American Era Electric Rice Cooker Teardown
Tools
These are some common tools used to work on this device. You might not need every tool for every procedure.
Background and Identification
A rice cooker or rice steamer is an automated kitchen appliance designed to boil or steam rice until it is cooked. Rice cookers consist of a heat source, a cooking bowl, and a thermostat. The thermostat controls the heat and measures the temperature of the cooking bowl. More complex rice cookers may have additional sensors and other components and may be used to cook other foods.
Automatic rice cookers can be either electric or gas appliances. Most home rice cookers are electric and use a heat-insulating casing and a warming mechanism. Electric rice cookers work on a fluctuating magnetic field around a metal coil. The fluctuating magnetic field creates an electric current that flows through the cooking bowl. Induction helps the water in the cooking bowl heat up more quickly, and a steam exit is included to allow steam to escape during the cooking process. On most electric rice cookers, the unit automatically switches to the “keep warm” function to prevent overcooking and keep the rice warm until it is served. Stay-warm mechanisms may degrade over time.
Electric rice cookers designed for home use can generally cook between 1 cup and 10 cups of rice. Model specifications and names may list either cooked or uncooked rice capacity. Rice doubles in size during the cooking process, so a 10 cup (uncooked) rice cooker produces up to 20 cups of cooked rice.