Zojirushi 5.5-Cup Neuro Fuzzy vs Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer NS-LHC05

The spatula holder is not easily removable without damage (because it has plastic hooks that allow it to slide in one direction) and I broke mine when I yanked it out for cleaning. But not worth the cost of replacement. How do the parts prices compare to those for, say, Instant Pot? And expensive cooking equipment really should have replacement parts available for parts that wear out. I would not buy from a company that did not offer that

She loves it as much as I knew she would! I first purchased a Zojirushi while living in Japan in 2002 and it lasted up until recently. Very well made products and I hope my Daughter and I get many years of usage from these as we did with my original purchase. We've never had a problem with rice getting scorched and it comes out perfect every time. Whether you use white rice, long grain rice, jasmine, sticky rice, sushi rice or even soups

The rice from this cooker is delicious and the process was very simple after discovering that long-grain rice, which is what I eat, is the exception rather than the rule for this cooker. On the Quick Start Guide, a single sheet added to the enclosed paperwork, (and not anywhere in the manual that I could find) it states that the cooker is designed for short and medium grain rice. The Quick Start Guide says that long-grain rice should be cooked using the Mixed rice setting. Fine, except that in the smaller print of the operating manual it says that the Timer function, which I'd like to use, is not available for Mixed rice

Thankfully the quick setting, at under 40 minutes, is available for rice emergencies, but that's still longer than our old Tiger. Now for our preferences. For all that extra cook time, and the extra cost for the Zojirushi name, I don't think the rice comes out any better than with the much cheaper Tiger. I kept seeing 'restaurant-quality' in the reviews and, looking back, I should've realized that I've had worse rice in restaurants, and often very good rice, but never better rice than what we make at home

Dislike how long it takes to cook, although I expected that it would take longer than using a pot on the stovetop. It is hard to time dinner if the rice is not premade, as the timer does not begin until there is only around 13 minutes left of cooking. Until then you are in the dark for how long the rice will take. Maybe this is because the time will adjust to how quickly the rice is cooking

Previously I had a super cheap rice cooker that was like $25. I decided to step up and get something nicer. At roughly $130 I was expecting this thing to make some amazing rice. I was rudely awakened to first learn it takes AN HOUR to make rice versus the 20 or so minutes with my cheap one

I especially like the stay cool handles on the bowl, which was one of the reasons I chose this model.

I have owned a couple of the pot style rice cookers sold in the $20 to $50 US range and found they had problems with boiling over, scorching the bottom of the rice and did not hold rice at temperature for any length of time, making them hard to use for a person with no fixed time to get off work. My Asian friends told me Zojirushi or Tiger rice cookers were the way around these issues and they were spot on. I have had this for about a week now, have made one batch of sushi short grain rice that rivaled any I have had in sushi houses, have had fresh, hot rice jook (rice porridge) two mornings this week, oatmeal one morning (check the Zojirushi website for cooking compatiblity on machines that don't have the specific functions) and fresh, hot white or brown rice ready for me when I got home, one time at 17:00 and twice after 21:00, so I can definitely say that the keep warm function works. My only regret is not buying one of these machines five years ago!

I wash my rice by putting it into a tall plasticware container with a snap-on lid with some water and shaking it. I put in water, shake, drain off the water through a sane and repeat until the water runs clear. This is important because if the rice isn't washed thoroughly the bran powder will act as an emollient, which will mess up the chemical balance when other ingredients are added and could cause the cooker to boil over. I should note here that I've been washing and cooking rice the Japanese traditional way for years, so it's a bit of a ritual for me

This cooker, the moisture collects into the holding cup under the outer steam cover, see pic, just remove the cover after cooking and soak up the water with a sponge. They don’t seem to make the traditional cooker with the quick removable moisture basket any more. It bubbles over the steam cover, but the steam cover is easily removable to clean. The inner top 2 lids, only the bottom one easily pops out to clean, see pic, which is the one requiring regular cleaning anyways