- Rice cooker: Cooks until water evaporates/absorbs, then warms
- Crock pot: Cooks at a steady temperature, usually for items immersed in a liquid (for water, that's generally around boiling temperature), without evaporating the liquid. In general, more convenient to keep the liquid at a fixed temperature.
- Crock pot (Expensive ones): Can set specific temperature (instead of just boiling or low/high)
Evaporation:
- Crock pot: Tends to minimize it, for long periods of cooking items in liquid
- Rice cooker: Minimizing evaporation not a concern/engineering-constraint
Insulation (insulation of heat in total; not about ergonomics):
- Crock pot: Generally better insulation/less-heat-loss, as it is used for long periods of cooking
- Rice cooker: Insulation a much lesser concern as expected period of use is smaller
- Insulation affects energy consumption
Pot material:
- Crock pot: offers a variety of pot material
- Rice cooker: generally metal (sometimes with coating)
- Affects what leeches into the food
- Insulation characteristics can be better or worse (energy consumption)
- Cleaning costs (weight, handling, sticking)
- Heat distribution across the food (fine detail that isn't relevant to someone who asks this)
- Retention of flavours/substances on pot surface and in pot (probably fine detail as well)
- Reactions with food (fine detail)
Cost:
- About the same cost for the same size and quality (similar components: thermostat + feedback circuit + heating element + pot + insulation)
- Rice cookers are a bit simpler because it has only 1 temperature setting (something set a bit above boiling point of water) => simpler = cheaper
- Rice cookers are simpler because they do not need to minimize evaporation => simpler = cheaper
- Rice cookers are simpler because they have lower priorities on insulation => simpler = cheaper
If you cook soup/stew overnight with a rice cooker, you'll need to start with a lot of excess water, and end up with much higher electricity bills.
- Rice cooker: Cooks until water evaporates/absorbs, then warms - Crock pot: Cooks at a steady temperature, usually for items immersed in a liquid (for water, that's generally around boiling temperature), without evaporating the liquid. In general, more convenient to keep the liquid at a fixed temperature. - Crock pot (Expensive ones): Can set specific temperature (instead of just boiling or low/high)
Evaporation:
- Crock pot: Tends to minimize it, for long periods of cooking items in liquid
- Rice cooker: Minimizing evaporation not a concern/engineering-constraint
Insulation (insulation of heat in total; not about ergonomics):
- Crock pot: Generally better insulation/less-heat-loss, as it is used for long periods of cooking
- Rice cooker: Insulation a much lesser concern as expected period of use is smaller
- Insulation affects energy consumption
Pot material:
- Crock pot: offers a variety of pot material
- Rice cooker: generally metal (sometimes with coating)
- Affects what leeches into the food
- Insulation characteristics can be better or worse (energy consumption)
- Cleaning costs (weight, handling, sticking)
- Heat distribution across the food (fine detail that isn't relevant to someone who asks this)
- Retention of flavours/substances on pot surface and in pot (probably fine detail as well)
- Reactions with food (fine detail)
Cost:
- About the same cost for the same size and quality (similar components: thermostat + feedback circuit + heating element + pot + insulation)
- Rice cookers are a bit simpler because it has only 1 temperature setting (something set a bit above boiling point of water) => simpler = cheaper
- Rice cookers are simpler because they do not need to minimize evaporation => simpler = cheaper
- Rice cookers are simpler because they have lower priorities on insulation => simpler = cheaper
If you cook soup/stew overnight with a rice cooker, you'll need to start with a lot of excess water, and end up with much higher electricity bills.