Others say...

"GREAT!!!"
The thermal cooker is a GREAT cooking pot. It saves you cooking time and uses very little energy. The food turns out to be moist and tender. In fact it is so good that I ordered three more thermal cooker as gift to friends.

e.chang

"very useful cookware"
In Taiwan and Japan, almost every kitchen is equipped with a thermal cooking pot and this one is the most popular one in Taiwan. But you have to pay more if you buy it there. So far, I have tried beef stew and braised pig hocks and they came out beautifully. This pot is good for anything that you have to cook for a long time, because you can cook the food in the inner pot for a short time, then put it in the outer pot and "forget about it". My friend cooks multi-grain porridge in the inner pot for 15 minutes and put it in the outer pot for the night and enjoys very hot delicious porridge in the morning. The trick is you have to fill it with liquid (water) almost to the top in order for the thermal process to function to the fullest extent.

"This product is AWESOME!!"
This is my first Amazon review, but the product performed well beyond my expectations, I had to let you all know. I just received it this morning and cooked my first stew for dinner tonight. Everything was cooked perfectly. The meat so tender, I cut it with the spoon. The veggies were cooked perfectly including the potatoes (they weren't overcooked like I get when I do the stew in the crockpot.) I followed the earlier review's advice and let it boil for about 30 minutes before putting it in the thermal enclosure and let it sit for in there for about 6 hours. Just as a test, we took the stew's temperature when we opened it and it was 160 F. I especially liked it because I was able to perfectly season everything before I let it sit for the day. Usually with the crockpot, I have to taste and season just before serving. On a hot day, this was also great because it did not add heat to our kitchen like a stove top stew or crockpot stew would have.

"Top of the line..."
OK. Admittedly, I don't do much of the cooking around the house, but my wife makes great soups using this Thermal Pot.

Now... I'm not giving this pot a 5 out of 5 rating because of the great soups. I'm giving it because IF you use this cooking pot correctly, it will save you time and energy.

When I first met my wife, she owned one of these pots (which she bought many years before in Hong Kong). It was also a Zojirushi. However, she got careless one day and left it on the stove while going to bed. Needless to say, she destroyed the pot. (Can't blame the pot for that) She claimed that under normal use... She would leave it on the stove top BOILING for 1/2 an hour and then put it into the thermal container before going to bed. In the morning, it would still be boiling (or close to boiling) and the soup would be great.

So.... The pot was destroyed. She decided to buy another, but could no longer find a Zojirushi (They don't sell them in Canada) She decided to buy a Shuttle Chef. Crap! The soup was barely warm in the morning. She thought she made an error and didn't boil it long enough. Next time she tried... Same thing. It couldn't retain the heat. Well... it was just a matter of time before she left that pot on the stove before going to bed and completely destroyed that pot as well. (Oh... By the way, I have smoke alarms that don't work I found out that night!)

Anyway... to put this long story to rest, I found this Zojirushi thermal cooking pot on Amazon that almost resembled her original pot. I decided to buy it as a Christmas present for my wife. She was estatic and started to use it immediately. (This time I always check the stove before going to bed myself!) Anyway.... We placed the pot in the thermal container overnight and... voila! A steamy hot pot in the morning, just like it's suppose to be.

This pot will work if used properly. A lot of people make the mistake of taking the pot off of the stove immediately when the contents boil. This is not sufficient time for the bottom plates to store the heat. (There are 3 layers on the bottom) You must leave it on the stove top for 1/2 an hour (while boiling) and this will ensure continual heat while inside the thermal container.

Wow... I wrote quite a bit!
Anyway, Here's the summary:

Zojirushi - 5 stars (if used properly)
Shuttle Chef - 1 star (even if you use it properly)

Boiling on stove for 1/2 an hour before placing in thermal pot - GOOD.
Leaving pot on stove overnight - BAD!

"Soups, yes...Slow Cooker, no"
I purchased the thermal cooking pot as a gift for my husband. He loved our old slow cooker that finally gave up the ghost. We used it for roasts, chili, soups, stews, burrito meat, and inexpensive cuts of meats.

I knew that this pot would do just fine with chili and stews, thanks to the excellent reviews already written. So, I wanted to try it out with our other slow cooker favorites. I grabbed some vegetable broth and a roast, placed them into the cook pot, and had to guess as to the time for beef (there are no beef recipes in the booklet nor online). Based on the 20m suggested for pork, I cooked the beef on our cooktop for 35m. From here, it went into the outer sleeve and was left all day. After 9 hours, I opened up the lid to find that the beef looked lovely! Gravy was made, roast on the table, kids ready to eat...bright red & bloody on the inside of the beef. (It was a leftover pasta night after that.)

I wrote to Zojirushi to see where I had gone wrong and received:
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It all depends on how you like your beef. Do you like it well-done and coming apart? Or do you prefer it somewhat rare? The unit acts more as a thermal heater so cook the meat on the stove until your liking and then you can take it off the heat source and seal it and it will continue to simmer. There is no exact time. ~Jerry Brewington, Zojirushi America Corp., Customer Service
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Unfortunately, I don't *want* to cook the beef on the stove to my liking and then put it in the thermal pot. I want the thermal pot to behave like the slow cooker it is advertised as. I wrote back:
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I fear I'm still a bit confused. The Zojirushi website states, "this Stainless Thermal Cooking Pot works like a crock pot" and "Just heat up the contents in the inner pan directly on the stove, place the inner pan inside the outer body, seal and the contents will continue to cook by its own heat." The recipe booklet tells us to cook various meats, such as chicken or pork, for 10-20 minutes prior to sealing in the Grandgourmet. The meat is to finish cooking inside the unit, as this small amount of time on the cooktop would not be sufficient on its own.

If I were to cook the meat on the stove to my liking, doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a cooking pot that works like a slow cooker? At that point isn't it no longer a cooking pot, but a warmer?

In the morning, I used to place an inch or so of vegetable stock in our slow cooker, place a 5 lb roast inside, add vegetables and turn the pot on low. By that evening, the roast was done.

How do I achieve this with the Grandgourmet? How long should I simmer the roast on the cooktop?
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Jerry's kind reply:
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10 to 20 minutes of cooking will be fine. That is enough heat to fully cook the contents off of the heat source.
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Unfortunately, the above described fiasco tells me that 10-20m of cooking time is insufficient. And so, the cooking pot will be returned to Amazon. I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't able to fully live up to the description.

So, if you're looking for a true slow cooker I suggest that you skip this product. However, if you only require something for soups and stews, this thermal pot should be excellent.