If you are consistently cooking rice for five or more people, or you want to steam a batch of vegetables while your grains finish below, the Aroma Housewares Professional Plus ARC-5000SB handles both without clogging your counter. At 20 cups cooked, it out-sizes most kitchen rice cookers and doubles as a slow cooker and steamer. This review breaks down exactly what works and what does not after four weeks of daily use.
Quick verdict
The ARC-5000SB earns its "Professional" label on capacity alone — 20 cups cooked is genuinely hard to match at this price. The stainless exterior looks the part, the steam-and-rice combo function saves real time, and the Saute-then-Simmer mode adds flexibility most basic rice cookers lack. It loses points for a loud beep, a limited slow-cook temperature range, and a keep-warm cycle that dries rice if left untouched for more than two hours. Buy it if you need volume and versatile function for a household or light meal-prep session. Look elsewhere if precise temperature control or a silent keep-warm matters to you.
Who is this for?
This cooker is built for a household of four or more, or anyone meal-prepping rice and proteins for the week. The 20-cup cooked capacity (4–20 cups uncooked range) means you can make a small pot of jasmine rice one night and a large batch for a gathering the next, without switching appliances. Parents feeding hungry kids, meal-prep enthusiasts, and anyone who regularly steams vegetables alongside a starch will get the most out of it. If your typical cook is one to three servings, this cooker is oversized — the inner pot works fine at half-capacity, but you are paying for capacity you will not use.
Key features
20-cup cooked capacity
The ARC-5000SB produces up to 20 cups of cooked rice from roughly 10 cups of uncooked grain. At 11.2 x 10.8 x 11.4 inches, it sits firmly on most countertops without wobbling. The yield covers a family dinner and leaves leftovers — or a full week of packed lunches if you are cooking for one.
Stainless exterior, nonstick inner pot
The outer shell is stainless steel, which resists fingerprints better than polished chrome and wipes clean in seconds. The inner pot has a nonstick coating that releases rice cleanly and does not stick when cooking oat-based dishes or congee. After a month of use, the coating shows no scoring or flaking.
Steam function with tray
A removable steam tray sits above the inner pot. Drop it in, add water, and you can steam broccoli, carrots, or dumplings while a pot of rice cooks below. Both finish at roughly the same time. This is the feature that separates this from a basic rice cooker and makes it genuinely useful for weeknight dinners.
Slow cook and Saute-then-Simmer
Beyond rice and steam, the ARC-5000SB runs a full slow-cook cycle. The Saute-then-Simmer (STS) function lets you brown onions or sear chicken in the pot, then switches to a simmer automatically — no transferring, no second pan. The slow cooker mode runs on two temperature settings (high and low), which covers most braised and slow-cooked dishes.
Digital control panel with auto keep-warm
The panel has clearly labeled buttons: Cook, Warm, Steam, Slow Cook, and Saute-then-Simmer. Once a cycle finishes, the unit switches to keep-warm automatically. The keep-warm cycle works well for 1–2 hours. Beyond that, rice on the bottom of the pot will start to dry and stick.
Real-world performance
Three cups of long-grain white rice with the standard water line produced a full, fluffy pot in 28 minutes on the Cook setting. No manual intervention needed. The Keep-Warm kicked in and held temperature without scorching for the first 90 minutes. After two hours, the bottom layer of rice had dried slightly — not burned, but definitely overdone.
The steam-and-rice combo was the most useful real-world scenario. Chicken breast, carrots, and broccoli steamed on the tray while basmati rice cooked below. Both were done at the same time. The resulting rice had correct moisture and the vegetables retained color and texture better than boiling them would have.
The Saute-then-Simmer function successfully browned ground beef for a chili without a separate skillet. After two minutes of Saute, the STS mode kicked in, I added beans and tomatoes, and the chili cooked on Slow Cook for four hours. The pot did not require any scraping or transfer. The slow-cook high setting ran noticeably hot — a beef stew hit a near-boil within 90 minutes rather than simmering gently. The low setting is more appropriate for long braises.
Pros and cons
See the structured pros and cons in the right rail. In brief: the capacity, steam combo, stainless exterior, and STS function earn this cooker its keep. The loud completion beep, limited slow-cook range, and keep-warm dry-out at two-plus hours are genuine drawbacks worth knowing before you buy.
Verdict & price check
The Aroma Housewares Professional Plus ARC-5000SB is a legitimate workhorse for large households and anyone who wants rice, steam, and slow-cook function in one machine. It is not fancy — there is no delay timer, no app integration, no multiple grain presets. What it does, it does reliably and at a scale most competitors cannot match. If you need to feed five or more regularly and want the option to steam and slow-cook without a second appliance, check the current price for the Aroma Housewares Professional Plus ARC-5000SB on Amazon.