Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 Rice Cooker stopped working after many years of loyal service. The menu screen showed the time, but the ability to choose the rice cooking mode (regular/sushi white, softer white, harder white, quick cooking, mixed, porridge, sweet/sticky, semi brown and brown rice) wasn’t working.

Step 1: Verify the Rice Cooker Is Plugged In

The digital LCD screen can show the time using the internal CR2450 Coin Lithium Battery (that is soldered on, but can be replaced), but the rice cooker needs to be plugged into the wall outlet and the rice bowl pot needs to be in the rice cooker for the menu button to work and let you see and move the selection triangle to the cooking mode you want.

Step 2: The Rice Pot Switch

When you open the Zojirushi rice cooker and remove the pot you’ll see a trigger switch that is used to detect the pot. If the rice cooker is plugged in, but no pot is detected then the rice cooker won’t let you choose a cooking mode.

You can verify if the switch is working by pulling out the pot, plugging the rice cooker into an outlet and then using a non-conductive glass to press the switch to see if you get the menu selection arrow triangle on the LCD screen.

Step 3: Flatten the Rice Pot Bottom

Over time the spring in the switch doesn’t push the button back up as high and your thin aluminum non-stick rice pot develops a concave pattern that doesn’t push the pot detection switch all the way down to activate.

I tried disassembling the rice cooker to see if I could stretch the spring but found the part tack welded shut.

I did find an easy solution in taking a thermos bottle, throwing a dish towel on top and then placing the pot upside down centered on top of the thermos and using my strength to push the rice pot bottom down so that it was flat again.

Step 4: Verify It Worked

Place the pot back into the plugged in rice cooker, close the lid and verify you can now use the menu button to select the cooking mode.

Go ahead and cook rice and verify it is working again. If the rice cooker loses power 1/2 way through the cooking process you may need to flatten the pot further and with the rice cooker unplugged lubricate the pot switch (I used a small squirt of WD-40).