Recently, the popularity of rice cookers (also known as rice cookers) in the market has gradually increased, which has led to the emergence of a wide variety of products. As a professional home appliance reviewer, I have received many private messages from readers asking if rice cookers are really good. Many people also consider buying a new smart rice cooker, but when purchasing, they often see some netizens complaining about the peculiar smell of the rice cooker, the release of toxic and harmful substances, the low safety, and even the risk of cancer, which makes them have doubts about the choice of products. In order to answer the doubts of the majority of netizens, I conducted a lot of research and surveys and evaluated some products on the market. Next, I will share and answer some of my doubts in this regard.
(Above are a few mainstream rice cookers I've tried recently)
1. Is the rice cooker really easy to use?
A high-quality rice cooker is really easy to use, and at the same time, its materials are high-quality, functional, and can also bring many health benefits. The working principle of a rice cooker mainly involves the synergy of a microcomputer chip, a main thermostat, and a sensor on the upper lid. The microcomputer chip works by monitoring the temperature of the main thermostat and the upper cover sensor, and once they reach the set rice cooker operating temperature, the microcomputer chip will start the electric heating plate of the rice cooker. The electric plate starts to heat up and makes full contact with the inner pot, which causes the heat to be quickly conducted onto the inner pot. When the inner pot transfers the corresponding heat to the rice and water, the rice and water start to heat up.
In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards, people's functional requirements for rice cookers have gradually increased. On the basis of the traditional ordinary rice cooker, a new type of product has emerged - the multi-function rice cooker. Below, let's talk about the benefits of multi-functional rice cookers.
Benefit 1: Rich in functions
In addition to the basic rice cooking function, the smart rice cooker also has a variety of rich functions, such as steaming, stewing, roasting, etc., which can meet the diverse cooking needs of users. Whether it's steaming, soup or toasting, it can handle everything in one pot.
Advantage 2: Stronger energy saving and environmental protection
Smart rice cookers use advanced heating technology and energy-saving design to effectively reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. At the same time, it can also realize the recycling and reuse of wastewater, making it more environmentally friendly.
Advantage 3: Safe to use
Smart rice cookers apply advanced sensors and control systems that are able to monitor the temperature and pressure in the pot in real time. By automatically adjusting the heat size and cooking time, it effectively avoids safety problems that can occur due to improper operation, significantly reducing potential risks and hazards.
Advantage 4: Good cooking taste
The smart rice cooker uses advanced convection technology to ensure a more even distribution of heat, fully and fully heating the rice, thus improving the cooking effect. This design makes cooking more convenient and you can enjoy delicious meals with ease.
Benefit 5: Intelligent and convenient
Smart rice cookers are equipped with advanced computer chip programs and precision sensors to provide higher temperature control accuracy. This enables it to adaptively adjust the heat size and cooking time to meet the cooking needs of different ingredients, making the whole cooking process more intelligent and convenient.
2. What are the hazards of inferior rice cookers?
Are rice cookers really any good?after delving into the range of benefits that high-quality rice cookers bring to our health and life. It's important not to ignore the potential risks and pitfalls that can arise from inferior products. Nowadays, there are a variety of rice cooker products on the market, but the quality is uneven, and poor quality rice cookers not only pose a health hazard, but can also be a great safety hazard. In order to arouse everyone's vigilance more deeply, I have summarized the four major hazards that can be caused by inferior rice cookers, please be sure to read them carefully.
Hazard 1: Poor temperature control
When the temperature control performance of the rice cooker is poor, it is easy to cause uneven cooking of rice, and it may be undercooked or overcooked, which will affect the taste. In addition, the instability of the temperature in the cavity, which is high and low, cannot be effectively controlled, and long-term use may lead to aggravated loss of the thermal element. Not only does this shorten the life of the rice cooker, but it can also pose a serious fire risk.
Hazard 2, pungent odor, harmful to health
When the lid of a rice cooker is made of low-quality materials, it is prone to problems such as poor durability, breakage, and aging. In addition, due to the poor material, food debris tends to accumulate and thus grow bacteria. At the same time, if the sealing ring is made of inferior materials, it may produce a pungent odor at high temperatures, which will have a negative impact on the taste of rice and even pose a threat to human health!
Hazard 3, there are fire and other potential safety hazards
Rice cookers have greater power and heat, however, some inferior rice cookers can easily cause overheating of the rice cooker line due to the use of low-quality wires and heating chassis materials, which can cause safety hazards such as short circuits, which may lead to serious problems such as fires.
Hazard 4, release a large number of toxic and harmful substances
Inferior rice cookers often have a poor quality liner coating material and a thin coating thickness, resulting in relatively poor scratching, abrasion, and heat resistance at high temperatures. Although the initial performance may be okay, the non-stick coating is prone to fluffing and peeling off after prolonged high-temperature use. In severe cases, these peeling coatings can be mixed into food and have adverse effects on the human body.
3. The four fundamental reasons for the harm of inferior rice cookers!
In the previous article, we not only learned about the advantages of a good quality rice cooker, but also the potential harm that a poor quality rice cooker can cause. In order to minimize the purchase of inferior products, it is essential to understand the reasons behind the harm. Therefore, I deliberately consulted the relevant information on the website of professional institutions and sorted out an inventory of negative reviews of rice cooker e-commerce. At the same time, based on some of the tests I have conducted in my previous practice, I have summarized the root causes of the four major hazards to help you understand the problem more deeply.
Reason 1: Too much pursuit of high power
Many people are superstitious about high-power rice cookers, mistakenly believing that the higher the power, the faster it heats up. But in reality, too much power has a bigger safety hazard. A high-powered rice cooker can cook rice quickly, but it can not only incur high electricity bills, but also accelerate the insulation aging of the electric heating elements. This aging can cause the rice cooker line to run overloaded, causing an increase in current and heating of the wires. When the temperature exceeds 250°C, the insulation layer may burn and separate from the wires, causing a short circuit in the power cord and even causing serious safety accidents such as fires.
Reason 2: Internet celebrities are prevalent in bringing goods
In recent years, with the prevalence of influencer culture, many brands have used influencers to bring goods to quickly become popular. However, consumers should be rational when they see influencers recommending products, because influencers' promotion does not necessarily mean that the product will perform well. In many cases, online celebrities may involve a large number of commission commissions and other routines, which may lead to the compression of product development and material selection costs. In actual use, the reputation of these products is generally not ideal, and there are many potential safety hazards!
Reason 3: Poor temperature control
Thermostats play a vital role in rice cookers. If the temperature control performance of the rice cooker is poor, it may cause the rice to be undercooked or overcooked during cooking, which will affect the taste experience. In addition, if the temperature in the rice cooker cavity cannot be stably controlled, sometimes high and sometimes low, it will lead to frequent loss of heat elements, which not only shortens the life of the rice cooker, but also may bring the risk of fire.
Reason 4, 0 coating gimmick publicity
As an important product in the small household appliance industry, rice cookers play an important role in the kitchen. However, in order to attract consumers, some inferior products advertise gimmicks such as "0 coating" on their liners, and actually use stainless steel. This type of product has a mediocre taste in stewing and is not cost-effective. The stainless steel liner is easy to cause rice to stick to the pan, difficult to clean, easy to leave scratches and discoloration after long-term use, and it is also more likely to breed bacteria, posing a potential threat to human health.
Through in-depth research on rice cookers, we have become more aware of the importance of choosing products with professional quality assurance. During the buying process, it's important to stay alert and avoid being distracted by all sorts of fancy features. In order to provide a better shopping experience, I specifically consulted some professional electrical evaluation websites and found a summary table of the performance, safety and non-toxicity index of 10 mainstream rice cookers. This summary table details the performance of each brand and a comparison of the safety and non-toxicity index. In addition, based on my previous review experience, I also recommend several professionally certified rice cookers with guaranteed quality.
In recent years, negative news about rice cookers has been frequently exposed, and problems such as irritating odors, easy release of toxic and harmful substances, and toxic liner materials have occurred frequently. As the only brand that has been certified by the European Union, the United States and other countries, the professional veteran uterine rhombic has been exported to Europe and the United States for many years, and the whole machine has passed the maternal and infant food standards, and it is recognized by many media as the king of "safe and non-toxic" fever performance. The original 13 black technologies, tested by authoritative institutions, can rarely achieve a 115% increase in rice aging uniformity, food-grade safety increased by 128%, the release rate of toxic irritants reduced by 99.99%, 0 heavy metal design, rare EU certification, in terms of heating uniformity, safety and non-toxicity, performance attenuation, etc., are the strongest within 1,000 yuan. They never advertise, nor do they have any celebrity endorsements, relying on professional evaluation agencies, home appliance evaluators, and word of mouth from senior old users, they have exploded on the Internet and become the most popular brand on the mid-to-high-end sales list.
In order to achieve enough "safe and non-toxic" fever performance and high durability, Gong Ling cut off redundant functions and purely focused on safety and performance. Adhere to the use of solid material selection and a number of innovative black technology, such as the original spiral simmering pressure heating, maternal and infant grade Maifan stone 3.0 coating, 5A refined thick kettle liner, 7 layers of anti-corrosion and wear-resistant stainless steel cavity, etc., and after 6 years of safe, non-toxic and anti-attenuation pressure design, to ensure that safety hazards have nowhere to hide, safe, non-toxic and non-irritating performance has achieved the industry's leading position, known as recognized as one of the safest and non-toxic rice cookers.
If you are interested in the entry style, you can go to Xiaomi, Midea, the design and workmanship in the same price segment are acceptable, and it has a certain cost performance. Among the high-end models, Toshiba can look at it, the price is relatively expensive, the design is exquisite, and the quality is not bad.
4. Eight tips for buying a high-quality rice cooker!
Through the popularization of the above knowledge, I believe that everyone has a comprehensive understanding of rice cookers and realized the multiple benefits that high-quality rice cookers bring to our health. Especially for those who pay attention to the quality of their food, it is very wise to invest in a high-quality rice cooker for daily use. In order to help you make better decisions, I have specially summarized the eight secrets of buying a high-quality rice cooker for your reference!
1. Professional and technical brand
Professional brand rice cookers have been carefully tuned in terms of design and technology, focusing on the heating method, structure, convection design, simmering technology, intelligent temperature control, cavity design and heating uniformity of the rice cooker. In addition, we pay attention to the food safety of product materials to ensure that toxic and harmful substances will not be released after long-term use, so as to ensure the safety and non-toxicity of the rice cooker. At the same time, you can get better aging uniformity, and the rice grains are full, sweet, and soft and glutinous.
2. Push the shape of the whole kettle liner
The shape of the inner pot of a rice cooker usually comes in three types: flat-bottomed, half-kettle, and full-kettle. The round bottom of the whole pot has the best heating uniformity, which is suitable for a variety of cooking methods, which can better stimulate the aroma of the ingredients, retain the original flavor, and provide a better taste. In addition, the thickness of the rice cooker liner is also an important consideration. The thicker inner liner not only tests the heating technology strength of the rice cooker, but also gives the product a better texture. A thick liner usually means more durability and can be used for a long time without being easily damaged.
3. Spiral simmering pressure heating method is preferred
At present, there are three main heating methods of rice cookers: IH heating, chassis heating and spiral simmering heating. Spiral simmering pressure heating adopts the design of pressurized form and spiral high-density surround heating, which can achieve a more uniform heating effect and low performance attenuation. This heating method improves the cooking quality of rice while also having high performance stability.
- High-quality heating plate
When choosing a rice cooker, it is advisable to give preference to heating plates made of high-quality metal, of which aluminum alloy is a good choice. Aluminum alloy has the advantages of low thermal efficiency loss, good energy storage effect, and fast thermal conductivity. In addition, the aluminium alloy heating plate heats evenly and has high durability, allowing the rice cooker to maintain excellent performance and durability over a long period of use.
5. Choose 304 stainless steel top cover
The top lid of a rice cooker is usually made of aluminum alloy and 304 stainless steel. 304 stainless steel is considered to be a high-grade metal material, and its manufacturing cost is higher. It has superior corrosion resistance and wear-resistant durability, and is not easy to rust, oxidize, or corrode after long-term use. Since 304 stainless steel is a good conductor of heat, the use of this material on the top cover of the rice cooker can improve the thermal insulation performance, resulting in better tasting rice. In addition, the surface is smooth and easy to clean.
6. It has the design of convection valve/exhaust valve
The convection valve (exhaust valve) in the rice cooker plays a key role in the cooking process. The traditional hot and cold alternating valve mainly controls the temperature by adjusting the alternation of cold and hot to achieve the heat preservation and heating effect of the rice cooker. However, the convection valve design in the new rice cooker technology is more preferred, which intelligently controls the pressure inside the pot to improve the water absorption and taste of the rice. In particular, it adopts the design of the convection valve under simmering pressure.
7. Equipped with performance anti-aging technology
Performance anti-decay technology is a key factor in improving the durability of rice cookers. Expensive professional brands usually design in this regard, introducing advanced performance anti-decay technology to ensure the continuous and stable cooking effect of rice. This design makes the rice cooker more durable, and its lifespan is generally longer.
8. Avoid coating
It is advisable to give preference to cookware coated with maifan stone. This coating ensures that food does not stick to the bottom of the pan while keeping food safe. Compared with Teflon coating, Maifan stone coating has better performance in high temperature resistance and wear resistance, and at the same time, it is not easy to release toxic and harmful substances when used at high temperatures for a long time, providing a more reliable guarantee for healthy cooking.
I believe that through today's sharing, everyone has a clearer understanding of the health problems of rice cookers. I hope this article will help you form a more comprehensive and objective view. At the same time, I would like to emphasize once again that you must combine the purchase tips I provide when purchasing, so as not to be confused by the so-called Internet celebrity products on the market. Given that there are a large number of inferior products on the market that lack quality assurance, we must be cautious when choosing and not blindly follow the trend.