Maintaining Your Zojirushi Rice Cooker or How I Got Rid of the Hard Rice Blues
Hello all!
We've had a Zojirushi NS-ZAC18 Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker for about 7 years now. We always make at least 4 cups of rice and leave it in the cooker on "warm" to have again for lunch or dinner the next day. For the past year or so, the rice had been getting hard and crunchy by the next morning. My wife wanted to buy a new rice cooker, but we just dealt with it by taking the rice out of the cooker before it got fugly.
It finally occurred to me that we needed to replace the inner lid. The inner lid has a rubber gasket, and I figured that it was probably no longer doing its job. I ordered it for about $18 including shipping from Zojirushi's website. I was right! Our pot is as good as new and the rice is no longer hard the next day.
Because Zojirushi's rice cooker has a "hard rice" setting, it was hard to find an answer to our problem online, but I hope others with the same problem will find the answer here.
On a related note, the instructions for my pressure cooker, which also has a rubber gasket, recommend that I apply a small of vegetable oil to the gasket after every use in order to maintain its elasticity. Do you think that I could perhaps apply the same principal to the rubber gasket attached to the Zojirushi's inner lid? What are your tips for maintaining your rice cooker?
- Clave Azul
-
Sid Post
Jul 6, 2012 07:13 PM
Loss of moisture adds up when you leave rice on "warm" for a long period of time. Plastics and rubber age so, as you noted a new gasket brought your rice cooker back to life.
I'm a huge fan of my induction rice cooker and will keep this in mind if it ever needs a tune up.
-
Chemicalkinetics
Jul 5, 2012 08:00 PM
First of all, I do not leave the rice in a cooker on warm like you do. Second, different rice act differently. Have you been using different kind of rice. I know Jasmine rice does not suffer the same way as typical long grain rice do when stored in the refrigerator.
I am glad that you have found your cause.
<Do you think that I could perhaps apply the same principal to the rubber gasket attached to the Zojirushi's inner lid?>
Plastic, all plastic, age and will eventually lose its elasticity. Car window wipers age the same way. The oil is to slow the process down.
