Is the Aroma rice cooker reset really just an unplug cycle?

[Thomas Martinez]

Seeing as how a few peoples have asked about resetting their Aroma rice cookers I thought I'd look into whether or not there is a reset button/combination to these devices. There is not. All you have to do is unplug the cooker for a second or two and then plug it back in. This will reset the device to its default settings.
It's kind of underwhelming as a reset procedure but I suppose that's what you get with a rice cooker with such basic controls to it. There is no backup battery to these devices nor are there any settings that the cooker can remember, therefore plugging in the cooker will reset the device.
However, if any of you who have opened these cookers up have found any memory chips within the rice cooker, I am very curious as to whether or not these devices use any memory to store the cooker's failure modes. If the cooker is failing after simply plugging it back in after unplugging, that may indicate a hardware failure with the cooker rather than a software failure within the rice cookers control board.

 

[Bewildered Bat]

yeah unplug is the whole reset. I opened up an arc-914 a couple years ago and there's basically nothing in there worth holding state. Just a microcontroller, the relay, thermal fuse, and the temp sensor on the bottom plate.

 

[Proud]

If a power cycle doesn't fix it 9 times out of 10 it's the thermal fuse. They pops and people think the cooker is dead.

 

[Tough Turtle]

yeah unplug is the whole reset. I opened up an arc-914 a couple years ago and there's basically nothing in there worth holding state. Just a microcontroller, the relay, thermal fuse, and the temp sensor on the bottom plate.

wait sothers literally no eeprom on these? not even for like a runtime counter or anything?

 

[Bewildered Bat]

wait sothers literally no eeprom on these? not even for like a runtime counter or anything?

on the cheap ones no, not that I saw. The digital ones with the fuzzy logic menus might have a tiny one but I doubt it stores fault codes, just maybe the last cook setting

 

[Breakable Bison]

people who think there's a secret button combo on a 30 dollars rice cooker crack me up

 

[Feverish Disco Dynasty]

thermal fuse is the answer like 95% of the time. Everyone wants it to be the board because the board sounds fancier but it's almost always the dumb little fuse on the heating element.

 

[Save Yourself]

thermal fuse is the answer like 95% of the time. Everyone wants it to be the board because the board sounds fancier but it's almost always the dumb little fuse on the heating element.

mine wouldnt turn on after a brownout and unplugging did nothing. Ended up being the fuse like the guy above said. 2 dollar part.

 

[Tough Turtle]

thermal fuse is the answer like 95% of the time. Everyone wants it to be the board because the board sounds fancier but it's almost always the dumb little fuse on the heating element.

how do you even test the thermal fuse without pulling the whole bottom off? continuity check from the plug?

 

[Feverish Disco Dynasty]

how do you even test the thermal fuse without pulling the whole bottom off? continuity check from the plug?

nah you gotta pull the bottom plate. 4 screws usually. Then probe the fuse leads directly with a multimeter on continuity. If it beeps it's good, if not its blown.

 

[Courageous Cat]

underwhelming reset procedures is kind of the norm for small appliances tbh. My toaster oven's reset is also just unplug it lol

 

[Proud]

underwhelming reset procedures is kind of the norm for small appliances tbh. My toaster oven's reset is also just unplug it lol

Yeah and honestly that's a good thing. Less garbage firmware to get stuck in a weird state.

 

[Misty Mandrill]

i mean what did you expect, konami code on a rice cooker

 

[Tough Turtle]

is the thermal fuse usually soldered or does it have crimps? wondering if I could swap one without desoldering

 

[Bewildered Bat]

is the thermal fuse usually soldered or does it have crimps? wondering if I could swap one without desoldering

crimps with quick connects on most aromas I've seen. Easy swap if you have the right rated fuse, usually around 192C for these.

 

[Ingenious Dog Dre]

I cracked open an ARC-150SB last summer because my mother in law's was tripping out mid cook. There is zero non volatile memory on that thing. The MCU is a tiny 8 bit thing and once you kill power the slate is wiped. Her issue ended up being the magnetic thermostat at the bottom, the spring inside was weak so it wasn't latching properly when the bowl was loaded. 6 bucks new part on ebay and she's been cooking rice without tripping since. So yeah, if unplug doesn't fix it its a hardware issue.

 

[Breakable Bison]

I cracked open an ARC-150SB last summer because my mother in law's was tripping out mid cook. There is zero non volatile memory on that thing. The MCU is a tiny 8 bit thing and once you kill power the slate is wiped. Her issue ended up being the magnetic thermostat at the bottom,…

thank you for actually answering the question instead of just guessing

 

[Dull Dragonfly]

the line you're asking about is basically: power cycle didnt fix it = open it up. Theres no in between with these.

 

[Tough Turtle]

I cracked open an ARC-150SB last summer because my mother in law's was tripping out mid cook. There is zero non volatile memory on that thing. The MCU is a tiny 8 bit thing and once you kill power the slate is wiped. Her issue ended up being the magnetic thermostat at the bottom,…

magnetic thermostat? is that the click click thing that switches it from cook to warm? how does that even fail mechanically

 

[Ingenious Dog Dre]

magnetic thermostat? is that the click click thing that switches it from cook to warm? how does that even fail mechanically

yeah that's the one. It's a curie point magnet, when the rice reaches around 100C the magnetic switch loses its grip on the metal and the spring snaps the relay open. It wears out after 40 years of repeated spring action and arcing at the metal contacts. Classic failure.