Electric two-tiered food steamer for healthy, delicious homemade meals. View larger

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1060 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Size: 6-qt.
• Color: White
• Brand: Oster
• Model: 5712
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 14.40" h x 10.00" w x 10.80" l, 5.90 pounds

Features

• 2-Tiered 6-quart capacity steamer creates instant steam for preparing all kinds of food
• Delay cooking up to 12-hours; LCD display with 95-minute timer; auto keep-warm setting
• External water-fill system with see-through reservoir; fully collapsible steaming trays
• Includes 3.8-quart and 2.3-quart steaming bowl, plus 8 egg holders for soft-or hard-cooked eggs
• Measures approximately 14 by 9-1/2 by 10-inch

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

415 of 426 people found the following review helpful.
My new favorite toy...
By A Customer
I saw this steamer in an ad in Runner's World and just had to have it. Since going on the South Beach Diet, I've upped my intake of eggs, fish, chicken, and vegetables tremendously. And because I live an extremely active lifestyle, I never have time to wait for things to thaw before cooking. I was defrosting frozen meat and nuking scrambled eggs and frozen vegetables in the microwave everyday when I did some reading and found out that microwaving destroys over 90% of the healthy vitamins and nutrients in foods. Researchers have found that steaming is the best way to preserve nutrients if you have to cook a food.

This steamer gets the job done better than I'd ever hoped. While it does take a little longer to cook with steam than in the microwave or on the stovetop (add 5-15 minutes of cook time), it is a more hassle-free way to prepare food. You don't have to constantly check your food to see if its burning or stir it. No more exploding eggs in the microwave or ri ce stuck to the bottom of the pan. Just load it up, set the timer, and leave it to cook. For example, I stuck a couple of frozen chicken breasts and a cup of brown rice in, set for 45 minutes, and left to do something else. Halfway through I poured in frozen vegetables and seasoned the chicken and rice. The chicken cooked through perfectly, the vegetables were tender, and the rice was perfect. Hard boiled eggs are easy too.

Clean up afterwards was a breeze. The plastic containers are easy to wash off, but the drip pan fills up quickly and when full is hard to get to the sink to pour out without spilling. Cooking directions and times are approximate, so there is some trial and error involved. But since I love it so far, I will definitely be using it several times a week and get lots of practice. I highly recommend.

479 of 510 people found the following review helpful.
Mold + BPA (synthetic estrogen) = unhealthy
By Lee
This product would have been one step up from the previous generation of Oster steamers if it weren't for two major flaws. UPDATE: it's been years since my original review. I still don't understand why this product is still a top seller on Amazon when Oster (aka Sunbeam) still hasn't made any real fixes or improvements to this product line.

[Good]

Digital: the electronic timer works really well (this was the new upgrade from previous models)

Versatile: This is pretty flexible and does great for Asian food.

Quick: it works much faster than I would expect.

Bad:

MOLD: The steamer's water inlet, that also serves to help you measure how much water is in the steamer, is a great way to collect mold. Currently it is nearly impossible to dry this inlet completely without pushing a Q-tip or tissue through; and no, turning it upside down doesn't help since the inlet's curves are designed to keep water in. Cleaning thi s part is also near impossible for the same reason. This is just really stupid. Oster should spend more time testing their products. This should have been fixed before being released. I'm not sure using fungicide would be a good thing since it's hard for most liquids to evaporate from this inlet (i.e. it'll probably eventually mix with the main water supply used for steaming).

#7 Plastic: As other reviewers have noted, this product made with #7 plastic. This material has a great chance of leeching biphenyl-A, synthetic estrogen, when it's heated. BPA is just not good for general health (it has links to causing obesity, cancer, heart problems, neurological problems and so on); for children the issues are even more complicated. Google can tell you all the details. This just isn't something you should put in contact with your food. UPDATE: Plastic is just not meant to be heated when it's in contact with food. When you heat plastic, it will start leeching stuff and ch ances are you don't want that on your food.

Summary:

Get a stainless steel steamer instead. Yes they are more expensive, but health problems are also expensive.

Amazon sells a couple:

Oyama CFS-B12U All Stainless Rice Cooker

Aroma ARC-838TC 8-Cup Digital Rice Cooker & Food Steamer

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker Model ME81 (Formerly ME8) - by Miracle Exclusives

UPDATE: Here are my responses to frequently occurring posts and questions:

"Many consumer reviews erroneously assume that #7 plastic contains BPA. In reality, that number doesn't represent a plastic made with specific materials."

Yes that is correct. #7 plastic (which is what this product is made of) is a "surprise - anything and everything can be in this material including BPA or worse" plastic; use at your own risk. I'm sure it's even healthier when it's used with food while it's heated. Why? Because when plastic is heated , there's a good chance that it starts leeching things like chemicals.

The BPA claim is not erroneous. There are seven types of plastic. The first six types are clearly defined. I could be wrong but food grade plastics are only: #1, #2, #4, and #5. Out of that list only #1, #2, and #4 do not contain BPA. #7 plastic is not food grade plastic and is typically known to contain BPA.

"We called Oster directly and they confirmed over the phone that the food containers in their food steamers are BPA-free."

It is really easy for Oster to make it known that their products do not contain BPA. They can print "BPA free" on their products' packaging (a lot of other companies have been doing this for years already), as well as adding that statement to the Amazon product description. Amazon even allows companies to respond directly to individual product reviews like mine. Oster can write a response to my review, "We've made changes and improvements to our p roduct. One of them is that it no longer contains BPA!". Sadly even though this is really easy to do, it still hasn't happened.

I would imagine the reasons Oster doesn't do it is 1) because what they say over the phone isn't true, and 2) because of legal liability. With a phone call, Oster reps can say anything they want with less legal repercussions. When its proven to be untrue; they can just say that the particular rep in question was either ill informed or just incompetent. Moreover, typically when companies make a non-written statement, they try to make it more official by using an official spokesman who is directly quoted with their full name. That hasn't happened yet.

103 of 108 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent product
By Parents of 3
The Oster 5712 Food Steamer is an excellent buy. Yes, it is large but well worth it's size for a family of 5 vegetable lovers. It has all the features I wanted, such as; water level indicator, two steaming containers, and a timer. It also keeps the food warm after the steaming of the food is complete.I have used this product many times since it arrived. I have prepared complete meals at once. The clean-up is very easy and much less mess in the kitchen. No pots no pans. I have no complaints. I am very pleased with this product. It is stylish enough to place on the counter. I would most definitly recommend the 5712.