Russell Hobbs 12711 > Reviews > Russell Hobbs-You are what you eat-digital steamer

Author's product rating:   

Performance	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Durability	Short
User's Manual	Good
Value for money	Good

Advantages:	Good value for money, good options, easy to use, easily storable
Disadvantages:	Basket layers are not strong and falls of easily .  .  .  .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Recently there was an offer on Rusell Hobbs - You are what you eat digital steamer (AS seen on TV) on offer at Sainsburys. I bought it for around 18 pounds. I saw a similar offer on tesco direct webpage but realised that it was not digital so chose the Sainsburys one.

It's a three tier- digital steamer with oval baskets that has detachable layers. The baskets are numbered and can be stacked in reverse order to save space. It came with a rice bowl and a nice recipe book. It has chord storage and the electronic timer delay function. I have not tried the timer delay yet.

The cooking time can be increased or decreased by 5 minutes by pressing the +/- buttons. The steamer keeps the food warm after the completion of cooking. The externally visible waterlevel indicator is very useful. There seems to be auto cut off if the steamer runs out of water during the cooking process however filling the water upto max lets it steam for 45 minutes without need for refill. The excess water from steam gets collected in a separate tray.

The food tastes great and I have enjoyed cooking with it.

Disadvantages are that rice takes very long to cook ....ie., it takes about 45 minutes to cook completely...whereas my electric rice cooker would do it in 15 minutes max. Also, the top layer of rice gets very hard once taken out and if left out for a bit long. (So I dont use it to cook rice these days...)

However, lentils cook fantastic and is hassle free in steamer. It's an easy way to cook multiple items simultaneously....

Another disadvantage is the durability of the basket layers....its not strong enough to hold more than 4-5 potatoes....The layer comes off automatically without any effort and i am not sure if it's a faulty one or if there is a flaw in the design. The layers clip to the basket on both sides with very small snapclip...and it doesnt seem strong at all..

The rest of the steamer...i cannot complain...and i am very happy with the purchase.