Volts and rice cookers

[Jim - Portland, USA]

I've noticed that rice cookers are very expensive here in America. Seems like the average price for a basic rice cooker is around $100.

 

Whereas in China, a top-of-the-line rice cooker with all the bells and whistles is less than half that, some even in the $20 range.

 

But the Chinese rice cookers are 220V 50Hz and US residential electricity is 110V 60Hz.

 

Does anyone have experience using Chinese-bought rice cookers here in America? Are cheap converters/adapters available to do the job? Is such a setup a fire hazard? Might anything blow-up, melt-down, or otherwise cause a premature end to the rice cooker or our kitchen??

[se_lang]

Sam's club has a nice cooker for about $40 I see only the high tech rice cookers costing $100.

 

if you want to use one from China here you can, you also have 220 in your home for like washers/dryers an stoves the difference between 50Hz to 60 Hz won't really matter unless it has a motor of some sort, but after you spend all the money to make it work it will be better to buy a high tech one for $100 here in US.

[MikeXiao]

It depends on the size of the rice cooker. I have purchased two in the last 5 years. Normal price, about 20-30 dollars at Wal-mart. I purchased a large on, later a small one.

[Jim - Portland, USA]

Thanks Darrell, but unfortunately there isn't a Sam's Club within 100 miles of Portland, OR. We have Wal-Mart, but they don't sell rice cookers there. I've tried a lot of discount stores, none of them sell rice cookers.

 

I'm kind of surprised by this actually. They sell bread makers, muffin makers, waffle irons, potato cookers, noodle extruders, all sorts of meat grilling devices, egg fryers, deep fryers, pancake griddles, etc, etc, all that stuff, but no rice cookers!

 

It seems that out here the only place to get rice cookers are Asian grocery/specialty stores, and the cheapest I've seen is $60 but that was for (what I will call) a "travel-sized" rice cooker with just an on/off switch and that's it Yeah, I think after I buy the converter, transformer, adapter and so forth, it will all probably cost about the same.

[Jim - Portland, USA]

It depends on the size of the rice cooker.  I have purchased two in the last 5 years.  Normal price, about 20-30 dollars at Wal-mart.  I purchased a large on, later a small one.

You got a rice cooker at Wal-Mart? Darn, how come they don't sell them at the Wal-Marts out here?? Hmm, or maybe they are all sold out everytime I go there

[Guest Gene]

Jim, do you guys have Fred Meyer? I got a 12 cup automatic rice cooker with a top steamer pan for $29 there.

[Guest blsqueaky]

Jim, why not go on wal mart web site and order it. I found a great one, both rice cooker and steamer, about $21.

[eeyore]

Jim,

 

If there is an Asian market in your area they might have a rice cooker, most of the Asian markets here carry them.

 

eeyore

[Jim - Portland, USA]

Thanks for your help everybody! Gene, I was at Fred Meyer's just last night looking for rice cookers and I didn't see anything, I even asked the clerk dude! Hmmm ... is there a rice cooker shortage/conspriricy here in Portland? eeyore, yeah, the Asian stores have them, for mucho $$$. I suppose the Wal*Mart website will have to do, but even those look so plain and simple.

 

The rice cookers in China look so high-tech and complicated! At least a dozen lights and buttons everywhere I haven't a clue what any of those things do, but they look cool

 

Kind of like the toilets in Japan, wow! When you sit down it's like you're sitting down in an airplane cockpit ... lights, buttons, switches, buzzers, dials, levers, I think some even have karaoke machines built right into them

 

How come there are a lot more cool products over in Asia than there is here??

[se_lang]

Here try this LINK

 

http://image.ak.outpost.com/art/product/box_shots/3654125.box.GIF

 

$119 Rice cooker detail

[oregonknl]

Man, Jim,

 

Can't understand why you want all the bells and whistles to cook rice...

 

I just threw out an otherwise perfectly good coffee maker because auto-brew function kept turning it on at odd hours (DEFINATE fire hazzard!) ...

 

But maybe someone can do a custom job? Trick out an existing model? How about fins??

[Jim - Portland, USA]

That model Darrell just showed has fuzzy-logic. A rice cooker with fuzzy-logic!!! Sometimes I have fuzzy-logic ... but I still couldn't cook rice to save my life. Go figure. If it's that smart it can trick its self out and build its own damn fins

 

Fuzzy logic ... I wonder if it can predict when our interview date will be

[oregonknl]

Yeah, Jim,

 

Ha, ha ~ very funny!

 

Since the GZ Consulate CLEARLY uses "Fuzzy Logic" to determine the interview dates, this might be a great short term purchase --- as well as long term...

 

But what if it decides it likes leather, whips and chains more than fins !?!?!

 

(on the other hand, it certainly could have been useful next to my coffee maker, which obviously needed discipline at a level I was unwilling to afford....)

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

I have a really great rice cooker, it only cost me about $6. I've seen them in all the stores too. Really simple to operate. It's called a pot with a lid.

[tonado]

http://www.epinions.com/Rice_Cookers_and_S...-price_bucket_1