| Temperature: - Rice cooker: Cooks until water evaporates/absorbs, then warms
- Crock pot: Cooks at a steady temperature, usually for items immersed in a liquid (for water, that's generally around boiling temperature), without evaporating the liquid. In general, more convenient to keep the liquid at a fixed temperature.
- Crock pot (Expensive ones): Can set specific temperature (instead of just boiling or low/high) Evaporation: - Crock pot: Tends to minimize it, for long periods of cooking items in liquid - Rice cooker: Minimizing evaporation not a concern/engineering-constraint Insulation (insulation of heat in total; not about ergonomics): - Crock pot: Generally better insulation/less-heat-loss, as it is used for long periods of cooking - Rice cooker: Insulation a much lesser concern as expected period of use is smaller - Insulation affects energy consumption Pot material: - Crock pot: offers a variety of pot material - Rice cooker: generally metal (sometimes with coating) - Affects what leeches into the food - Insulation characteristics can be better or worse (energy consumption) - Cleaning costs (weight, handling, sticking) - Heat distribution across the food (fine detail that isn't relevant to someone who asks this) - Retention of flavours/substances on pot surface and in pot (probably fine detail as well) - Reactions with food (fine detail) Cost: - About the same cost for the same size and quality (similar components: thermostat + feedback circuit + heating element + pot + insulation) - Rice cookers are a bit simpler because it has only 1 temperature setting (something set a bit above boiling point of water) => simpler = cheaper - Rice cookers are simpler because they do not need to minimize evaporation => simpler = cheaper - Rice cookers are simpler because they have lower priorities on insulation => simpler = cheaper If you cook soup/stew overnight with a rice cooker, you'll need to start with a lot of excess water, and end up with much higher electricity bills. |