[Home Appliances] Rice Cooker

halcyon27 — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 22:40:07 +0800

This thread is dedicated to the venerable home appliance that most if not all Asian cannot live without: the electric rice cooker. Granted with an induction, cooking rice has gone retro with (induction treated base) ceramic pot. But we'll stick to electric rice/ multi functional (not only rice) cookers.

From this type
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Most of us born before 1985 are familiar with the round pot. Bragging rights belong to Toshiba who introduced the first commercially successful model in 1955 but in terms of prominence and market share in Malaysia, most likely goes to National (Matsushita). Ironically, Toshiba's first model was the indirect boiling (double boiling) type which gave way to dry chamber direct boiling, the form which we all grew up with and know today. Another player in Taiwan who partnered with Toshiba initially in order to sell more steel, eventually capitalised this method very effectively. Early model only cook and have no keep warm thus the rice has to be moved to an insulated container. In 1960s, Zojirushi introduced the first one with a keep warm function in Japan with other manufacturers soon following suit thereafter. As many forumers have confirmed, the old National appliances are rock solid and you could swear that they still could be working today if not for scarcity of spare parts. As seen here. Another interesting factoid: this method of cooking is called direct heating wherein the outer chamber that encloses the rice pot is dry. Earlier Japanese models were also manufactured as indirect heating aka double boiling but the direct heating models (dry outer chamber) that we are familiar with gained prominence. More on indirect heating method after the next one below this.

to this type...
[attachmentid=9189053]
Popular in the early 80s, non stick surface within an aluminium core, non detachable cover. Keep warm function by this time becomes mandatory but good for a certain number of hours after which the rice eventually dries out. The pot was constructed to deal with the difficulty of washing the burnt rice off and to evenly distribute heat during cooking. But this is not entirely fool proof as organic substances within the rice also adhere to the surface and forms a difficult to remove layer. Certain manufacturers introduced certain preprogrammed logic in varying the temperature and duration calling models equipped with it as "Fuzzy Logic".

to this type...
[attachmentid=9189117]
Stainless steel round pot (due to aluminium health scare). The con is not easy to wash but that is overcome with soaking or using the dishwasher. Buffalo sells replacement pots for olden models. Visit their shop or website with the model number of your old round pot rice cooker and they could have a replacement inner pot made of stainless steel.

The other notable appliance company is Tatung who are known for making CRT monitors for those who used to own 80286-80486 PCs. They are the little known innovators from Taiwan and have been known to cook many things with this pot making it known as the "little rice cooker that can". Although this form was the one that Toshiba introduced as the first commercially successful rice cooker back in 1955, Tatung capitalised it to its full potential. Only two functions: cook & keep warm but it packs a hefty multifunctional accessories for steaming and includes a well thought lid holder clasp on the left handle. A unique feature about the Tatung which was innovated by Toshiba besides employing stainless steel is that the method of cooking: water is added to the containing outer chamber which surrounds the inner pot (also has it's own lid) that holds that rice to be cooked. In the US, it's known as indirect boiling but we call this method double boiling. This mode of rice cooking is featured in the Balmuda's Gohan 3Go seen in post #7 below. In Taiwan, electrical supply is 120V. They're sold by Lazada in the Philippines but beware although they're rated at 220V, the phase is 60Hz vs 50Hz in MY/HK/SG/AU/UK. In other words if you buy them, you'll need a transformer to convert the phase to 50Hz. Only appliances rated 110-240V at 50Hz/60Hz are compatible anywhere in the world.

True to their spirit of innovation, they combined the bamboo basket steaming experience that many are familiar with in a rice cooker albeit those accessory being in stainless steel form as shown below.[attachmentid=9196848]
[attachmentid=9197082]

to this type...
[attachmentid=9189063]
Microcomputer (micom) controlled. Many models are equipped with timer delay that allows the starting of rice cooking to complete by a number of hours later so that it's ready when you come home from work. Advances in safer material increased confidence of non stick coating. The keep warm function in later iterations eventually allows keeping it overnight without the rice drying out. Early generations used heating element costing 650-850W. Manufacturers like Zojirushi incorporated induction much like how an induction cooker operates thus halving the electricity consumption. Reviews and anecdotes abound about better tasting rice due to the precise temperature control and the type of material used in the cooking pot e.g. platinum. Pressurised induction models combines pressure cooking principle with an induction base element to speed up cooking time and convert the starch to an easy to digest state. Fuzzy Logic improvements with advances in AI and neural network algorithms added into the micom expanded the repertoire of the type of rice it can cook. It is called by a variety of names e.g.Neuro Fuzzy. More on that topic here.

to this type...
[attachmentid=9189148]
Microcomputer (micom) controlled with unglazed clay pot (better heat retention). China is traditionally the innovator in this field with a proliferation of China made slow cooker made of red or purple clay making head way into the market early too mid 2000s. Most prominent of all is Zisha (purple clay) aka Yixing clay from southern China which is rich in iron oxide. In that US, Vitaclay is one of the many product manufacturer. Locally, Pensonic are among those who produce this. [Update: Elba makes purple clay slow cookers which can stew and make porridge but not purple clay rice cookers.]BMS organics also carries one product.

Surely this device has evolved from uni functional to multi functional of today but that doesn't mean the uni functional type is only used for cooking rice alone.

There are many anecdotes of tricks done with this device esp the good old round small pot. One that's perhaps familiar with some is as a home made sauna for those mothers who just gave birth as used by the traditional confinement masseuse. They will wrap the mothers in sarong as they sit over a stool with the rice cooker boiling water into steam beneath the chair and the mother being wrapped in a bigger cloth to keep the steam in. etc.

Looking forward to hear everyone's sharing experience.

Below are based on Milux micom unglazed ceramic pot multi function rice cooker.
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Home Laundry/Washing & Drying Area/Room

halcyon27 — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 01:40:18 +0800

While much have been shared about our experiences on the appliance used for washing, much less is discussed on our thoughts on the area where washing and drying is done.

Hopefully in this thread, you can air your ideas and thoughts and bring those unspoken ones to the surface for the benefit of those who thought little (esp new home buyers with no firsthand experience in doing their own laundry) or would like to improve on in this area of the home for that one activity we spent much of our time on if we don't send our laundry out. Some statistics from German, Australian and US shows laundry is up to almost 4 hours a week. Another study published in the UK DailyMail is that if we wash our children's clothings until they are 18, 5 months worth of lifetime is spent on that.

Some perspective or thoughts sharing could be about but not limited to:
a. In apartments, how do you tackle laundry/drying issues with limited balcony space <100sqft odd balcony shapes eg L shape, trapezoid, etc
b. In landed, do you dry laundry at the back or in the front and what you wished or thought you could do or have done to reduce laundry time without resorting to a electric dryer.
c. Air dry, sun dry, machine dried (electric and gas), windowdry also here, etc.
d. Equipment: clothes rod, clothes line, Closeline, pulleyline, etc.
e. Your optimal workflow - co-activity optimized ie near kitchen so cooking, washing & drying can be tackled together (esp if primary household management is left to a single person - spouse, mum, maid, etc) , co-location optimized ie near bedrooms (minimise travel time of bring laundry down & up esp if in multi-storey houses - bring interesting issues of their own like noise and vibration), etc
f. Your experience and tips on what practical laundry area should be - apartments, condo, landed: semi-d, bungalow, linked/terrace
g. Would you agree that a wet/dry kitchen separation - which affects how laundry is dried if space is limited and how this limitation is overcome eg laundry area in bathroom.
h. Related activities that we waste most time on and how you overcome it and saved time - eg sorting bins and household member pigeon hole for folded laundry which they collect and put back themselves

Two practical thoughts I can recall offhand:-
1. The slippery the surface (esp glazed tiles) the greater the likelihood an unbalanced washing machine would walk.
I personally witness a walking washing machine - the load was so unbalanced it literally walked out diagonally left then right and almost topple. Later I discovered the type of tiles use and the floor which support the washing machine is important. Many of the higher spin WM that do not have load balancing technology are prone to this. Using non-slip tiles in the washing and drying area and rubber feet helped reduce chances of it walking when the load becomes unbalanced.
2. On landed properties, a raised platform for the washing machine helps prevents flood waters reaching it. Also in our country where we like to wash floors, it also prevent the bottom part of it from rusting easily.

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[Home Appliances] Rice Cooker

Home Laundry/Washing & Drying Area/Room