clear plastic bowl for the veggies and had a rice bowl you put in it. It had a dial that you turned to the amount of time y9u wanted your food to cook for. It was perfect for brown rice because I could put however much water I wanted In with the rice and then set it for 60 minutes and then later another 15-20. So I was sad when it died and nervous about this one.This one did work very well. I followed the directions, but did add a little extra water. I found that for brown rice, the recommended amount of water was not enough. When I checked on it after it was done, the water had completely absorbed in and the brown rice was a little too hard. Not crunchy or really hard, just not quite right. (I do not like my rice mushy. I have eaten brown rice all my life, along with other grains.) i had to add more water and cook it for a little longer. I did find that some rice was stuck to the bottom, but not burned. I have always used twice as much water to brown rice and cooked it for around 80 minutes. I think with brown rice, it will take some experimenting to figure out what works best for each person. Next time, I’m going to add more water and cook it longer. (only way to cook it longer than 60 minutes is to start it over again, which is easy.) If I end up adding too much water, I will just cook it a little longer.I washed it by hand, and I didn’t put it in the dishwasher. It is small and light so it is easy to put in a cupboard. There are some recipes in the manual for other grains.Anyway, I like this and it did work for brown rice. You just might have to experiment with the cooking time and water amount a little bit.The only thing that bugs me is that the inside pan the rice goes in has two sets of lines and numbers. It has cups on one side and a lower case e on the other. The lines under the e do not match up with the lines under the word cups. The numbers are different too. The ones under the e are 0.2 up through 0.8. I thought maybe the e and the 0.2-0.8 was liters or something but am not sure. I read the manual and googled and couldn’t find the answer. I’m sure it is something obvious, and doesn’t effect anything at all. I’m just curious.Update 12/19/20- After using this rice cooker quite often between now and when I got it, I wish I had bought a different rice cooker. My old Sunbeam one was much better. With the Aroma cooker, the water that is in with the rice is what is steaming. The rice comes out pretty stuck together, no matter how I adjust the water amount. If I follow the directions and only use the proper amount of water, the brown rice isn’t cooked enough and is hard still. Another big disadvantage of the Aroma is that the rice sticks to the bottom and while I don’t have to scrub it off, I do have to soak it for hours and apply pressure with a dish cloth to get it clean. The Sunbeam, which I include a link for so you can see what I’m talking about, had you put water below what you are steaming. It had a bowl for the rice and you also put water in with the rice. The water that was below and not with the rice is what got hot and steamy. It cooked the rice just fine, perfectly in fact. The timer only went for 60 minutes, so I did have to add some more time, but this was no big deal. Often, I would start the rice earlier in the day at around 2 or 3 and then cook it the last 20 or so before dinner. The Sunbeam was also much easier to clean. The brown rice turned out soft, but not mushy, and was not all stuck together. It was perfect. The only thing thing the Aroma has that I like better is that it does have a delay start.(It was this one, but I am not paying this much-https://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-Instant-4710-Vegetable-Cooker/dp/B07MMG9L96/ref=asc_df_B07MMG9L96/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=385191967814&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17843216542356355794&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032623&hvtargid=pla-836131536875&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=78082493949&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=385191967814&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17843216542356355794&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032623&hvtargid=pla-836131536875)

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   JMalocu – November 26, 2022

   I don’t know how I got by without having a rice cooker. I am so pleased with this purchase. It works so well! I basically cook a lot of jasmine rice, comes with a cup scooper. All I do is add 4 cups of rice and fill the water to the water line. Put in the pot, press my white rice button and in about 20 to 25 minutes. I have perfect fluffy rice. I haven’t really tried it for anything else, I know you can also sauté, make oatmeal, and also use as a slow cooker. I do plan on using it for that, but my main purpose for buying it was to make rice. it’s so easy to use, and super easy to clean up. Teflon coated insert wash as well. I would definitely recommend.

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   JP – December 5, 2022

   This thing is awesome. You just put your rice and water in a 1:1 in it, turn it on, and about a half hour later you have perfectly done rice. It’s easy to clean, as the bowl and the condensation lid just pop right out.My one criticism is that you don’t get a countdown timer until there’s 10 minutes left. But it’s not much of a bother since the keep warm function will keep the rice at a freshly hot and moistness for up to 12 hours after it’s done

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Greggory Bond – December 6, 2022

   Been using this over 6yr weekly, almost exclusively with brown rice (occasionally steamed veggies). Miles better than the single switch rice cookers & only $10 more! Clean with blue non-scratch scotch pad & non-stick/Teflon doesn’t have any major parts missing. I immediately remove all rice after cooking usually, I do know once or twice I left it for an hour & it didn’t burn the bottom. Honestly debating getting a fancy $100 cuckoo (korea) or zojirushi (japan) one, but I’m having a hard time pulling the trigger because this thing has been solid so I’m not sure how those will improve. I DID take apart the whole upper lid once to clean which I am glad I did & it was pretty easy 🙂