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Choosing the best rice cooker in Australia is the easiest way to ensure perfect rice with every meal.
Cooking rice on the stove can get you good results if you pay attention and you know what you’re doing. But it also has a tendency to end up in soggy or undercooked grains – not to mention those horror occasions when you accidentally burn it to the bottom of the saucepan.
A rice cooker takes all the hard work out of cooking rice, resulting in perfect rice every time. It will also keep the rice warm for you once it’s cooked, so you can prep your rice earlier and know it will still be good to go when your main meal is ready.
To help you find the perfect model for your kitchen, we did the hard work for you. We hit up top review sites recommending rice cookers and consolidated their recommendations here.
We’ve broken down the full approach below, but the end result is this list of great rice cookers for Australians.
These are the best rice cookers in Australia right now:
Breville The Smart Rice Box
Recommended by 5/8 reviews sites
Breville’s The Smart Rice box uses fuzzy logic technology to ensure that your rice is perfectly cooked every time.
But the appliance does so much more than that. It’s a combination cooker that can also make sushi, sticky rice, porridge and cake. There’s even a steam mode you can use for vegetables.
It has an easy-clean design, with removable parts to make cleaning up quick, while a programmable digital timer can let you preset the cooking time in advance.
Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 7 And Steamer
Recommended by 4/8 review sites
Capable of cooking up to 14 cups of perfectly fluffy rice every time, the Rice Perfect Deluxe 7 and steamer is perfect for larger families.
The sealed, locking lid traps the steam inside, so your rice remains perfectly cooked for hours.
An included steam tray also lets you cook everything from vegetables to fish and poultry. It can also be removed for easy cleaning.
Panasonic SR-DF181WST 1.8L rice cooker
Recommended by 4/8 review sites
Panasonic’s large, 1.8L rice cooker will happily feed an entire family with rice effortlessly.
It offers easy one-touch cooking operation and boasts four pre-programmed options for steaming, white or brown rice, or porridge and soups.
With advanced fuzzy logic technology on board and the ability to keep your rice warm for up to five hours, it’s the perfect partner to your rice dishes at home.
Panasonic SR-DF101WST 5 Cup Rice Cooker
Recommended by 4/8 review sites
Panasonic’s smaller 5 cup rice cooker also offers easy one-touch control for four preprogrammed options for white rice, brown rice, porridge/soup and quick cook or steam.
When it’s done cooking, the cooker will automatically switch to the keep warm, where it will keep the rice at the perfect temperature until you’re ready to eat it.
It’s also perfect for steaming dumplings or gyoza thanks to the dedicated steam mode.
The removable inner pan and steam tray are removable for easy cleaning, and the power cord can be removed for storage.
Kambrook Rice Express 5 Cup Rice Cooker
Recommended by 4/8 review sites
Simple and basic in functionality and price, the Kambrook Rice Express 5 cup cooker will make up to 10 serves of rice with its simple one-touch operation.
It will keep your rice warm, with a removable non-stick bowl for easy cleaning. The glass lid will also let you keep an eye on how things are cooking.
There’s no fuzzy logic or different program settings here, but it still does an impressive job at delivering fresh, fluffy rice.
Breville The Set & Serve rice cooker
Recommended by 3/8 review sites
This appliance from Breville will make up to 16 cups of fluffy rice at the push of a button – all you need to do is add the rice and water.
Once it’s finished cooking, the Set & Serve will automatically switch to a keep warm mode so your rice is ready to go when you are.
It also comes with a BPA-free steaming tray that sits under the lid, letting you easily steam fish or vegetables.
How we chose the best rice cookers in Australia
Review sites – including this one – are subjective by nature. Everybody has a different opinion of what is best.
So to try and counter the fact that every best guide on the internet has a different opinion of what is best, we approached our list by combining the results of some of the top sites recommending rice cookers on the market today.
To determine this list, we followed the same journey most consumers would follow: we went to Google.
We searched for “Best rice cooker Australia” and identified 8 of the top results. It’s important to note that Google results can change often. The full list of sites we referenced is outlined below:
Referenced sites:
We listed out all of the rice cookers recommended on each site, tidying up any slight differences in spelling for consistency.
We calculated the frequency in which each product was mentioned across those eight guides. The more frequently a product is mentioned, the more agreement there is between experts reviewing these products that it is, indeed one of the best products available.
We set a minimum of three mentions across all eight guides to be eligible for inclusion here.
Before we created this page we took some time to remove products that are either unavailable, or difficult to find in Australia.
We also leveraged our own experience with products to ensure that we wouldn’t be recommending any product that doesn’t deliver.
Full list of products considered for this guide
| Breville The Smart Rice Box Rice Cooker |
| Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 7 And Steamer |
| Russell Hobbs RHRC1 10 Cup Family Rice Cooker |
| Philips Grain Master HD4514/72 |
| Panasonic SRDF181WST 1.8L Rice Cooker |
| Panasonic SR-DF101WST 5 Cup Rice Cooker |
| Kambrook Rice Express 5 Cup Rice Cooker |
| Breville The Set and Serve rice cooker |
| Tefal RK900 Multicook and Grains Rice Cooker |
| TEFAL RK732 Rice and Slow Cooker |
| Russell Hobbs RHRC20BLK Turbo Electric Rice Cooker |
| NutriBullet Everygrain Cooker |
| Japan Zojirushi Micom rice cooker |
| CUCKOO Rice Pressure Cooker 10 Cups CRP-P1009S |
| Breville The Rice Box cooker |
| Trent And Steele 5 Cup Rice Cooker |
| TODO 1.8L Rice Cooker |
| TODO 1.2L Rice Cooker 6 Cup Capacity Review |
| Tiger JBV-A10U-W Micom Rice Cooker Review |
| Tiger Electric Rice Cooker |
| Tiger 5.5 cup JAX-S microcomputer controlled rice cooker |
| Tiger 5.5 Cup 1.0Litre JKT-D10A Multi-Functional Induction Heating Rice Cooker |
| Tefal Slow Cooker |
| Tefal Rice Cooker & Multicooker RK812 |
| Tatung multi-functional rice cooker |
| SOGA Electric Pressure Cooker |
| Nutri Ninja Foodi Multi Cooker |
| Maxim Kitchen Pro 1.8L/10 Cup Rice Cooker |
| Kambrook Rice Master |
| Kambrook 6L Health Steam Plus |
| Kambrook 10 Cup Rice Cooker |
| Joyoung mini rice cooker, $195, Kogan |
| Joseph Joseph M-Cuisine Microwave Rice and Grain Cooker |
| Instant Pot Duo Nova Multi Use Cooker |
| Fresh De Chef Pronto Microwave Rice Cooker |
| Décor Rice Cooker |
| Crock-Pot 5.7L Express Easy Release Multi-Cooker |
| Breville The Multi-Chef |
| Breville The Multi Grains Rice Cooker |
| Black & Decker RCD514 Digital Rice Cooker Review |
| Aroma Housewares ARC-1120SBL Rice Cooker Review |
| Anko 7-cup rice cooker |
Best rice cooker in Australia buying guide
If you’ve ever burnt rice to the bottom of a saucepan, or eaten cold rice because it was ready well before the rest of your meal, then a rice cooker is for you.
Whether you decide to buy one of the rice cookers listed above or something completely different, the things to look for when choosing a rice cooker are the same.
How much rice do you need?
The capacity of your rice cooker is the best starting point for choosing the perfect model for your needs.
It’s important to remember that the referenced capacity refers to uncooked rice, and rice typically doubles in size when cooked. So if you buy a 5-cup model, you’ll end up with about 10 cups of cooked rice in each batch.
Fuzzy logic?
There are a few different styles of rice cookers on the market. The cheaper, simpler models typically just bring the rice and water to boiling, then switches it off at the end of the allocated cooking time.
Some of the more advanced models incorporate “fuzzy logic”. This means that they use a small micro-processor on board to react to the current cooking situations to deliver a more precise result. For example, if the rice isn’t cooking as fast as normal on a cold day, it may increase the temperature.
Sealed or unsealed
When choosing a rice cooker, you should decide whether you want a sealed or unsealed model. Unsealed models have lids that sit loosely on top of the cooker.
They are typically cheaper, and easier to clean, though the fact they don’t seal means that the rice cooker is probably going to leave a bunch of starchy mess on your bench top.
Sealed models keep all that mess inside, but that means they can be a bit more fiddly to clean properly.
Ease of use
Rice cookers are designed to be easy to use by their very nature. But look for features like non-stick bowls and dishwasher-safe components to help make the cleaning just as simple.
You also want controls to be clearly labeled so you don’t accidentally set your white rice on the brown rice setting.
Price
While high-end rice cookers can set you back anywhere up to $350, the cheaper models typically cost around $50, and you can find them cheaper than that as well.
For the most part, they will all do a reasonable job of cooking rice effortlessly.
Update history
- 13 April 2023 – First Published
- 16 October 2023 – Updated the number of recommendations for products. Added the Panasonic SRDF181WST 1.8L Rice Cooker and the Breville The Set and Serve rice cooker. Removed the Philips Grain Master HD4514/72 and TEFAL RK732 Rice and Slow Cooker.
