Zojirushi NP-GBC05XT 0.54L Stainless Dark Brown Induction Heating Rice Cooker & Warmer - Perfect for Small Households, Dorms & Office Use

When a product has almost a thousand reviews and nearly all of them call the product perfect it seems fruitless to add one more, but I will because I am not the kind of person who opens something, plugs it in and sits down to robotically give it five stars, or sometimes the other way around, those that leave only a single star because they tried to save a couple of pennies by buying from one of the several listed sources other than the one sold and shipped by Amazon themselves. If they did and in the off chance it didn’t work or got scratched up one mouse click could have it refunded or replaced. I tend to ignore those as not being useful at all.THE REST OF THE STORYRather than explain what this is or what it doesn’t I will assume that you’ve read all about it and probably watched a number of videos. I want to talk about a few real life things that as a person who spent my own hard earned cash, a lot of it, I had to learn on my own. These are things not often discussed by others or found in the advertising.A FEW SURPRISESIn the pictures this model looks the same as dozens of others, of this brand and others that are styled with what I would call an awkward shape. It doesn’t lend itself well to staying out on my kitchen counter and isn’t the easiest thing to put inside a cabinet. It seems a lot of space is wasted because of its curvy exterior. I really was leaning toward going with a different brand just because of that, I wanted something more modern looking that I could leave out, since I use it almost every day, okay I changed my mind after rearranging my countertop, now my rice cooker is right there where I can get to it and serve from it and I have to admit it has a very expensive look to it.It seems everyone wants to talk about it being made in Japan. It wasn’t that many years ago that being made there was a sign of low quality and cheap materials. Now I think quality control has improved but the materials still aren’t that impressive. This thing uses a lot of plastic, especially in areas you can’t easily see. They say the stainless steel is real metal that’s been covered with a clear coat, not the silvery plastic most things are made of, but I do have small appliances that use a much higher grade of stainless. I am not at all impressed by the plastic membrane buttons on a machine in this price range. After a few years they will probably crack and wear out, at least they aren’t the touch sensitive kind of button that is all too easily pressed by mistake.Among the surprises is that digital display that everyone thinks is a removable label with artificial numbers sprinted on it, well it’s not. There is no removable membrane, those are real live digital numbers that are set at the factory. Mine arrived with the minutes set perfectly but the time zone being a few off, easily resettable. Those who are not fond of military time, however, will be let down that you can’t change the clock to 12 hour format. But to its credit the display is large, clear and very easy to read, as were all of the buttons.Moving on to things that didn’t impress me – the power cord seems very lightweight for a 700 watt appliance and it’s not grounded. It makes me a little wary about leaving it plugged in all the time, but I wonder how long the clock’s battery can stay charged without power.Other things that were maybe less than stellar are the feet, two of them have a slightly rubberized pad but the other two are hard plastic. I would not use this cooker near the edge of a kitchen counter, the risk of it sliding off if bumped is too high.I mentioned the mostly plastic construction already but it’s when you are actually using it that you begin to wonder what you paid $250 for. The latch for the top seems especially delicate and the spoon holder that we’re supposed to get excited about is practically useless.Stop – if you got this far please don’t get discouraged and think that everyone is telling tall tales and this thing isn’t worth it. All of those things I’ve mentioned are minor user experiences, the title of this story is that this may not be for everyone but that isn’t a reflection of how it’s put together anywhere near as much as how well it cooks rice and whether or not you cook it often enough and venture out from the cheapest store shelf white rice variety to justify paying this much. I bought it, at full price, because I want to experiment with some of the more exotic rice varieties and I don’t want to be held back by using a cheap generic cooker. Two-fifty was a little steep but I have a habit of buying top tier. This product didn’t wow me physically but so far I’ve found it almost impossible to cook a bad batch of rice, and that is something that is worth it to me.One final note under surprises – I see so many comments about how products have poorly written or no user manual, this one is huge by any standards. It is well written. Your experience may vary but mine came with separate manuals in both English and French. The manual is thick, well illustrated and easy to understand with clear illustration. It even has several recipes for those who, like me, want to experiment a little more with rice.THE BOWLOne of the most difficult decisions was what material the bowl would be made of. Some of the better brands are going to stainless steel or ceramic, both excellent choices for wear resistance. Zojirushi uses Teflon, which everyone knows will scratch and even flake after a few years. And a replacement bowl is unreasonably astronomically priced. To me that is the biggest downside, I wrestled in my mind a lot if I would even consider this product because of the coated bowl. Touching it for the first time I like the weight of it and the coating looks good, but it doesn’t look a great deal better than my White Tiger. Those measurement markings on the side are painted on, not embossed into the metal. I do like that the bottom is curved to fit the shape of the spoon rather than squared off like most other rice cooker bowls. Something that I am curious about that wasn’t explained anywhere is why there are very thin flexible plastic tabs sticking out of the sides of the magnetic induction system. They look very delicate and I would like to know what function, if any, they have.SPEEDI have a White Tiger rice cooker that doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves. It is a fuzzy logic style with a couple of settings but I have used it primarily for white rice. It takes about twenty minutes and it has never burned or scorched the rice, which comes out reasonably fluffy and cooked exactly the same every time. It uses a Teflon bowl, one that seems more durable than most, and with reasonable care it has lasted me at least a few years. My new Zojirushi is supposed to be capable of cooking fast, which is a relative term with this unit. I tried it at its quickest setting and was able to cook a batch of plain white rice in about 25 minutes. That’s not especially fast if you are trying to coordinate a full dinner around it.MAY NOT BE FOR YOUCertain products have aficionados, products like wine, cigars and in this case rice. While most people are happy to fix up a serving of minute rice others continually search for more and more complex varieties of this grain. If that describes you then this cooker may be made for you. But even the reviews by cooking professionals admit that the difference between what this can do compared to a good fuzzy logic machine at a fraction of the price is so small most people can’t tell them apart. I guess some people have had issues with pots that cause sticking and burning but I never have.YES OR NOThe reality is you probably don’t need this product to cook a good bowl of rice. It takes a very sensitive palate to taste a difference, if there is any, between using it and something half the price. But at no time have I felt that this is overpriced. If it’s within your budget I don’t see any reasons to avoid it. I researched literally every brand and came close several times to choosing something else. But this one had a reputation of being a superstar and I had to go for the best. I’m happy and only time will tell – I’ll post updates if any are warranted in the future.+ Exceeded expectations, makes perfect rice.- makes 2/3 advertised capacity50-60 minutes cook time depending on selection. Directions include a chart with precise times for every setting.You want to rinse rice 5 times, and use precise water vs rice measurements. If you follow directions, perfect rice every time. I recommend investing in a FINE mesh strainer, best place to find such is an international grocery store.+Eliminates need for oil when cooking rice.+Non stick bowl very easy to clean.Directions refer to included rice and water cups, not standard sizes.Rice cup translucent green, water cup translucent white.Minor gripes:Display always shows displays clock, except final 10 minutes when it switches to a countdown timer. I'd rather always show a countdown timer.You want to quickly wipe clean both sides of inner metal lid after every use, one button to release and a little water and a paper towel gets rid of small amount of condensed rice vapor.Tip: No directions for Arborio short grain rice. I found using 1/4 less water of their measuring cup than long grain white works well, just slightly less than sushi or long grain white rice.Every rice type is slightly different, for example most Basmati and Jasmine I'll use 2.75 of their cups of water, while official chart recommends 2.5.From my understanding of directions, you should only make 2/3 as much rice as advertised, though it's clearly marked even in the bowl up to the advertised capacity. I'm not sure why, perhaps to prevent un-rinsed rice boiling over?Mine's labelled:Zojirushi NP-GBC05XT Induction Heating System Rice Cooker and Warmer, 3 cup capacity, 3-cup sizeACTUALLY maxes out at 2 cups white rice.(1 Zojirushi cup = 3/4 standard measuring cup) so in my case, my 3-cup capacity model, maxes out at 2 of their cups which translates to 1.5 standard measuring cups of dry uncooked white rice.Manual explains max capacity, but on the box, the manufacturer website, and all marketing, it's labelled as "3-cup capacity" and "3 cup size". Non-stick bowl has 2 sets of multiple level markings by Zojirushi cup, to account for water absorption and rice expansion you can not fill it to max level for white rice.Based on my experience, below is what I calculate the actual cooked rice capacity is per model:Rough conversion of actual capacity for white rice: 3-cup capacity = actual max 2.0 cup Zojirushi, 1.5 standard measuring cup uncooked white rice 5-cup capacity = actual max 3.3 cup Zojirushi, 2.5 standard measuring cup uncooked white rice 6-cup capacity = actual max 4.0 cup Zojirushi, 3.0 standard measuring cup uncooked white rice10-cup capacity= actual max 6.7 cup Zojirushi, 5.0 standard measuring cup uncooked white riceMy conversions:3 cup capacity * .67 = 2.0 cup Zojirushi actual max white uncooked rice2.0 cup Zojirushi * .75 = 1.5 standard measuring cupThe quality and distributor support for this brand is horrible. We bought this premium induction Rice cooker in May 2019, 8 months later we noticed the Teflon coating was flaking and peeling off. Quite surprised given this unit was $300CDN and was actually Made in Japan - which is uncommon these days.Anyway, we rarely use the rice cooker, maybe 2x’s month. So I was very surprised to see this failure. I contacted Zojirushi, they promptly responded to my email and phone call, but refused to do anything about the failed component, again surprised!I would never again buy such and expensive appliance from this company again. Their lack of accountability or life cycle of their products is deplorable! I suggest anyone looking for quality products to stay away from this brand which is clearly NOT quality!Battery not accessible for replacement. Just like all other similar rice cookers, the internal battery for the clock/timer is soldered in the internal circuit board. It can not be accessed and replaced by end-users when it dies, making the very useful timer function of the rice cooker useless. This is a major design flaw that Zojurushi can look into and be the first in the rice cooker manufacturing industry to resolve.Just over a year old now the lid won't stay closed. Not worth $348.00 I paid for it.I live alone, don’t cook and am not about to start. I'm always on the look out for quality food choices that fulfill nutritional requirements while requiring minimal effort which is more of a challenge these days due to the new norm of working from home. I had an older rice cooker that I hadn’t touched in years and gave it a try. It’s problem is that at the end of the cycle it bakes rice to the bottom of the pot wasting rice and complicating cleanup. Cooking rice on the stove top requires attention that I’m not willing to give. I came across reviews of the Japanese made rice cookers that claim to solve these problems. After some research I purchased a Zojirushi NP-GBC05-XT. It’s a specialized, high quality induction appliance with computer technology and sensors to control the cooking. It does one thing and it does that one thing exceptionally well. It takes two or three minutes to wash the rice, load up the machine and start the cycle by pushing a single “cooking” button. It’s very easy to clean with two or three minutes of effort. I’ve been substituting water with chicken stock which adds flavor. I’ve been using the machine every day and anticipate doing so for years. I can’t recommend it enough.The model I purchased is a 3 cup model. A table was included with the packaging that indicates the minimum and maximum capacity of the different sizes of cookers. The bigger the machine, the larger the minimum amount of rice required. I’ve found that half a cup of rice is the ideal portion for just myself. The larger machines have a minimum capacity that is too much for just me. I also assume that the larger machines are bigger and take up more space. For one person, the 3 cup model is probably the model you would want.Update: I use this cooker about five times a week. The non-stick bowl shows no sign of wear. The machine has continued to work flawlessly. I discovered a feature just today. My power went out for about five minutes during a cook cycle and when the power came back on the machine recovered without me doing anything. It knew where is was and just finished cooking the rice. I still consider it amazing technology that I can't do without.I've only had this unit a few days and I'm impressed.It made mahogany rice better than I can do in a pot. All other rice cookers that I tried left mahogany/wild rices hard and without flavour. The mahogany rice was fluffed up to more than double the volume I started with - each and every kernel was completely cooked and soft! There was no scorching or harder layer next to the pot.Oatmeal made with milk (not water) was always burnt in previous rice cookers. Not here. When we got up, I opened the unit and added more milk and sweetener as all the milk had been absorbed. After my shower, the additional milk had been heated through. Spoon the oatmeal into a bowl and serve. Can it get any easier??This unit does not take up as much counter space as other cookers that I've tried. You can tell from the start that it is a well made unit. The inner pot has the weight of a good quality pot - not some light aluminium thing. This helps even out the heat and the food doesn't start to cool down right away. The cord is short as most good appliance cords are so you don't have to coil it up on the counter. It is a heavy weight cord which shows the quality involved but also means that it is a little stiff.Clean up is a breeze. The pot rinses out with a quick pass through the soapy water (even dried on oatmeal). The inner lid easily removes for cleaning. In fact, the inner lid dropped out with the press of the tab and was just as easy to snap back in place. A quick wipe inside and out is all that was needed.I like the timer. You set the time that you want the food to be done and which type of cooking (white rice, etc) and walk away. I'm no longer figuring out how much time until supper. A nice touch is the music instead of another beeper when finished.The only con - This is the perfect sized rice cooker for us but it may not make enough rice when we have company. Per the chart included with the unit, the minimum amount of uncooked rice is 1 cup (0.5 cup for short/medium grain rice)to a maximum of 2 cups (3 cups for short/medium grain rice). This may not be enough for 4 adults (depending upon appetite) for most types of rices that I use. Switching to the 5.5 cup machine is not an option as the minimum oatmeal you can cook is 2 cups which would be way too much for just the 2 of us.