Cooking rice has become easier as years go by. Back then, one would need to put the grains alongside water inside a cooking pot over fire and it required constant monitoring as you’d need to make sure that the rice doesn’t become overcooked or scorched.

Eventually rice cookers came into the picture and made the task a little easier but still required monitoring and then it came to the point where the modern rice cookers nowadays have automated features to make rice cooking easier than before.

One of the most well-known brands in terms of excellent high-tech rice cookers is Zojirushi and in this article, we’ll be covering the NS-LGC05XB.

We’ll be dissecting through the key features of this rice cooker, take a look at the advantages and disadvantages in availing and using this rice cooker and then we get to know how to properly maintain it as well so, let’s proceed!

Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB Key Features

1. Multiple Cooking Options and Functions

  • The NS-LGC05XB sports a good number of cooking options for your cooked rice needs. They range from white/mixed rice, sushi rice, brown rice and even long-grained rice! If that’s not enough for you, the rice cooker too sports a quick cooking option whether you want rice immediately.

2. Triple Heater

  • The Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB sports a triple heater wherein the heating parts are found on the bottom, at the sides and in the lid. The triple heater’s purpose is for even heat distribution throughout the rice cooker hence resulting in excellent-quality rice.

3. Easy to store retractable cord and a fold-down handle for portability

  • The NS-LGC05XB sports a retractable cord with a reel, this allows the rice cooker to be easily stored. You can bid the frustration of storing long-corded conventional rice cookers goodbye! Aside from that, the rice cooker has a fold-down handle which allows the unit to be transported, this makes the NS-LGC05XB a pretty portable rice cooker. This is further helped by the fact that this is one of their smaller rice cooker models.

3. Melody or Beep signal

  • A recurring feature among Zojirushi rice cookers is their melody or beep signal. The NS-LGC05XB doesn’t need to be monitored on a regular basis while cooking rice as the interchangeable sound notifications will let you know when the rice is ready to be served.

4. Automatic keep warm and re-heating cycle

  • The next recurring feature that the NS-LGC05XB has is that it has the automatic keep warm and re-heating cycle feature. Through this, cooked rice is kept warm for a long period of time and if ever it goes cold – the re-heating function will allow you to restore heat to the cooled rice, allow you to enjoy it just like when it was freshly cooked.

5. Removable vent steam cap

  • Don’t worry about messy rice cookers even in high temperature settings. The removable vent steam permits users to conduct high-temperature rice cooking without the problem of messy overflows and foaming coming out of the rice cooker’s lid.

6. Additional accessories

  • For every purchase of a Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB, this includes additional accessories such as a rice spatula, spatula holder and a measuring cup that uses the Japanese standard of a cup of rice.

With the features now covered, let’s proceed to the Pros and Cons section wherein we’ll find out where the NS-LGC05XB truly shines at and where it is rather lacking.

 NS-LGC05XB Pros and Cons

Let’s be honest, the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB is a great rice cooker despite being a great device. There’s no such thing as perfect, even the most excellently-crafted devices do have their own share of shortcomings and strong points. Here’s what owners have a say about this particular rice cooker:

Pros (+)

  • Portable and space-friendly – Because of the presence of a foldable handle, the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB offers the advantage of being a portable rice cooker. This allows you to be able to bring this rice cooker over to camping or even picnics. The retractable cord makes it not a hassle to store inside a kitchen closet when not in use and the rice cooker itself doesn’t occupy too much space on a countertop.
  • A good number of cooking options – Whether you want plain rice or maybe sushi rice or perhaps go healthy with brown rice, the NS-LGC05XB is capable of handling them all with its plethora of cooking functions. What makes this even better is that the NS-LGC05XB is capable of even cooking long-grained rice which most Zojirushi rice cookers tend to struggle in handling unless you do trial and error.
  • Cheap – Among all the high-tech Zojirushi rice cookers, the NS-LGC05XB is one of the entry-level or budget options. The price tag tends to average around the $110+ bracket making this an attractive choice for folks who want to try out Zojirushi’s high tech cooking functions.
  • Doesn’t need constant watching – With a beep or melody signal in its arsenal of features, the NS-LGC05XB is another one of their rice cookers that don’t need constant “babysitting” just to check if the rice is ready to be served. The sound-based notification will let you when it’s ready.
  • Easy to use – No need to be shy on using the many functions that the rice cooker has in store for you. They’re all easy to use, all it takes is a few simple pushes of a button and the cooking settings of choice and you are good to go!
  • Great quality rice and keep warm features – Rice that comes out from this rice cooker sports excellent quality. This is further helped by the fact that you can retain the quality through the use of the keep warm feature which activates after cooking. There’s no need to worry whether the rice goes cold because there’s a re-heating cycle function for that.

Cons (-)

  • Its small size is a mixed blessing – There’s one main drawback with the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB and that is its size. While the rice cooker isn’t a problem to store, nor even a problem to place on the countertop – this rice cooker isn’t going to shine in larger households because its rice-holding capacity isn’t too large. This means that the NS-LGC05XB is better off in small households such as a couple or maybe a couple with a child or two.

 

Maintenance of the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB

In order to ensure that the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB is going to be up and running for quite a while, here are some handy maintenance tips in order to ensure smooth operation and to assure that the rice cooker will function well for a long period of time.

  1. Let’s start off with the cooking pot. Remove the cooking pot and then use a combination of dishwashing soap and warm water. Wash and rinse repeatedly until thoroughly cleaned. Leave it to dry or wipe it with a damp cloth after washing.
  2. Clean the heating elements with a damp cloth, remove the presence of leftover rice or tiny splashes of water. This is to ensure that the heating elements will function at their best and can distribute heat evenly during cooking.
  3. Detach the inner lid, clean it in the same way you did to the cooking pot. Use dishwashing soap and warm water then wash and rinse repeatedly until it is well-cleaned.
  4. Because the steam vent is a removable component, clean it up by washing it thoroughly and remove any mess if present. When done, leave it to dry before re-attaching it to the rice cooker.
  5. Clean the exterior with a damp cloth.
  6. When serving rice, do not use a metal scooper or spatula. Utilize the plastic spatula that the rice cooker comes in with. The reason for this is to prevent scratching or scraping of the non-stick lining in the long run as it can reduce its capability to prevent rice from sticking to the cooking pot’s walls.
  7. If the rice cooker possesses a gasket, check it from time to time (maybe monthly or after a few weeks) and see if it is showing signs of discoloration. If it does show signs of discoloring then contact Zojirushi’s customer support to get a replacement gasket.

Follow all these maintenance tips and the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB is going to serve you well in the long run!

Final Remarks

The Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB is best described as a compact and portable budget option among all of Zojirushi’s high-tech rice cookers. With a price tag that’s averaging around the lower to mid $100 bracket – many can get to try out Zojirushi’s high-tech features with this rice cooker and with a decent amount of cooking options, the NS-LGC05XB never fails to impress. This is further helped by its capability to keep the rice warm for a large number of hours before you need to reheat it.

The only downside is that this rice cooker is rather small and is better suited for small households but otherwise, this is a solid option to consider if you are really that wanting to try out a high-tech rice cooker that’s affordable.

Similar Posts