Sanyo showcases uber-pricey IH rice cooker

Hot (ahem) on the heels of Matsushita's induction heating stove comes a similar contraption from Sanyo, but this one has a certain fondness for pressure cooking. The IH pressure rice cooker sports a copper lining that is reportedly sandwiched between layers of stainless steel and aluminum, which enables it to heat up quickly and retain a high degree of heat throughout the cooking process. Additionally, this device promises "even heating" that comes with the IH territory, comes in white / black (ECJ-XP10) or champagne gold (ECJ-V10), and will run you a staggering ¥131,250 ($1,076) when it lands in September.

[dmdallas @ Jul 21st 2007 9:20AM]

Just what I always wanted...

[MrGam3r @ Jul 21st 2007 9:20AM]

when i first saw that i thought it was a portable toilet or something.

[tekdroid @ Jul 21st 2007 9:29AM]

on a somewhat related note, I said sh$% when I saw the price :)

[Dante @ Jul 21st 2007 9:43AM]

Will I be able to melt staff such as metals with this kind of price?

[DAZA @ Jul 21st 2007 9:44AM]

Are you asking if you can melt your fellow coworkers with this rice cooker?

[john russell @ Jul 21st 2007 9:52AM]

My microwave works just fine, thank you.

[yoshi @ Jul 21st 2007 9:58AM]

You cook rice in your microwave? Hmmmm. Personally, I just use a pot on the stove. Works just as good as any rice cooker ever did.

[mentalsticks @ Jul 21st 2007 10:00AM]

Yes, that's what an American would say.

(***keeping fingers crossed that OP is American (but then again, English would be just as fine)***)

[Carlton @ Jul 21st 2007 10:31AM]

Yeah, there is a *significant* difference from microwaved or "instant" rice cooked on the stove vs. good rice in a rice cooker (course, if you know what your doing, have decent stove and pots and monitor the rice well and all, bet you can get some really good rice on the stove, but rice cookers are just so damn convenient and the rice tastes great!) An IH rice cookers have been around for years. Something like this is more likely suited for use in a restaurant or something, which I bet it is marketed for.

[Chris @ Jul 21st 2007 10:46AM]

"Something like this is more likely suited for use in a restaurant or something, which I bet it is marketed for."

No, it's way too small for a restaurant. Also, a restaurant would not need the benefits this cooker provides which is much faster cooking times. They would buy a couple of larger cookers and start them in the morning and then they have rice for the rest of the day.

This product is clearly aimed at the wealthy asian rice lover who wants good rice fast.

[Castle @ Jul 21st 2007 4:26PM]

A good rice cooker can make rice better then on the stove more consistently and much more easily.

Also there are great IH(induction Heated) rice cookers that cost around $150. For the Japanese, good quality domestic rice can easily be in the $100 for 10kg bag. A good rice cooker is a good investment for something you use everyday.

[Twitchy @ Jul 21st 2007 5:26PM]

It does more than cook rice - it pretty much replaces a cooking pot in total as you can also make many other dishes such as curry or risotto. The reason for such a high priced article is that it contains a lot of electronics which are responsible for even heating, avoiding overcooking or burning etc etc.
To scoff at it for it's price is like going off at a Ferrari - it is after all 'just' a car. but if it were not for tech like this that pushes the boundaries of current technology then there would be no further developments, and that's a good thing in my eyes. Unless you're happy still sitting on the long-drop whilst waiting for the town cryer to swing by with the latest.

[Cody S. @ Jul 21st 2007 9:59AM]

Is it USB or Firewire?

[Chris @ Jul 21st 2007 10:47AM]

"I should say instant rice. It's certainly much cheaper than this thing."

Once you try rice cooked in a good cooker (I have a Zojirushi cooker), you can't go back to eating instant rice. It's like eating bread cooked in the microwave vs toasted in the oven.

[Siva @ Jul 21st 2007 7:24PM]

I have a Zojirushi NH-VBC18 IH rice cooker too. It does a great job. We eat brown rice and our favorite setting is the gaba brown. Contrary to this fast paced world of instant rice, we like our rice slow cooked (about 2+ hours). Gaba brown setting does that and it retains more of the flavor and vitamins when cooked this way. I guess this is a difference between people that will drink any old coffee and a good roasted bean ground fresh and made in a good espresso machine. We only paid $200 for our cooker. I don't think we will ever pay $1000 for a rice cooker, but may be wealthier people will!!

[kyle allen @ Jul 21st 2007 2:40PM]

how did Chris comment on John's comment before John posted it?

[brett @ Jul 21st 2007 5:04PM]

How did Kyle comment on Chris's comment before John commented in the first place?

...you are now entering...the comment zone!

[john russell @ Jul 21st 2007 10:13AM]

I should say instant rice. It's certainly much cheaper than this thing.

[Codex @ Jul 21st 2007 12:22PM]

Thought it was a toilet.

[aboriginal @ Jul 21st 2007 11:36AM]

Witness the coming of Mr. Fusion.

[Herman Manfred @ Jul 21st 2007 12:32PM]

Strangely, I have no problem perfectly cooking a variety of different types of rice (short grain, long grain, "sticky", etc) in a rice cooker I bought for about $30 from Costco (US member-based discount chain).

I must be doing something wrong.

[Jeff @ Jul 21st 2007 1:15PM]

No, I'd say most Asians probably use $30 rice cookers too. The only real difference more expensive models give you is the ability to keep rice warm for a long time.

My wife's Japanese and she bought us a $15 rice cooker at Bed, Bath and Beyond that works fine. Her family back home uses a little more expensive model - think it cost them about 8,000 yen or so - but it's one of those models that also warms, and it's got a larger capacity.

This $1,000 rice cooker is a complete waste. But you know, one thing about Japan is that there is a class of people (like here, I guess) that just feels like they need to have the most expensive thing to show off just because it's expensive.

You can *not* cook rice properly in a pot, though, or a microwave. Not real rice, anyway, only the processed stuff.

[Wwhat @ Jul 21st 2007 2:06PM]

It's silly to presume asians can cook rice so much better than westerners etc., just because you used something a long time does not really make you automatically the best at preparing it, plus tastes differ, what an asian would call perfect rice someone else might judge to be failed rice.
And in the end rice is just damn simple to prepare so any idiot should be able to do it.
What is left to explain is what a ricecooker is doing on engadget

[Zord @ Jul 21st 2007 2:28PM]

Wwhat obviously knows nothing about rice and his low-born tastes show through quite readily.

[R. C. @ Jul 21st 2007 4:47PM]

Rice in a pot is just fine. I IDK about microwave rice, but the only reason for a rice cooker is conveniance.

[Wwhat @ Jul 21st 2007 8:46PM]

OR alternatively Wwhat has enough taste to actually taste things rather than first read some spin and then believing that and then presuming he tastes things rather than tasting them and judge based on that?

[Sam @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:06AM]

Herman Manfred
> Strangely, I have no problem perfectly cooking a variety of different types of
> rice (short grain, long grain, "sticky", etc) in a rice cooker I bought for about
> $30 from Costco (US member-based discount chain).

While the rice probably tastes okay, the rice from the $100+ "fuzzy logic" cookers usually taste better. First, they often have heating elements around the pot as well as on the bottom. This promotes even cooking and less burning. Secondly, a computer cycles the heating to match the type of rice being used. Many of the best cookers also have a slow cook mode which takes 40 mins and longer. This uses a cycling algorithm which optimizes the release and cooking of the alpha and then beta starches. Afficionados tell me that the slow cooked rice is fantastic.

[ninjakamster @ Jul 21st 2007 1:03PM]

Mmm, flied lice. Yummy! : D

[dhlt25 @ Jul 21st 2007 1:48PM]

i kow this have been said before but

Does it play Doom?

[James Mack @ Jul 21st 2007 10:16PM]

For that price, I should hope so.

[David @ Jul 21st 2007 2:26PM]

Wwhat is an idiot.

[Chris @ Jul 21st 2007 2:26PM]

So, I guess this is targeted at Jeff, or anyone else who'd know... if you can buy one for 30$ and the only feature missing is the ability to maintain heat, how do you get the price jump? I mean, obviously 1000$ is over priced, but I have always thought of rice cookers as expensive anyway. So how do you justify charging, let's say, 300$ for one, if the only plus is the ability to keep it warm?

[Bosco @ Jul 21st 2007 2:48PM]

Coming next week... The Sanyo Mike Vick Hot Dog Griller.

[Naman @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:27AM]

Does it cook Falcon too?

[Eff @ Sep 8th 2007 9:14AM]

If you think this is over kill, try the Panasonic model that has actual diamond filings on the inside of the inner pot, with golf dimples on the outside to make the heat evenly distribute. We'll do anything to have a good bowl of rice.

[Sam @ Jul 21st 2007 11:38PM]

RE: MICROWAVE RICE

Sam Daniel
> there is a *significant* difference from microwaved or "instant" rice cooked on
> the stove vs. good rice in a rice cooker

It is a mistake to think that microwaved rice is INFERIOR. I cook normal long and medium grain rice in the microwave with great success. In fact, it usually tastes better than rice cooked on the stover or in a cheap rice cooker.

Here's why: microwave heating is evenly distributed throughout the pot (assuming the pot is on a turntable). That allows the rice to cook and steam evenly. Cheap cookers and stove cooking concentrate the heat on the bottom, which makes cooking uneven and risks burning (which is nearly impossible in a microwave. This is precisely why these new induction heating cookers are so successful: Induction causes the entire metal pot to become the heating element, which means even heating throughout the pot. The more expensive non-IH "fuzzy logic" cookers often have heating elements on the sides as well as the bottom to distribute heat, while a computer cycles the process.

The cheap cookers and stove pots do none of this, thus inferior rice. There are other advantages to microwaving if your oven has advanced controls. I'd pop my rice in before leaving for work and set its timer to cook about an hour before I get home. My program is 20 mins on HIGH (100%) to fully cook and then 2 hr at 10% to keep WARM. Some online recipes start on high, then lowering to medium, and at least one recipe claims to take only 15 mins.

BTW, in this case, the microwave saves neither time nor electricity. It will still take about 20-25 mins for the alpha/beta-starches to cook no matter what type of heat. And most microwaves use 1000 watts while a typical medium rice cooker uses about 800-1000 watts. The advantages are convenience, consistency, and ease of cleanup.

While you can microwave rice in normal glass/ceramic ware, I'd recommend getting a dedicated plastic microwave rice cooker. The locking vented cover is made to properly recycle the moisture and distribute the steam. Believe it or not, I've seen cheap knockoffs in Chinatown for as little as $3.95.

http://www.google.com/products?q=microwave+rice+cooker&btnG=Search+Froogle

[Rice Burner @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:44AM]

Rice cooker, I though those were called superchargred Mustangs?

[Siva @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:03PM]

Contrary to the other poster that is gloating over the virtues of microwave cooking - microwave actually has uneven heating and also several potential health effects. Also heating plastic is not a good idea either since it gives off certain harmful vapors when heated.

We use only glass in microwave (like pyrex) for simple reheating . We never cook anything in the microwave.

I just cooked some brown rice in my zojiruchi fuzzy logic IH cooker that cost about $200. I used the gaba brown setting that takes about 3 hours to cook - tastes great.

[N @ Jul 22nd 2007 6:18PM]

Repeat after me audience: "Set it and forget it in 12 easy payments of 99.99. You wouldn't believe how amazingly easy this product is to use, and how you lived without it."

Now fill up my coffers and get those Chinese slaves back to work.

[toyotaboy @ Jul 23rd 2007 2:23PM]

For a thousand bucks, it better put the rice and water automatically by timer!

[Deborah Marcotte @ Aug 5th 2007 2:04AM]

I need one those...