Design Explained –
Our Signature Tune!

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Our rice cookers and water boilers are practical. They’re technologically advanced. They’re stylish. And they’re…whimsical!

Until 1999, our appliances used standard beep sounds to indicate when the rice cooker or water boiler had started and finished their settings. We realized that so many appliances existed together in our customers’ kitchens that it was difficult to know which appliance was beeping. So, as part of our tradition of smart design, we programmed our rice cookers and water boilers to play a tune instead of beeping.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker Circa 1999

And now we’re known for our whimsical, musical and oh-so-familiar “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” tune which plays at the beginning of a setting. And when a course is finished, the lyrical tune of “Amaryllis” plays!

 

While this feature is definitely one of our more lighthearted and fun ones, there is a solid technological foundation to adding tunes to our appliances. Each appliance needed a microcomputer in the control panel, and that technology was introduced in the late 1990s. Further, microcomputers needed to be programmable, and the manufacturers were able to sequence a series of beeps to make a tune.

We loved it then and we love it now. And so do our fun friends. Just check out this incredibly cute video on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwNkZ1eh7NR/.

Let us know if you love these songs, too! And if you have a suggestion for a future product!

38 thoughts on “Design Explained –
Our Signature Tune!”

  1. Please add a happy song to your coffee makers. It would be nice to hear a lovely song at the completion of brewing. I will be the first to buy it.

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  2. My friend and I were wondering, if you might share the composer or original performer for Amaryllis?

    It sounds so vaguely familiar, but just googling the title gives us too many hits (and theyre all wrong)

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    • Hi Trish, what a great question! According to google: “Amaryllis, a melody from the 1581 Ballet Comique de la Reine, later popularized by Henry Ghys”

      It seems like it was popularized in Japan later on and that’s probably why this tune was selected, but now we’ll have to do more research into the Ballet! Please let us know if you figure out where you may have heard the tune!

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  3. I appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into the design but is there an option to mute the music notification on the water boiler?

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    • Hi Berenice! The melody on our water boilers may be turned to silent. Please press and hold the UNLOCK button for more than 3 seconds. If you hear 3 long beeps, press and hold the UNLOCK button again and one long beep should be heard. This would indicate that the water boiler is set to silent!

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  8. I have an old cd-wbc40 water heater. It plays music, but the tune is neither “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” nor “Amaryllis”. It sounds like a sped-up version of a specific pop song I remember from the 1960s, but that song itself I recall being based on a piece of classical music. Are there other tunes you use in your water heaters, or am I just wrong about this tune being “Amaryllis”?

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    • Hi C, great question! The water boilers have different melody alerts. The melody that plays when the boiling stops is called “Minuet” and when the timer is set it will play “Beautiful Dreamer” Please let us know if you have any more questions!

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    • Hi Jan! The NS-RPC10 rice cooker is a conventional rice cooker that doesn’t have an internal micro computer and unfortunately it does not have a signal. Our Micom rice cookers do have melody signals and more cooking settings as well! Please let us know if you have any questions.

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  10. Hello! Does the NS-JCC10 play a melody? We used to have a different model that played the melody. Recently it broke. Now sadly this one does not play the melody. Thank you.

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  11. Hi! My family and I love the tune that our water boiler plays! We are running into abit of an issue now as we have accidentally switched off the melody.

    I tried the previous methods shared on comments and it seems to have worked but now suddenly the melody is SOOO soft that you almost have to put your ears right beside the kettle to hear it. It’s less than a year old and we use it very carefully. Any idea what could be wrong?

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  12. I have the Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker & Warmer NS-ZCC10. I cannot turn on the musical signal. I followed the instructions holding down the timer for three seconds and it only flashes between timed settings of 6:00 or 18:00. That’s it. NO sound comes on. And there is no volume control. I need help with this. You can always email me. Thanks!

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    • Hi Kat, if you see 6:00 and 18:00 flashing then it indicates that the Timer function has been selected. This can happen if the button is released too soon when pressing down the Timer. Please try again to press and hold the Timer button for a little longer than 3 seconds. Do this a couple of times and you should hear the melody change from high volume to low volume. If this doesn’t work, please reach out to our Customer Support Team and they would be happy to troubleshoot the rice cooker with you.

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  13. My NP-GBC05 has a sound/short song and I like it. But lately, somehow, I can’t hear the song anymore when the cooking begins. When the cooking is completed, the end song is still on. What’s wrong? How do I fix it?

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  14. I’m a student at Berklee College of Music, snd my roommate and I love our rice cooker!! It makes having nutritious amd fresh food as a student easy and affordable. We were so enamored by the little melodies our cooker plays when it’s set and when it’s done that we were wondering if there was anyone who has been able to upload or customize their own melodies for the Zojirushi to play!

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    • Hi Peter! Having a rice cooker during college will definitely help! We are so glad to hear that you are getting the most of your rice cooker. We don’t have a customizable melody feature with our products, unfortunately. Although, this sounds like a really fun way to listen to your favorite jingle when your about to have a delicious meal. We will be sure to forward this idea to our R&D for future use!

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  15. My husband is a bit hard of hearing and so he has trouble hearing the melodies on our rice cooker. I assume there is no way to adjust the volume….but maybe an idea for future models. BTW it is an AWESOME machine. Best rice and best oatmeal ever.

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    • Hi Kathlee, thank you so much for the suggestion. Only our NS-ZCC10/18 allows for a high or low volume for the melody. All other models have one setting unfortunately. We will be sure to forward this suggestion over to our R&D team for future use when developing a new product.

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  16. Hi, I noticed that the sound of our zojirushi neuro fuzzy produces weaker sound than we originally bought it. Is there anyway to increase the volume of the sound of it?

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