Our Place Rice Cooker review: $139 for six cooked cups, two sensors and a 380 W element

Two sensors, and Our Place says where they are. “Fuzzy logic technology, dual-sensor temperature monitoring, heated lid” is the Features line; the FAQ puts it plainly: “Two built-in sensors, one in the lid, one in the base, continuously monitor steam and heat.” It was designed “with chef and expert Kenji López-Alt”, Our Place says.

Six modes with names, not a dial. White Rice, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Quick Cook, Custom and Warm. Quick Cook is “up to 20% faster” and, by Our Place's own FAQ, slightly firmer because the soak is skipped. Custom runs from 5 minutes to 2 hours in 1-minute steps, for quinoa, farro, barley and congee. Warm holds “for up to 24 hours”; the delay timer runs to 24 hours too.

The coating statement is a list. “Ceramic nonstick (made without PFAS, PTFE, PFOA, lead, or cadmium)” for the inner pot; a stainless steel inner lid; a cup of “food-grade silicone, BPA-free and BPS-free”. The exterior is “plastic”, in one word.

Everything in the box is named. Cooker, inner pot, inner lid liner, removable power cord, beechwood paddle and a 180 mL grains cup. At 4.8 lb and 11.22 × 9.63 × 7.56 inches it is lighter and lower than the Dream Cooker, at 12.9 lb and 15.2 inches tall.

Three cups uncooked, in a cup three-quarters the size of yours. The limits are “3 cups uncooked” for white or brown rice and “1.5 cups uncooked” for oatmeal. The cup in the box is 180 mL, “equal to ¾ of a standard cup”, and the page does not say which cup the limits count. Three supplied cups is 540 mL, about 2.3 standard cups of dry rice.

The Dream Cooker's specification has no rice mode. Its Modes line, read the same day, is “Pressure Cook, Slow Cook, Saute/Sear, Keep Warm”. Its meta description calls it a “6-in-1 multicooker: pressure cook, slow cook, saute, steam, warm, and make rice”; its capacity line says it “can fit: 9 cups of rice”. So $199 buys the larger pot and no rice button; $139 buys White Rice and Brown Rice buttons, two sensors and a 3-cup uncooked limit. Those are the two pages' claims.

One timer line, two timers. The specification's timer “ranges from as low as 5 minutes (in Custom mode) to up to 24 hours”; the FAQ says Custom runs “from 5 minutes to 2 hours”. The 24 hours is the delay timer and the Warm hold.

The dishwasher rating covers the lid liner, not the pot. “Inner lid liner: dishwasher safe”; the pot gets “warm, soapy water”; the unit is never submerged; no “abrasive cleaners, steel wool, and metal utensils” on the coating.