Kumo YumCarb Rice Cooker with Ceramic Bowl and Advanced Fuzzy Logic, (5.5 cup, 1 litre), 5 Rice Cooking Functions, 3 Multicooker Functions, 220-240V UK/EU Power (Dark Stainless Steel)

As a big fan of Asian food ( especially Thai cuisine ) I am cooking rice every day. I rarely cook western food. So fair to say I cook and eat a lot of rice! I'm always very picky when it comes to food. My standards are high. I held off buying a rice cooker for the longest time; it was partly because I am picky and partly because I didn't want to spend money on something that I can already do with a pot.However, now I have finally made the leap and got one, I'm wishing that I had done this years ago. It's so convenient! I love having a hot bowl or rice ready to be used for when I need it. I don't have to stand around watching the pot. There's no chance of me forgetting it ( which happens ) - just set it and forget. It switches to warm and is ready when I need it.My other worry was how well this would cook rice. As I mentioned, I eat a lot of rice and I'm picky. I need not have worried. This cooked rice perfectly. In fact, it cooked it better than I can do it on the stove. The rice is perfect. My go to rice is Jasmine rice. It consistently cooks perfect rice every time. My favourite thing is the keep warm function. No more trying to have to time the rice to be done when the rest of my food is ready. Or I can set it in the morning or evening for rice later on.This comes with a steamer which is really handy! I use it to cook vegetables or fish while my rice is cooking. You basically have a meal all cooked and ready. Set and forget. Easy as microwaving. I often do salmon teriyaki with rice. I fill the bottom container with rice and the steamer with salmon and veg. All I have to do is heat up the sauce!Actually there are a few easy one pot meals you can make. You can do tomato rice. Use stock in place of water and add tomatoes on top. I have this with a fried egg or omelette. Do a Google for "clay pot chicken in a rice cooker" you will thank me later...You can also cook a few other things such as porridge oats/congee/other grains but I haven't tried those out. I love congee ( the Thai version Jok is my fav ) but I like to make it myself as I am super picky with it. Maybe I will try it one day. This probably does those other things well but really all I need it to do is cook rice and it does this perfectly.The cooker is very easy to use. For once the manual is actually well written and very clear. It's easy to clean and maintain. The manual lists a few basic recipes. My only very teeny tiny niggle would be that the water collection container in the back is a little flimsy. It's a minor thing though. I haven't had any problems.One small thing of note. I wanted to address the most up voted review here because it's really odd. He/She complained that it doesn't cook as well as a Japanese rice cooker... it IS a Japanese rice cooker. In any case, the argument is nonsensical. Just like any product, from any country, they vary in quality. There are good Japanese rice cookers, average Japanese rice cookers, and awful rubbish Japanese rice cookers. It's nonsensical to claim that it's not as good as Japanese rice cookers because they are good or bad or average just like any product from any country. In any case it IS a Japanese rice cooker so...I've had this rice cooker for over one month now. I waited awhile to put it through it's paces. It hasn't let me down yet! To sum up, I really highly recommend this rice cooker. If you cook a lot of rice this is a game changer. Get one!!! If you rarely cook it then don't bother but otherwise this is a must buy. It's easy to use, easy to clean, and cooks rice perfectly. For the price you just can't beat this. I love my kumo and look forward to many days of rice cooking together! Highly recommended.

This rice cooker is straight forward to use and when used as in the instruction does not boil over.The bowl is made of ceramics and the basket tray of stainless steal. Only the lid has aluminium parts, but these do not come in contact with the food and only sour food would remove aluminium. So I am not concerned about this. I chose this rice cooker, because I wanted one for daily use.The bowl and basket are easy to clean and one can wash at least short grain rice clean in the basket. For long grain rice it is better to wash it in the bowl, because the rice grains can slip through the wholes of the basket.It also comes with a measuring cup for rice and water, although one can as well follow the markings inside the bowl and basket tray to fill the water up to the marking for the amount of cups of rice.I have cooked long white rice and brown rice and white and brown short grain rice in the different programmes. They were all equally excellent (I followed exactly the instructions of the manual).What I really like is that one can choose between the method where less water is used and the water is completely absorbed while the rice cooks or one can cook the rice in the basket in a multiple of the regular water and boil potential heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium and lead out, the water remains in the bowl underneath when the cooking is finished and can be poured into the sink with with a pair of cooking gloves or such (the bowl is hot).This is very important for me, because eating rice daily and choosing brown rice quite often, I can reduce the intake of these heavy metals. Of course this also reduces the nutrients. What might be good if people want to eat less carbohydrates, because the programme is praised for reducing the amount of carbohydrate of the rice.I use this in particular for brown rice which is higher in heavy metals, but also healthy as a whole grain. For basmati rice, which naturally absorbs fewer heavy metals while growing in the rainy season with fresh clean water, I prefer the traditional 'soak it all up' method in the bowl.When one has filled the rice cooker with the rice and the water and chosen the programme, it will start to bring the water to boil and then start counting the time down on the digital display until the rice is done. It alerts with a beep, which is very convenient, as one can focus on something else in the meantime. If one decides to leave the rice on the keep warm function, it will start counting the time up.This is ideal for rice pudding, where the rice it boiled in the prescribed amount of water first, then after cooking the milk added and the keep warm function left until the milk is absorbed and the rice is creamy. When I use brown rice and boil this in the basket tray, I take the tray out after cooking, empty the water from the bowl and then fill the bowl with the rice. There is a white plastic spatula sold with the cooker, which comes very handy for this and for stirring the rice in the bowl with the milk before leaving it again on its own. For the finished rice I use the shite plastic ladle which also comes with this device.As cooking on a gas stove is less expensive than using electricity, this cooker is visible in my electricity bill. But it's worth it, because on a gas stove rice pudding needs to be supervised and stirred for the whole 40 minutes, else it will set and burn. In this rice cooker I can just leave the rice boil, add the milk at the beep and wait until the required keep-warm time is up (because every rice is different one has to experiment on this, but in general whether I used white or brown arborio or white sushi rice, it took the rice about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes to have a creamy rice).White basmati rice is quickly done, in 25 minutes and it is always fluffy and evenly cooked. On the stove this was difficult to boil evenly (at the bottom mushy or sticking), especially with measure of two or three cups, which is the maximum rice amount for this cooker, but here it comes out excellent and the same every single time. For the brown basmati rice I use the YUM function to reduce the heavy metals, which takes about 40 minutes.What is not yet optimal on the device is that the condensation will run down the lid when opened and also come out of the steam vent. There is a tiny collecting vessel under the hinge-joint to collect the water, but most runs onto the rim inside or outside down the lid. This is not a major issue when one knows. When I want to open the lid, I just open it one cm and keep vibrating it up and down on that short distance for a bit, what helps shake a lot of water inside into the rice. Then I hold the towel against the steam vent while opening the lid and allow the water from the steam vent to run into that towels and finally I dry the lid and the rim, if something still went into it.But this wiping up condensation water is no bother at all in comparison to cooking rice on the stove. I would definitively place it under a good extractor van for the YUM function in particular, as this will boil a lot of water and the steam needs to leave the room somehow. In regard to the regular programmes I have found it a relief in hot weather that this rice cooker gives less heat into my studio room than the open flame of the gas oven would.Considering the price I paid and how well the device works for me, I am giving five stars. I am really enjoying it, it makes life a lot easier.One downside is that currently one can not get any replacement bowl, one has to reorder and return the whole device. Hopefully they will be able to sort this for the future to make this more environmentally friendly.

I have been using this rice cooker with ease every couple of days. It cooks the rice perfectly. Really impressed with the quality and love how it cooked brown and dried rice. I can't believe it took me so long to buy one.

A very good rice cooker but does not make enough rice if you have a large family. I bought this to replace my old Tefal rice cooker which made a much larger amount. This one is almost as easy to use and comes with a large booklet but most of the pages are to do with recipes rather than operational stuff.The measuring cup provided for the quantity of rice needed is absolutely essential if you do not wish to make an absolute mess. Also the scale on the inside of the ceramic cooking pot is also not to be ignored if you know what is good for you. The ceramic cooking pot is also not dishwasher safe and is hand wash only but it is of very good quality and is so smooth that you can easily clean it with just a damp sponge. The cooker also has a countdown time feature and a keep warm function.My only other gripe (apart from the quantity of rice cooked in one go) is that the steam outlet valve is at the back of cooker and not the front. This means you must move it well away from the wall unless you want your walls to be stripped of paint or wallpaper.