Zojirushi NW-QAQ Review: IH Heating, Three White Rice Settings, and What the Steaming Basket Really Does

Last updated: 27 October 2026

The Zojirushi NW-QAQ is the induction-heating (IH) rice cooker in the Zojirushi range, and the model we point to when someone wants a clear step up from a micom cooker without going to pressure. Induction heats the whole inner pot rather than a plate under it, which cooks a full pot more evenly; and the QAQ is the one Zojirushi here with three white rice settings — Regular, Softer and Harder — so the same rice can be dialled to the dish. It is made in Japan.

This review works through what the cooker does, how long each menu takes, what IH changes over a micom cooker, how the steaming basket and Slow Cook really work, and who should buy the 5.5-cup NW-QAQ10 or the 10-cup NW-QAQ18. Every figure below comes from the Zojirushi operating manual supplied with the Australian model.

1. Who the NW-QAQ is for

The NW-QAQ is an IH micom cooker: microcomputer control, with induction heating of the whole inner pot instead of a heating plate at the base. It sits between the micom NL-GAQ below it and the pressure IH NW-YAQ above, and shares most of its menu list with both.

It is the cooker for a household that cooks a full or near-full pot often — that is where induction's even heating shows — and for anyone who wants to set rice texture from the panel rather than by nudging the water line. If you mostly cook a cup or two of white rice, the GAQ cooks it well for less and steams a dish at the same time. If rice texture is the whole point and brown rice is on the menu most weeks, the YAQ's pressure is the next step. If you want IH at a lower price, the Tiger JPW-G is the other IH cooker we stock.

2. Functions and cooking times

Twelve settings on the panel: three white rice textures, seven other rice and grain menus, Steam and Slow Cook. Times are Zojirushi's estimates at 230 V, 20°C room temperature and 18°C water, measured from the start of cooking to the switch to Keep Warm. A full pot runs toward the top of each range.

Three things to read from the table. First, the three white settings are really three cooking times: Harder is the quickest at 44 to 50 minutes, Softer the slowest at 60 to 66, and Regular sits between. Second, IH does not make brown rice faster — 85 to 92 minutes is the same as the micom GAQ; only pressure does that. Third, GABA Brown is a three-hour cycle, so plan it for the afternoon or use the timer. For how the QAQ compares with every other model we stock, see the full cooking time table.

3. What IH changes

A micom cooker heats from a plate under the pot, so heat enters at the base and works upward. Induction turns the whole inner pot into the heating element, so the sides heat as well as the bottom. With a cup or two of rice the difference is small. With a full pot — five cups in the QAQ10, ten in the QAQ18 — it is the difference between rice that is a little drier at the top than the bottom, and rice that is the same all the way through. That is the practical case for IH, and it is why we steer full-pot households to it and small-batch households away from paying for it.

Three white rice settings. Regular is the standard. Softer runs about eight minutes longer, for a stickier grain that suits onigiri and most Japanese home cooking. Harder runs about eight minutes shorter, for rice with less stickiness and less elasticity — fried rice, sushi rice before seasoning, bento that will be eaten cold. The manual's own water-line advice still applies on top of these: a millimetre or two below the line for firmer, above for softer, and less water for new-crop rice. Quick cuts the soak and finishes in 25 to 37 minutes; the manual notes the texture may be slightly harder.

The measuring cup is 180 ml, not a metric cup, and one level cup cooks about two restaurant-sized bowls. Water lines inside the pot are numbered for each menu — fill to the line for the menu you chose, on a flat surface. The manual says rice can be cooked immediately after rinsing; soaking beforehand softens it.

4. Steaming and Slow Cook

Both are real functions, and both need a plain statement of what they are.

Steam. The basket sits on the inner pot over 540 ml of water (three measuring cups) on the QAQ10, or 720 ml (four cups) on the QAQ18, and the Steam menu runs 1 to 60 minutes, default 40. Food must sit no higher than 4 cm in the QAQ10 basket or 7 cm in the QAQ18 — the MAX line is marked on the basket. The manual's timing guide covers the things people actually steam: broccoli 15 minutes, a 200 g carrot 20, a 450 g potato 40, a 300 g sweet potato 35, corn 30, a 300 g chicken fillet 30, a 150 g fish fillet in foil 25, prawns in the shell 20, and refrigerated dumplings or buns 15. Keep Warm does not run after steaming — remove the food when the melody plays, or it goes soggy.

What it is not: it does not steam while rice cooks. The basket replaces the rice, not sits above it. That is the one thing the cheaper NL-GAQ does that the QAQ does not, and if "rice and a steamed side together" is the reason you are buying, the GAQ is the right cooker. On the QAQ, steaming is a second cycle after the rice, or a stand-in for a stovetop steamer when the stove is busy.

Slow Cook brings the pot to the boil and holds a simmer for the time you set, from 1 minute to 4 hours, default 1 hour. It suits soups and gently simmered dishes — the manual's chicken and shiitake soup runs an hour — and a stock you want to leave alone. It is not a pressure cooker or a stovetop: the manual rules out thick dishes such as curry and stews, anything with baking soda, processed fish products that expand, beans, hard ingredients such as ribs, and large amounts of oil. Fill no higher than the SLOW COOK MAX line, mix seasonings in well so they do not settle and scorch, and take the food out when it finishes — the cooker beeps every 30 minutes until you press Cancel, and slow-cooked food cannot be kept warm or reheated in the cooker.

5. The menus you will actually use

Most households use three: one of the White settings for everyday rice, Quick when dinner is late, and Brown or Congee depending on the household. The second White setting is the one worth exploring on this cooker — try Softer for a week and Harder for a week and keep the one the household prefers. GABA Brown, Quinoa and Steel Cut Oatmeal are useful if you eat them.

Two rules from the manual that save a mess. The Congee, Quinoa and Steel Cut Oatmeal water lines use far more water than the rice lines, so never cook those water levels on another menu, or it boils over through the steam vent — and the cooker does not remember those three menus, so you select them each time. For mixed rice with ingredients, the manual's recipe uses the Brown menu with ingredients placed on top of the rice, not mixed in, and limits the rice to 1 to 4 cups on the QAQ10 or 2 to 6 on the QAQ18. There is no Mixed menu on the panel.

6. Keep Warm and Reheat

The cooker switches to Keep Warm automatically when rice finishes. There are two modes. Regular Keep Warm holds the rice at a slightly higher temperature, so it develops odours less easily, and is rated to 12 hours. Extended Keep Warm holds it slightly lower, which reduces drying and yellowing, and is rated to 24 hours — twice what the micom Zojirushi models allow. You switch between them with the KEEP WARM button while the light is on. After the rated time the hours display blinks as a warning.

Only white rice keeps well. Brown, GABA Brown and Multi Grain allow Regular Keep Warm only; Congee, Quinoa and Steel Cut Oatmeal should not be kept warm at all, nor should anything from the Steam or Slow Cook menus.

Adjusting the Keep Warm temperature

This setting is in the back pages of the manual, not on the panel, so most owners never find it. The Keep Warm temperature can be raised or lowered in seven steps, from −3 to +3. Raise it if rice develops an odour; lower it if rice dries out or yellows. The setting is kept after you change it, even when the cooker is unplugged.

1. With the cooker plugged in and idle, press and hold MENU for about 3 seconds until you hear three beeps and the current setting blinks (0 by default).
2. Press ▲ or ▼ to choose a setting from −3 to +3.
3. Press MENU to confirm.

Our own habit, and the manual's advice: keep warm as briefly as you can. Fluff the rice as soon as it finishes, portion what you will not eat into containers and refrigerate, then use Reheat or a microwave later. The manual is candid that odours and bacteria can develop during long Keep Warm depending on cleaning, room temperature and how often the lid is opened.

Reheat

Reheat brings kept-warm rice back to serving temperature in about 4 to 8 minutes — most useful after Extended Keep Warm, which holds the rice cooler. Loosen the rice first, and for a small amount add a tablespoon of water per bowl and gather it toward the centre of the pot. It works only while the KEEP WARM light is on, only for white rice, and not if the pot is more than half full (above water line 3 on the QAQ10, line 6 on the QAQ18). Do not reheat twice, and do not reheat rice that has gone cold.

7. The timer

Two preset timers, Timer 1 and Timer 2, each storing a finish time — 6:00 and 18:00 from the factory, so one for breakfast and one for dinner. You set the time you want the rice ready, not a delay. The timer is not available on the Quick, Multi Grain, Steam or Slow Cook menus, and the manual says not to set it 13 hours or more ahead, or 8 hours or more in hot weather, because the rice sits soaking in the meantime. The earliest the timer can finish is the menu's cooking time plus a soak: about 1 hour 10 minutes for White Regular, 1 hour for Harder, 1 hour 40 for Brown, and 3 hours 25 for GABA Brown — which is the practical way to use that menu.

8. Drawbacks — who should not buy it

• The basket does not steam with rice. It is a separate cycle. The cheaper NL-GAQ steams a dish over white rice as it cooks; the QAQ cannot.
• IH shows at full capacity, not at one cup. If you cook small batches, you are paying for evenness you will rarely see.
• Brown rice is no faster than a micom. 85 to 92 minutes; pressure (the NW-YAQ) is what shortens it.
• Not the fastest white rice. Quick is 25 to 37 minutes; a conventional Tiger JNP cooks a small batch in about 15.
• Nothing is dishwasher safe — inner pot, inner lid set, basket, spatula and cup are all hand wash.
• Cooling between pots. A second pot straight after the first needs 45 minutes of cooling, or the cycle runs up to an hour longer; the manual's shortcut is to fill the inner pot with cold water and set it in the body.

9. 5.5 cups or 10 cups?

Decide by the smallest amount you cook, not the largest. The QAQ10 cooks from half a cup; the QAQ18 cooks from 1 cup of white rice but needs 2 cups on the Brown, GABA Brown, Multi Grain and Quinoa menus. For one or two people, or a family that cooks 2 to 3 cups a night, the QAQ10 is the right size. Choose the QAQ18 if you regularly cook 5 cups or more — and note that its steaming basket takes food up to 7 cm high against 4 cm on the QAQ10, which matters for dumplings and buns.

Allow for the lid: the QAQ10 needs 44 cm of clearance when open, the QAQ18 49.5 cm, so neither fits under a standard overhead cupboard with the lid up. The manual also rules out use on an aluminium sheet, an electric carpet or on top of an induction hob.

10. Cleaning, self-cleaning and parts

After every use: wash the inner pot, the basket and the spatula with a neutral detergent and a soft sponge, pull the inner lid set off by its knob and wash and dry it, and wipe the inside of the outer lid, the steam vent and its gasket with a wrung-out cloth. Check the small hole in the inner lid seal gasket is not blocked, and clear any rice from the lid hooks and side sensor with a bamboo skewer. Nothing goes in the dishwasher. The air intake and exhaust ducts underneath want a vacuum once a month. The basket may stain from carrots or leafy greens; the manual says this is harmless.

Self-Cleaning. The QAQ has a 50-minute steam cycle for odours: water to white line 1 (QAQ10) or 2 (QAQ18), hold TIMER for 1.5 seconds, press START. The manual is honest that it reduces odours rather than removing them. It is also the fix for the resin smell of a new cooker, and the manual recommends it after steaming fish or meat.

Parts. The nonstick coating will eventually wear — the manual says this is harmless and does not affect cooking — and the inner pot is a replaceable part: B643-6B for the QAQ10, B644-6B for the QAQ18. Keep a second one and you can slow cook or steam while the rice pot is in use. The inner lid set (C248-GR / C249-GR) and the steaming basket are also replaceable. A lithium battery inside keeps the clock and menu settings when the cooker is unplugged; it wears out with use and is replaced by a service agent.

11. Frequently asked questions

12. Verdict

Buy the NW-QAQ for even rice from a full pot and for the three white rice settings. Induction is the step that makes ten cups come out the same from top to bottom, and the Softer and Harder settings let a household settle its own argument about rice without touching the water line. The steaming basket and Slow Cook are useful extras, taken for what they are: separate cycles, not something that happens while the rice cooks.

Skip it if you cook small batches, where the NL-GAQ gives you the same menus plus steaming over rice for less; or if rice texture and brown rice are the priority, where the NW-YAQ's pressure is worth the extra. Between the two sizes, the QAQ10 suits most households; the QAQ18 is for families cooking 5 cups or more, or anyone who steams dumplings and buns, for its taller basket.

Zojirushi NW-QAQ10 — 5.5 cups · Zojirushi NW-QAQ18 — 10 cups

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If you would like to discuss whether the NW-QAQ suits you, contact us any time, or visit us in Chatswood, Sydney to see it beside the other models.

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