Product Description
Modern technology abounds in this multi-purpose unit. Cook and warm all types of rice as well as soup and stews in this micro-computerized cooker. The 5.5 cup cooker has a titanium-coated 2.5mm extra thick non stick inner pot to heat evenly throughout the pot and keep warm consistently after cooking. A multi-menu selection using fuzzy logic technology controls the temperature for efficient cooking of white rice, rinse-free rice, mixed rice, sprouted brown rice, sweet rice, quick, steaming, brown rice, porridge, soup and slow cooked foods. Just fill the inner pot using the special measuring marks, select your type of food and depress the cook key and listen for the timer to let you know your delicious meal is waiting! A LCD clock and 24 hour preset timer allows for cooking completion at a desired time of day. The reheat function allows cooked rice to be re-heated in about 5 minutes and served as freshly cooked. A steaming tray is included for vegetable cooking. Retractable cord for easy storing. Measuring cup, non-stick spatula and multi-language (English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean) instruction manual with recipes is included.
Product Details
* Amazon Sales Rank: #30577 in Kitchen & Housewares
* Color: White
* Brand: Sanyo
* Model: ECJ-D55S
* Dimensions: 9.75" h x 10.50" w x 14.25" l, 9.40 pounds
Features
* 5-1/2-cup micro-computerized cooker with fuzzy-logic technology
* Titanium-coated, extra-thick, 2-1/2 mm non-stick inner pot for optimal cooking
* Multi-menu selections; slow-cook, keep warm, and reheat function
* Easy-to-read measuring marks; LCD clock with 24-hour timer
* Steaming tray, measuring cup, non-stick spatula, instructions, and recipes included
Customer Reviews
worth the money5
I bought this at a local Asian store for just under $100 and originally I thought is this worth the price? This is my first computerized rice cooker (I used a plain rice cooker before). Now after several months, the answer is definitely YES.
It does a lot more things than rice cooking. In fact, I used it for other purposes more times than rice cooking:
1. It does a nice job of slow cooking. The best thing is that it has a timer control: let you specify when to start the cooking, and how long it lasts. This is very important since many cheap slow cooker does not have both features. I routinely cook beef/pork soup in the rice cooker overnight, and the next morning it is done perfectly.
2. It does porridge! I love porridge but it is messy to cook. In my old plain rice cooker, water/rice is often spilled all over the place, which is a messy thing to clean. Now this cooker has specific selection to do this and works perfectly. No spills and perfectly done.
3. Non-stick inner surface. It is very easy to clean and the costing seems to be very sturdy too (should last a long time).
4. Did I forget to say rice cooking? It does this perfectly, better than the plain (cheap) rice cooker.
4. Overall it is easy to clean inside and outside. The top has a removable aluminum plate and it proves it helps cleaning greatly.
5. Easy to use. I have used rice cooker before, and this one needs little time reading manual and it is under control.
6. It is cheaper than comparable models from Panasonic, Zojirushi. Often 10-20% cheaper. And I found no reason other models should charge more (except brand name)!
However, I do have a couple grunts:
1. When I do slow cook or porridge, if I put too much water (close to 5.5 cup edge), it can spill depending on what I cook. So safest is never put over water over 5-cup line.
2. The steaming tray I found on 5.5 cup model is too small, only good for small items. And since it uses all spaces INSIDE the cooker, it can reduce usable space in cooker when you do steaming. So if you do steaming a lot, better choose a 10 cup model which I believe give you more room.
What I hoped for and more5
I decided to buy a rice cooker so, never having owned one, I did a lot of research. I spent hours comparing styles, brands and reviews and ended up feeling overwhelmed at first over all the choices. I was stunned between the variety of options and range of prices. How complicated can it be to cook rice? I had been doing it for years with just a pot on the stove, after all. I just wanted something that would cook both white and brown rice well, be reliable and easy to use, and was well-made.
I weighed the options between the simple, on-off kind which appealed to me in their basic functionality and lack of microchips, and the fancy, fuzzy logic kind that could do everything but clean the kitchen. I wondered if the latter kind were worth the extra money, or if they were just a product that appealed to folks who love the latest and greatest technology. However, the idea of using the rice cooker for other things like stew, porridge and one-pot meals appealed greatly to me. What to do?
After much reviewing I narrowed my search to the Zojirushi NHS-10 6-Cup Rice Cooker/Steamer for its simplicity and good reviews, and this Sanyo ECJ-D55S fuzzy logic cooker for the fact that it seemed to do everything the highly-rated Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 5-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker did, but for far less money.
Despite my initial urge to keep it simple and buy the basic on-off cooker, I ended up buying the Sanyo fuzzy logic cooker and I couldn't be happier. It is versatile, easy to use and takes up very little counter space.
It cooks excellent rice. My son, who thought a rice cooker was a frivolous thing to buy unless you eat rice three times a day, thinks the rice and oatmeal it cooks is "awesome." My husband and I have experimented with cooking several different kinds of brown rice (short grain, long grain, basmati, rose and black) and several kinds of white rice (long grain, Jasmine, basmati, arborio and sushi). In addition, it handles less common whole grains like millet and quinoa just as well as rice, and better than the pot-on-the-stove method.
The added versatility of the fuzzy logic style means you can make things like puddings, pilafs, porridges, etc. (we can't wait to try tapioca pudding or poached dried apricots, for example) that are harder or impossible to do in the on-off style. We have made steel-cut oats, rice porridge, and cornmeal mush/Indian pudding. While the steel cut oats and porridge were perfect, the cornmeal mush was lumpy, but that was probably our mistake in setting it up on the timer for a delay cook--hence we did not stir it during cooking as was recommended, since the cooking took place before we got up in the morning.
The timer that allows you to delay cooking or arrange to have it complete cooking at a specified time. Although it didn't work for the Indian pudding, the delay timer works perfectly for the oats, rice porridge and regular rice. There's nothing like waking up to fresh, perfectly cooked cereal. The delay timer means you can prepare supper in the morning and avoid the depressing, last-minute, evening rush to get food on the table at the end of the day.
It makes one-pot meals and more complex dishes. I have made pilafs with added ingredients such as raisins, nuts and vegetables, sauteeing onions and seasoning right in the cooker bowl before adding the grain, and the results have been excellent.
It has a steamer basket for steaming things like fish and vegetables over the rice during the last part of the rice cooking. We tried this option and while it cooked the fish and veggies very well, the rice was oddly colored and flavored by the fish and asparagus. Next time we might opt not to steam over rice, but to steam after the rice was done and removed. Also, milder-flavored vegetables such as carrots would probably not taint the rice so much. There isn't much room to do both at the same time, except perhaps for a 2-person meal (in the 5.5 cup cooker).
I bought Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann's "The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook" to go with the Sanyo rice cooker and have found it opens up a whole, exciting new world of cooking. Although (according to the book) some recipes don't work as well in a fuzzy logic cooker as in an on-off style, there are whole categories that you cannot do without a fuzzy-logic cooker.
This rice cooker does so much more than cook rice! It's almost like having a cook in the kitchen, preparing nourishing foods and keeping them warm and ready for you when you want it.
I can't recommend this Sanyo rice cooker highly enough. If you are wavering about getting a rice cooker or about whether or not you should go for a simple one or a fuzzy logic one, or if you are considering getting the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10, but can't quite bring yourself to spend so much more money for it, this is the rice cooker for you.
A few nit-picking things: the manual is obviously translated by someone whose first language is not English and some sections leave you a bit puzzled, such as the one on the delay timer, which barely mentions that the timer is set for the finish time, not the start time. Also, it's hard to know how long things will take--there are general guidelines in the manual but I'm never quite certain when something will be finished, as there is no timer counting off the time until, oddly enough, the last 13 minutes for the rice cycle and the last 10 minutes for the porridge cycle. Once the cycle is complete, the timer chimes briefly and then the machine switches over to Keep Warm, which does a nice job of keeping the rice moist and warm for several hours, although the longest we have kept it at this setting is two hours.
cook very good rice, easy to use, nice construction. (can't decided between sanyo or Zojirushi)5
I love this rice cooker. It has a nice steamer which is the main reason I pick over the Zojirushi brand.
Construction:
- In addition the rice cooker bowl is coated w/ titanium which is much more durable then the other option. The bowl has 2.5mm thickness which when you hold it, you can tell you are getting your money's worth.
Taste:
- rice is cooked just right. not too sticky or too dry.
First time I make rice with this rice cooker is completely painless and get perfect result. I use one of the korean brand white premium rice and use the water measure that's inscribed in the rice cooking bowl. It cooked just right.
This rice cooker is large enough for 5 people (two bowls each), and not too big for one person. The steamer is perfect for me to heat up left over food (or other cooking that I can do without using the harmful microwave cooker.)
Don't get the 3 cup version unless u are sure u do not need to use the steamer.
The user interface is nice and simple.
From the construction standpoint I think this is far better then the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 (street $129+tax). The Zojirushi rice cooking handle actually can make it difficult to clean. This is a suggestion my mom made who has certainly do rice cooking for over 50 years.
I pick the Sanyo not primarily because it's less expensive but it's a better rice cooker.
Price paid for Sanyo: $99 + tax.
I'll provide more feedback after I use the rice cooker for a longer period of time.
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