Testing out the Cadillac of rice cookers

32Rice is a staple, but it’s something I constantly mess up. I try my best, but every time I try to cook it on the stove, I end up with a messy pot with rice burnt to it, or undercooked grains that are just awful to eat.

To remedy this, I started looking into rice cookers. I never had one growing up, so this has been a bit of a blind spot for me my whole life, but I felt hungry for the challenge.

After looking online, I settled on Zojirushi. The consensus seemed to be that it was the best brand, so after looking at the way-too-extensive lineup, I decided to go with the NP-HCC10, which sits in the middle of the range and has a 4.6 out of 5-star rating on Amazon with over 4,000 reviews.

What makes this model stand above some of the others in the lineup is that it uses induction heating, so the whole inner pot heats up evenly, instead of just the bottom of the pot. At the high-end, the models use pressure induction heating, but to step up to that level, I needed to spend upwards of $550.

The model I took falls into the company’s Micom range, which means that it’s controlled by a computer. This makes things super easy since you can just dump in the rice and water, and the machine controls the rest. Like most rice cookers, it’s also got marks inside, making it foolproof to cook.

So far, I’ve used mine five times, and each time the rice has come out perfectly. You can select various rice types when you start cooking, so the machine knows how to tweak each cooking cycle to make sure you get perfect rice every time. You can also set it on a timer to cook something that’s not on the list. If you’re making white rice, you can even choose if you want to make the rice harder or softer than normal.

After using it a few times, obviously, I’m really happy with the rice quality, but I’ve also been impressed with how nice the hardware feels, especially the interior cooking pot. It’s solid, heavy-duty duty and the non-stick coating inside has been working like a dream when I clean it.

Notably, there are also two repair centres in Canada you can ship your cooker to if it breaks. One is in Richmond Hill, Ont., and the other is in Westmount, Que. However, this model only comes with a one-year warranty, so if you do need to get it repaired in the future, it will likely be out of pocket.

The NP-HCC10 I got cost me $399 on Amazon, which was a lot, but the way I was looking at it was, “is $400 a good price for great rice every time for years?” After a few tests, I think so. The model below this one, the Neuro Fuzzy, is a little cheaper at $263, but when I was comparing them online, I felt that if I was going to be paying basically $300, another $100 to step up to an induction heating model was worth it.