My Supor SY-18YA9061 and Midea white 1.8L pressure-cooker comparison: rice texture and release controls

Personal review for reference only.

I am preparing to study in Australia, so I bought my study-abroad essentials during the 618 shopping festival. As someone who loves rice, I definitely needed a rice cooker that could make good rice.

I struggled to choose between them. I wanted to make good rice and also be able to cook hot pot with the lid open. Supor’s green cooker is very popular online, but reviews were extremely divided. Midea’s white cooker was another suitable candidate, so I bought both to compare.

Purchase channel and prices: I bought both from JD.com’s self-operated store. After combining orders and applying discounts, the white Midea cost 158 yuan and the green Supor cost about 157 yuan.

Size: Both are roughly the same height, approximately 25–30 cm, but the white cooker is noticeably more substantial. I measured the diameters at about 24 cm for the white cooker and 20 cm for the green cooker; these were hand measurements and may contain errors.

Weight: The white cooker weighs 3 kg and the green cooker 2.6 kg.

Out-of-box feel: Both have plastic exteriors, but the white cooker feels well made and looks attractive, while the green cooker feels noticeably cheaper. I cooked with both for the first time; the green cooker had a plastic smell, while the white one did not.

Cooking time: The white cooker uses a digital control panel. Its rice setting offers 25-, 30- and 40-minute options, which means that, regardless of how much rice you cook, the minimum is 25 minutes. I chose the 25-minute setting. The green cooker uses a mechanical rotary dial with a wider range of adjustable times. Its rice setting shows 10 minutes, and I turned it slightly further, to about 14 minutes.

Steam release: I manually released the pressure on both. With the green cooker, I had to keep pressing the control, while with the white cooker I could move the steam valve to one side and leave it there.

Rice texture: I cooked half a bowl of rice in each cooker for 25 and 14 minutes respectively. The white cooker’s rice was very good—soft, sticky and pleasantly cohesive. When I opened the green cooker, I thought it had too much water because the rice looked wetter, but after serving it I found it relatively firm. The centers of the grains were slightly hard, though the rice was not undercooked and was still edible. Without a comparison, the difference would not have felt so obvious.

Additional test: To make the comparison fair, I then cooked the same amount of rice in the green cooker for 25 minutes. The rice was no longer hard and tasted better than the 14-minute batch, but it was still not as springy and pleasant as the white cooker’s rice.

Summary

Midea white cooker: Its strengths are very good rice, a better-quality feel, steam release without having to keep pressing, less worry about touching hot steam, and delayed start.

Its weaknesses are that it is slightly larger and heavier, and the cooking time is somewhat long because it takes at least 25 minutes regardless of how much rice you cook.

Supor green cooker: Its strengths are its compact size, portability and adjustable cooking time. It can cook rice in 10 minutes, which really appeals to me.

Its weaknesses are inconsistent quality, an ordinary feel, no delayed start, and rice that was not as tasty as the white cooker’s.

Overall, if you care a lot about rice, go straight for the white Midea. For more general needs, the green Supor is adequate. I hope I come back as a good cook.