The Aroma ARC-150SB looks good, and it cooks tasty rice. It has separate buttons for cooking white rice and brown rice. It also has settings for steaming food, slow cooking, keeping rice warm, delay timing and a power button. This Aroma 20-cup (cooked) rice cooker has maximum cooked rice capacity of 20 six-ounce cups. This makes it big enough for a family or a small gathering of people, but too much for a single person. Keep reading our Aroma ARC-150SB review to learn more about its features, likes and dislikes.
Aroma ARC-150SB: Features
Please note: it seems like the control panel of the Aroma ARC-150SB was updated some time ago. It now includes a “Flash Rice” cooking program for cooking rice even faster.
- 15-hour delay timer.
- Black & silver color scheme.
- Plastic steaming basket for steaming food.
- Aluminum cooking pot with a non-stick coating on the inside.
- Prepares a maximum of 20 cups (6-ounce cups) of cooked rice.
- Buttons for various functions: white rice, brown rice, flash rice, steam, slow cook and keep warm.
Aroma ARC-150SB: Overview
The Aroma ARC-150SB (silver & black color scheme) can cook 2 to 10 cups uncooked rice (6-ounce cups) to make approximately 4 to 20 cups of cooked rice for feeding a large family.
It has a control panel with indicator lights and a 15-hour delay timer button, number display and on/off button. The other buttons are for choosing white rice, brown rice, flash rice, steam, slow cook or keep warm functions.
It has a plastic steamer basket for steaming meat or vegetables while the rice is cooking below in the pot. The rice takes about 30 minutes to an hour to cook, depending on the type and quantity of rice, so you will have to add and remove the basket as needed to steam the vegetables.
If you do not want to cook rice but only steam vegetables, you can do that as well. Put in the water and steam tray with the food and press the steam button.
The inner cooking pot is made from aluminum and covered with a nonstick coating on the inside to reduce rice sticking to the bottom and to increase easy cleanup. You may clean it in the dishwasher, although this might reduce the lifespan of the nonstick coating. It is probably better to just soak it for a few minutes and then wipe it clean. The plastic lid has a hinge, so you cannot completely remove it for cleaning.
The rice cooker will cook the rice, make a beeping noise for a few seconds and then go into keep warm mode. The keep warm setting tends to burn or harden the rice after 30 minutes or more. To turn it off, press the on/off button.
Aroma ARC-150SB: Likes And Dislikes
- Affordable price.
- It steams vegetables in the steaming tray.
- It cooks brown rice well, even if it takes almost an hour or more to do so.
- Nonstick coating inside pot reduces rice sticking and makes cleaning much easier.
- The lid cannot be removed for cleaning.
- Its capacity is too big for a single person.
- It does not have a retractable power cord.
- The cup capacity is only about 3/4 of a standard 8-ounce cup.
Conclusion
The lid is not removable and is more difficult to keep clean than a glass lid would have been. Wipe it clean after each cooking session.
You also need to keep the steam vent clean. Washing and soaking the rice, especially brown rice, will help to reduce the chance of starchy water bubbling out of the steam vent and causing a mess.
It is too big for use by a single person, but for 2 or more people it will work just fine. Just be aware of the issue with the 6-ounce measuring cup capacity, which seems to be the deal with most rice cookers.
Overall, the rice is well cooked, not hard or squishy, and it steams vegetables to delicious dimensions. You will need to look far and wide to get a better rice cooker in this affordable price range (check price on Amazon).
Thank you for reading our review of the Aroma ARC-150SB 10-cup (uncooked) 20-cup (cooked) rice cooker and food steamer.