Side by Side Comparison of: Zojirushi vs Inomata vs Amazon

I love my rice cooker! Definitely worth the price. It plays a cute little tune when you start the cooking and when it finishes but you can always toggle it to do a single beep or no sound at all. I have tried baking a cheesecake in it, steaming dumplings while rice cooked, and it all worked out perfectly. It comes with handy little manuals tha tell you how much rice and water and how long to cook. I got the 5cup and it's way too big for a single person. I have let it stay on keep warm for up to 72 hours and the rice is still good (of course accompanying the signs of aging rice like a little moisture or dryness of course)

I love this product. Used on a daily basis for cooking porridge (oats). Fill it up at night, set the timer, and breakfast is ready in the morning. Also makes fantastic rice (obviously) but you need a bit of patience / planning as it takes longer than simply dumping the rice in a pot of boiling water....

I can't say enough good things about the Zojirushi. It was a tough call to spend the money on it instead of $20 on a "regular" rice cooker to replace my old one, but after recommendations from friends I'm so glad I did. Rice takes a surprisingly long time to cook - especially brown rice, which takes more than two hours! - but it's worth it. The finished rice has a noticeably better taste and texture.The timer and keep warm features are both fantastic, too.

Don't bother looking any further because this rice cooker is all you need.I had a minimal rice cooker all through college as a gift from my parents and a promise for the future. It had one setting and the silly tab you push down that pops up when the rice is done. I loved that rice cooker. That clicking sound of the tab popping up helped get me through many final seasons. That rice cooker survived several moves across the city and even one across the country. It was enough for a sad, sad Korean girl crying over her books in the cold winter, but after one year out of college and a move to the big city, my rice cooker died, like a soldier tired from battle.I took this as a sign that I needed to finally invest in the real deal - my first grown-up rice cooker. I found it in Zoji-sama. Is there such a thing as the opposite of buyer's remorse? That's what I have.Do you want rice? Fluffy, sweet, delicate, perfectly steamed rice here.Do you want cake? Grease me up, and this'll pop a fluffy yellow sponge cake out for you with barely a tap on the bottom of the bowl.Porridge at dawn? Throw in some rice and water and set the timer. You'll wake to the dulcet tones of your Zoji singing to you like a songbird.This thing is not only pretty and sleek (it appeals to my designer aesthetics), but it has every setting you never knew you wanted: white rice, quick rice (if you don't want to wait), brown rice, porridge, cake, etc. In the manual is a collection of recipes, all of which you can make in this wondrous piece of technology. The other day I made a heaping pile of rice for several hungry Asian friends, and we silently sat around my apartment and wept with happiness over the beautiful glistening white kernels of goodness that had been bequeathed to us by Zoji-sama. We then discovered the yellow sponge cake recipe and proceeded to squeal with delight while making that. An hour later, we pulled the bowl out of the Zoji, tapped the bottom of it, and this immaculate yellow cake slid out without a crumb out of place like the most perfect poop you've never had. We ate it with whipped cream and peaches (not cooked in the Zoji). Glorious.Also, the cord is retractable, and the parts come out for easy cleaning. Heck yeah.So thank you, Zojirushi, for this gift to all mankind, and to Amazon Prime for delivering it within 2 days of ordering it. My paycheck did not go to waste.

Made sushi rice on first use. PERFECT. Our old rice cooked started to overcook everything. Decided to get the best for my wife to make sure we didn't have sticky, clumpy, over-cooked rice anymore. Decided to use it to make sushi rice. Figured if it could do that correctly, should be able to do anything. Rice tasted REALLY good.First, be sure to use the measuring cup that comes with the cooker to measure the rice. It is NOT a true cup. When you use their plastic "cup" of rice, you can then fill with water to the lines in the cooker basin, and presto! The rice came out perfect.Second, use the timer. For sushi rice, you want to rinse well and then let the sushi set in the water for about an hour. With this, I could wash my rice, put it in the cooker, add the water and then set the timer for 1 3/4 hours from now. The cooker takes about 45 minutes to cook. An hour later, the cooker starts, cooks the rice, and it was done 1 3/4 hours later. Repeated that several times throughout the day as I made sushi and had fresh rice continuously coming out.Third, don't put your hand over it to see if it is running. Won't do that again. Couldn't see the steam, but my fingers could feel it! The display will tell you what it is doing. Makes a fun little melody at the end that tells you it is done.The menu is simple to use. Timer is easy to set. Won't have to get out the instructions each time you use it. Intuitive.

Me: A foodie Dad in the USA who knows how to hand-cook long-grain, sushi, basmati, jasmine, and brown rice so they're just right. I rise early every morning to hand-make lunches for my four children and my wife because I'm socially awkward and emotionally closed off, and this is one way that I show my family that I love them. I'm a middle-class working guy, without tons of money, so I don't buy $100+ kitchen appliances on a whim. I mean, I bought my wife a Kitchen-Aid mixer eight years ago because she wanted it, but I winced at the price. I've owned this product for five months, and used it 4+ times a week during that period.You: Somebody that identifies with me and cooks rice or other steamed grains on a daily basis.My Review: If you're pressed for time and you cook a lot of rice or other boiled/steamed grains, BUY THIS RICE COOKER. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could. It's a triumph of convenience engineering, and obviously a multi-year investment. I've owned a couple $20 rice cookers, which I used when I didn't have enough time to spare to pay attention to heat-on, heat-off cycles when I was making a meal. Now, I just select the type of grain from a super-intuitive menu, select the time I want it ready, and push a button. The rice is always perfect when the beeper goes off, and is still perfect the next day.Geek details: The AC power cord is flexible and retractable. The clock doesn't need to be reset if the cooker is unplugged for 2 days at a time... handy because the cooker doubles as an insulated container (like a crock pot) from which to serve hot rice several hours later. The dual mode rice warmer + the superb design of the cooking chamber means that every time you cook rice, you re-sterilize the sealed cooking chamber and keep it sterile so that rice can easily be held (hot and safe!) for a second day. The swing-up handle makes this a cinch to carry, and it's well-balanced. The non-stick bowl is super-heavy-duty aluminum and I expect it to last for years, especially since I baby it... I love this appliance like a Wall Street CEO loves his sports car. Cleanup is easy (never more than 2 minutes, usually less than 1 with hot tap water and a splash of dish soap). The detachable pot lid is easier to remove and clean than I expected.. I include detaching, washing, and replacing it in 1-2 minute cleanup time.Disclaimer: This is for the 5.5 cup cooker, although I assume that the 3 cup cooker is similar. I've never bought a more expensive model to compare... my prior experience is with pot-cooking rice or using a $20-$30 model when I didn't have time to baby the rice.Extras: Works great for wild rice and quinoa. Medium and short-grain rice are perfectly cooked so long as you rinse them properly before putting them in the cooker... if I fill and set the timer at bedtime, I can season and cool the rice, cut nori, crab, and avacado, and make California rolls within 12 minutes from stepping into the kitchen.

Buying this bowl is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Rice is pretty much my go-to staple, so this purchase has made life a lot easier. I used to use strainers to wash my rice, which was just awkward and annoying. This bowl makes it easy to swish around the rice and let the water drain from either the bottom or the side spout.Seriously, it's less than $6. If you cook rice ever, just buy this bowl. It's awesome.

Great for cleaning rice, as washing rice is highly recommended since arsenic ooften is found in rice, absorbed through the growing fields! But washing it and not over boiling it gets rid of much of the poison. Washing the rice gets rid of the poisons too...and using a steamer, instead of letting the rice absorb the poisoned water, is the best way to cook it. So the first step, washing the rice very well, is great in getting rid of any poisons which are found in rice products as they are produced these days

I cook rice as a basis for most meals (Japanese rice or basmati rice, mostly), and washing it is a bit of a pain. I usually put the rice in the ricecooker container, pour water, than squish it by hand, pour the water hand and restart a few times. This doesn't work very well, is pretty slow, but at least you avoid the mess with a fine mesh strainer (were the rice plugs the holes). I usually settle for somewhat clear water, and it takes about 5 minutes.I got fed up and looked up "rice washer" thinking surely cooking rice is universal enough that SOMEBODY would have solved it.This is magical. The holes at the bottom perfectly regulate the water: the flow is slow enough that you can just put the rice underneath the tap, squish it for about 20 seconds, and wash it more perfectly than you ever could before. The side holes are a bit large for basmati rice, but are still useful, especially when you don't want to wait for the rice to drain.Finally I recommend a silicone spatula, to make it easy to transfer rice from this bowl to rice cooker.

Surprisingly efficient; I guess I never washed my rice well before getting this bowl.They knew what they were doing when they designed this wash bowl. It removed more of that cloudy starch in less time with fewer grain loss. The cooked rice seemed less sticky too.

This item is of quality made from Japan. It was sold from JapanSuperMall through Amazon. Some people complain that it is not made from Japan, just make sure that you use JapanSuperMall vendor and you will get the authentic original made from Japan.The bowl is about 22.9 cm from the top and about 25.4 cm from the handle to the spout. There is a decent size hole on the handle to let it through a hook, if needed. The brand label that came with the product is all in Japanese script.This is dishwasher safe but the plastic is not ruggedly thick and looks delicate but solid so I opted to hand wash it every time to lengthen its durability and quality. Besides, it is super light weight.The bottom drain is small enough to not let Quinoa out. I have used Thai Jasmine Rice and Indian Basmati Rice and not a grain goes through the bottom. The side slit near the spout is wide enough to let some Quinoa grain get through. This drain bowl is also great for mushrooms and other fruits and vegetables.For less than 5 bucks this is an excellent deal with free 2 days shipping through Amazon Prime. I highly recommend this item to anybody. +1

I'm very picky about my rice. So, I always wash my rice before cooking it and I always cook my rice in a rice cooker. The result is perfect rice every time. However, until now I've never found the right container to wash my rice in. Colanders are not suiatable because the holes in most colanders are too large so that the rice will escape with the water. With a common bowl the problem is, how do you drain off the wash water without also allowing rice to escape? I've used strainers and other approaches but, none work as well and a easily as this rice washing bowl.When I cook rice I usually cook 1-4 cups of rice at a time. This bowl handles that well but, can proabaly accomidate two to three times that much rice.In fact, when the bowl first arrived I thought it was too large. My mind changed immediately when I started using it. I like to use my hands when I wash rice and I have large hands; it turns out that the bowl is the perfect size so that I can get water, rice and my hands all into the mix and get the job done.While you can't really see it in the picture, the bowl has draining holes at the bottom. It also has draining holes incorporated in the little drain spout. This gives this bowl a lot of flexibility.I generally don't like single purpose tools in my kitchen, they just take up too much room and expense. Since I got the bowl I've been using it to wash, and strain all sort of things in addition to rice. It was a nice find for me and the price is also quite reasonable.

First of all Amazon needs to have a price match guarantee for at least 30 days after purchase of an item. I paid $147 plus tax for our Zojirushi NS-TSC10 last week, this morning the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 was $139 on Amazon and as I write this review the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 is $142 on Amazon.Our Eastern Indian neighbors recommended the Zojirushi NS-TSC10. We do like it very much and rice as well as steel cut oatmeal is fabulous when cooked in our Zojirushi NS-TSC10. The detachable inner lid needs to be coated with a nonstick type of coating similar to the inner cooking pan. You are to clean the detachable inner lid each time the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 is used and food remnants do stick to the detachable inner lid. Also, I am not happy about my food being cooked against bare uncoated Aluminum, which the inner lid appears to be fabricated from. If Zojirushi will hopefully make this design change, how about also coating the upper fixed inner lid because if any food does boil over the fixed inner lid will get soiled. Common sense engineering would have prevented this issue.The other issue is that the instruction manual is printed in brown ink, which is okay, but some of the instructions are highlighted with a light brown and then other instructions are highlighted in a medium brown. Highlighting is supposed to highlight not obscure, and the brown print on medium brown highlighting does obscure badly. Again common sense was not applied to printing of the instruction manual.Our recipe for steel cut oatmeal is ¾ cup English volume unit (not the supplied measuring cup) and 2-1/2 cups English volume unit water set on the PORRIDGE setting and the timer set for 5am.

Brown rice tastes so good with this cooker. Zojirushi really knows how to cook rice. The only reason I took one star off is the steam basket gets stains after first use and the stains can't be removed.

I purchased this rice cooker for my wife two years ago after reading all the great reviews. Am I or my wife doing something wrong? The rice is always in very dried out condition within hours of completion. I have heard my wife complaining every time she makes rice. She makes rice daily. We have been using cookers for 50 years and this was one of the worst. We last had a Tiger fuzzy logic model and never had a problem. When it got a little rusty after 10 years (Hawaii) we replaced it with this. The $20 dollar models were better than this Zojirushi. Perhaps their is a secret to making it or we have a defective model. I don't usually give negative reviews but I don't want to hear my wife complaining any more.

Good product, but bowl material are kind of thin and inner top lid design is kind of lack of attention. Overall not as good as NS-LAC05XT.But still a keeper since I wanted a 5.5 cup, but couldn't find 5.5 on LAC series.

Makes really great rice - it just takes ~2 hours to make a pot of brown rice! Also when installing the pot back into the pot you need to pull the lid back a bit. We've made 10 batches and the bottom of the pot (not inside the pot) touching the element already has the nonstick coating coming off.

Makes the best rice from an automated cooker I've ever prepared - BUT - the lifespan of this unit will depend on the cooking pot inside, which, while better than the competition, is still thin and shows signs of wear after only a few batches. The cooker will outlast the pot, so if replacement pots aren't available for purchase, it will be a better buy to purchase a less expensive unit. You can buy 3-4 complete but less sophisticated cookers for the cost of this unit. Retractable cord, carry handle and full attached lid are nice, but will be wear points to watch. Cleaning up is easy, and the steam management of this unit over glass lid models is great - no hard water stains or gurgling while cooking. The chime signals at start / end of cooking are cutesy, but if they really annoy you, they can be changed to a simple beep or no sound at all. 4 out of 5 - I think the pot could be better.

I finally got to use this and it does the job. It's considerably larger than I need, so that makes it a little awkward to use, however, it allows the rice to be rinsed without losing any. Transferring the rice from the washing bowl into the rice cooker is a minor challenge. It's difficult to get every wet grain of rice out of the bowl. Rinsing the rice did make a noticeable difference in the end product, my cooked rice was not starchy or sticky.

Not sure why we didn't purchase one of these in the past. We eat a lot of rice and this makes cleaning it so much easier.

This works as intended. However I find this was much bigger than I needed! I do not use the side drainer so much, it seems the rice gets stuck in it! I just use the bottom drainer as illustrated. I cannot compare this with anything, as I never "washed" rice before. Now when I make rice, always will wash.

I had higher hopes for the utility of this strainer. The holes in the bottom are not as numerous as I expected and staining rice doesn't work very well. The water pools and the rice doesn't get properly cleansed. Uncooked rice is the perfect size to clog up the bottom ports. This strainer works well for cooked pasta. The slits at the pour spout are okay but it's not any better than a standard kitchen utensil. If you don't have a strainer currently, not a bad choice. Definitely wouldn't recommend this to replace another one.

This colander drainer pourer is the right size for general use in the kitchen. It will handle a large pan of boiled spaghetti or a small amount of rice equally well and after draining, it can place the product just cooked in a serving dish without so much as a spilled string or grain. If you are looking for a good kitchen colander, give this one a try. For the price it is a bargain. Although they sent a clear plastic product, it is very acceptable. I like it.

This is an awesome rice bowl. Being Asian, we eat rice at every meal and making rice is a chore everyone hates since the rice we eat is a mixture of short and long grain rice. As such, if the water to rice ratio is not correct, the rice is not cook completely or becomes gruel since it is hard to drain the water completely without spilling rice when using a regular bowl. We could always tell how experience the person who made the rice was, depending on how cooked it was. This bowl solves the problem of having too much or too little water. As such, I felt fine letting my teenage sister or niece make rice, since I knew it would turned out edible. The reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is because I wish the bowl was just a bit bigger. We usually make about 6 -8 cups of rice and I can rinse 6 cups of rice in the bowl if I'm careful without rice going over the edge. Other than that, it's the perfect bowl.

This makes the most perfect rice ever, especially if you follow the directions including rinsing the rice before cooking. White rice, brown rice, specialty rices all come out flawlessly.However! We used our previous cooker for steamed veggies a lot, and searched for a cooker with a decent sized steamer insert for that purpose. Unfortunately, this cooker starts counting down on the timer the minute you hit the start button. Our previous rice cooker didn't engage the timer until the water was producing a full head of steam. So if you wanted to steam slender asparagus stalks for six minutes, you would set that other steamer for 6 minutes and the asparagus would come out perfect. With this cooker, it hasn't started to steam yet at six minutes. And good luck figuring out when the steam will start to set a longer time with any accuracy! We've gone back to steaming veggies on the stove.Disappointing for a brand as respected as Zojirushi.

Bought it a year ago. It is good for 8 months. Now the keep warm function is not so good any more. When in "keep warm" mode for one day, it will burn your rice. I think the pot is not thick enough. Also, the rice will give you smell after keeping in there for more than one day. The older model is excellent. It lasts eight year. Zojirushi does not make good product anymore. Trying larger model and same thing happens. Also, you have to clean up around the pot after few days because the water will accumulate and drip down when in "keep warm" mode.

1/1/17 Update, a little over two years after purchase:Downgrading to three stars. This machine still makes good rice pretty consistently, but we get an occasional pot of rice that is overly mushy or dry after the pleasant little alarm tells us the rice is done (we do wait 10 minutes before opening as with older machines even though it's not necessary). We use our machine almost daily for jasmine or Japanese sushi rice, but there should still not be such an inconsistency after only two years of use. The "Keep Warm" function is useless- it pretty much guarantees rancid cooked rice within a few short hours after cooking. It's fine if you are immediately consuming all of the rice - but then why pay a premium for fuzzy logic? Overall, it's been a real disappointment and we are searching for it's replacement.Original (4 star) review: Love the multi-function features of this rice cooker, including the steamer and ability to make perfect sticky rice. If you are Thai or cook with/for Thai loved ones, the sticky rice feature really is a huge bonus; it will come out as perfectly as if you had used the traditional basket method as long as you make sure to rinse your rice very well (and it tastes much better than the short cut microwave method). Our only disappointment is this rice cooker's inability to keep rice warm and edible for more than a 36 hour period. So far we have found that only dryer rices like jasmine or basmati will keep over 24 hours, and even that is hit or miss. Japanese/sushi rice must be removed within four hours after cooking or it turns yellow/crusty and smells rancid. I only took off one star because I have to imagine this is simply the way the technology has progressed. This rice cooker replaced an "old school" cooker that would keep any type of rice nicely for up to a week. With heavy hearts, we've had to throw out a lot of rice that has gone bad in the cooker as we continue to try to retrain our old habits. Just something to be mindful of when you are purchasing, especially if you've grown up with a rice cooker as a permanent fixture on your countertop!

Was using the 3-cup white Zojirushi cooker before this one, but got the display panel wet by accident and it stopped working abruptly, so decided to upgrade to this 5-cup version instead.Although it is well made and a lot more spacious, washing rice in the bowl isn't as easy as in the 3-cup one because of the 90 degree angle at which the side of the pot meets the base, unlike the curved base of the 3-cup cooker, which makes swishing rice around easy. We've had to resort to getting a rice washer strainer and use that in conjunction with a larger salad bowl to wash rice conveniently and effectively.We've only used the white rice and porridge settings so far. The white rice turns out ok, but not as fluffy and chewy as with the 3-cup cooker. The porridge is decent as well, and does last for quite a few days in the pot without drying out, but it just doesn't taste as starchy or "sweet" as the porridge the 3-cup cooker makes. Maybe it's because this cooker is still new and has yet to be truly broken into, but we're still disappointed enough not to be eating as much rice, or as often, as we used to---sort of ironic, since we upgraded to the 5-cup because we ate so much rice with the 3-cup it never seemed enough!I wish I could revive our old 3-cup cooker so I can get inspired about cooking and eating at home again.

Well. I am okay with this rice cooker but sometimes I wish i bought a standard rice cooker. Nice design but the quick cook feature takes 40 minutes and the regular rice cooking takes upto 1 hr. It takes bit long time to cook compare to what I had before. I thought this is made in Japan but came out to be in China as usual. Hopefully, this will last… .

Makes great rice, but a few caveats:1) The instructions are terrible. For a device that does essentially one thing, the manual and instructions are crazy complicated.2) I had assumed it cooked rice quickly; this is not the case at all. It takes about 40 minutes on the *fast* setting to cook rice.It *does* have the ability to keep rice warm for a long time (without overcooking). You just need to think of it like a coffeemaker -load it up and then have it autostart when you get home from work.

This product was bought as an add on to my Rice cooker. The plastic used seems to be too thin.I have one already which I have been using for many years and this one is not as sturdy. The holes at thebottom does not really make the rice wash any better. With the bottom sealed, you can really immerse the rice inthe water and get all the debris out. Then the slotted spout will drain the water.Not very happy with this item, but it does a satisfactory job.

I usually just throw the rice in there and let me spray tap run for a while to wash the rice out instead of using my hands to scrub the rice. The reason is because the rice gets stuck at the bottom in the holes and really hurts because they all stick up. Don't know if that makes sense - all add a photo next time I use to explain better.

It does the job. The small holes in the bottom drain slowly and even after allowing the rice to sit for a minute there will be some water left. I wish the feet were taller to hold it a little higher off the sink. The larger slots in the spout are the perfect size to trap rice grains and that's an annoying flaw.Update. Downgraded to 3 stars. My enthusiasm wore off over time after poking rice grains out of the holes. Now I use a mesh strainer which works perfectly and is much faster.

This is a huge rice washer. Expect it to be very oversized. I do like it's ability to drain water from the wash without losing the rice BUT the side for pouring the washed rice into a cooking pot has slightly larger drain slits and the rice gets stuck in there and isn't easy to get out. So I feel that sort of defeats the convenience that the rice washer. I will continue to use it, but I'll have to figure out a different way to transfer the finished product.

I have always washed my rice in the rice cooker bowl. Thought that this might help get the last bit of excess starch out, convinced that I do leave some starch at the bottom when I normally just tilt the pot over to drain the water. Here's the problem. The holes drain water so quickly that I can't get the rice swirling in water for a proper wash. This ends up using more water than my usual method, with no noticeable improvement. Now if you cook your rice on the stove, and want to wash your rice and get out all the water before adding a measured amount, then I think that this is useful. Otherwise just wash in the rice cooker bowl and fill water to the correct line.

The description is deceptive in more ways than one. Others have pointed out its origin not in Japan but in China. There are no "side vents," too, apart from a row at the very top of the bowl. The strainer I've used for years is actually faster for washing rice. This might work for berry-washing, if one needs another colander.

no problems with cooking speed or taste of rice but it dries out the rice too quickly. my previous rice cooker was also zojirushi and similar price and appearance but did not do this. i choose the extended keep warm but for some odd reason, every time i check, it's auto switched back to the standard warmer.

Thought this was one of the best rice cookers out there but I was thoroughly disappointed. First, this takes an hour to make white rice when other rice cookers take 15-20 min. Second, my rice starts to dry out in an hour, much less 3 hours, while others can keep for almost 3 days! Third, the bowl is chipping and peeling even though I never use anything other than a plastic rice paddle. I won't be buying Zojirushi again.

Okay so this LOOKS enormous, but it is NOT. Its a VERY VERY VERY GOOD rice cooker. But its for two people who want a dinner or two. Its not for the big rice-eating family like mine. They make larger sizes though and let me tell you, this brand is THE BEST. THE BEST. THE BEST.

Missing measuring cup for the rice. Looks nice. 1 hour to cook the rice.

We purchase this rice cooker on Oct 30, 2016 and we use it a few times a week. It is nice to not have spill around like the old style ones. However, The holder for the spatula broken off and the power cord is having difficulty retract back. I hope these are the only problems we have.

I must rescind my glowing 5-star review. This was an excellent rice cooker for the first year. And now I know why the warranty is only for a year. At this price you would expect it to last for years. Just short of 2 years' use and the rice dries hard on top and around the edges after one day. Very disappointed.

I did not like this. I frequently make rice. I used it twice before giving up on it.There are two problems. It is white so it makes it more difficult than necessary to tell when it is done. Also, rice gets caught in the holes. While rice does not escape while washing, you waste time trying to get it out afterwards.

My wife is asian, we cook a lot of rice and I thought she would like this. However, I found it difficult to use for washing rice, grains stick in the grooves and it's no better than simply washing the rice in water in the rice cooker bowl a couple times. Also, this uses running water, not a good purchase for me in California in a drought.

This bowl is much too big for my needs - I only rinse 1-1.5 cups of rice at a time. Also, the water doesn't drain completely out of the bottom, so I'd have to pour it through a strainer anyway, and the rice would fall out because the bowl is so much bigger than my strainer. I used this once and went back to just rinsing rice in a small bowl and pouring it out through a strainer.

The item I received does not have the slots around the bottom edge as the picture shows. Mine has only pinholes in the bottom which allows water to drain as a light shower, adequate but will take longer to wash a large quantity of rice. By the handle (orange dot) is where some slots are located but who in the world swishes their rice that far up??? Clarify with the seller BEFORE you buy.

It does the job but considering its made to put rice in I would expect it to be designed so grains of rice don't get stuck in the holes on the bottom and at the spout. You have to use your hands to push the rice through in order to get it un-stuck.

I noticed several other people commenting on how easy this item breaks. I purchased this along with a Rice Cooker. The order was fulfilled by Amazon. The shipping box was in perfect condition on the outside, but inside - the Rice Cooker (in its retail box) and this item (in a type of plastic bag) apparently got into an argument during the trip and the bowl was a mess, i.e. broken shards of brittle plastic.When you examine the bowl, you can see how brittle the plastic is so that is a legitimate concern if you are buying this bowl. Throw in a shipping box with a much heavier item and it bounced around enough to break it into pieces.The real joke is: to get my refund I have to return (shipping paid for by Amazon). Expensive return for Amazon to pay for, but only way to get my money.EDITED: January 24, 2014 -- I took the package to the local UPS Store (early evening, January 23rd) to ship back to Amazon in order to get my refund. I got an EMAIL around 9:30 p.m. that my purchase price was being refunded. Not sure how they do refunds, but obviously the package didn't get all the way back to the shipping destination before they processed the refund. Oh well - maybe I will order another one - just this time all by itself so it is not packed with anything else that could possibly break it!

The rice turns crunchy after just a few hours on the keep warm setting. It takes 60 min to cook white rice!

I had this for about a month. I think this is defected!. It cooked unevenly most of the time. Love to get money back. :(

We purchased this rice cooker one month and one day ago. It over cooks the rice. The rice does not "keep warm", it keeps cooking. We are so disappointed as this is a very expensive product and we are a couple of days out of the return window.

the rice does not cook well after one month. sad!!!! and it can't be returned for replacement!!

This product does not keep rice warm properly, so it spoils very quickly after it's made. Useless! Do not buy if you are a frequent rice eating family. We are throwing it out only three months after buying it!The attached photo shows the rice one day after making it. I have never seen a rice cooker do this.

This is my 2nd one. The first one was replaced due to the malfunction. It didn't circulate the moisture properly so rice became very dry all around the edge of the pan. The replacement started to do the same thing a year later. I'm from Japan and I trusted the brand, so this was a surprise to me. My Tiger and Panasonic rice cooker both lasted almost ten years of everyday use, but not this one. I'm getting ready purchase Tiger rice cooker this time. I can't stand this rice cooker anymore.

Rice slips out of the bottom holes (and ends up plugging quite a few of them) and also gets stuck to the side slots while draining. Some rice still lost in the sink, the very thing I wanted to avoid which is why I made this purchase. Very disappointing product.

mine arrived cracked..it was not worth to ship back. I threw away

Takes to long to rinse the water off, made out better using the pot to drain it.

Arrived cracked across the whole bottom of the bowl...

This product is very cheaply, poorly made. It was cracked in half when I received it and the lip of it was also broken off on one side. The only thing I can say is that it was shipped very quickly, however the bowl was just thrown in the box amidst other items, it was in a self container box or anything which may explain why it was broken.

I received a decent quality rice washing bowl. However I ordered this specifically for the side openings and the product I received had no side openings only bottom openings. An add on product so not worth returning don't know if I'll ever use it again.