Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Browsing on Amazon I realized I've had this rice cooker for 15 years! So I thought it deserved a review. I use it an average of once or twice a week, and have only used it to cook brown and white rice. It does spurt and sputter, especially if you are making brown rice (probably due to additional "stuff" in the brown rice causing foamier bubbles, in addition to needing more water for brown rice). As long as the lid is seated properly (not floating on water or a stray rice grain), and you cover it with a towel (flour sack towel works great) when it's cooking, it's fine. But I am not a countertop neatnik. I definitely make sure the lid is seated properly, and cover it with a tea towel or kitchen towel. I almost never pre-soak my rice, even brown rice. If you want a spurt-free rice cooker, you need one of those with the hinged, latching lids, they have special gaskets and systems to manage the bubbling and overflow. The benefit of this simpler style is that it's less bulky and easy to clean with warm water and a dish brush. As for complaints about cooking quality, you really need to use water ratios from your rice packaging, not the generic ones that come with the rice cooker. For Japanese-style short or medium grain white or haiga (partially milled) rice (Nishiki, Botan Calrose, for example) I would use 1 cup rinsed rice : 1.25 cup water. (This is the 6 oz cup that comes with the cooker.) I also use a Japanese Kagayaki medium grain brown rice that does exceptionally well with just 1 cup rinsed rice : 2:25 cups water, and cooks up fine with no pre-soaking. I find brown rices to be more variable in their water needs, unfortunately; so YMMV. I don't like constantly plugging & unplugging things so I use a simple plug-in switch at the wall to shut it off. I found one at my local hardware store years ago, it's similar to this GE Grounded On/Off Power Switch, Plug-In, White, Energy Efficient, Space Saving Design, UL Listed, 15A, 120VAC, 1800W, 25511. The biggest negative for the 1.2L model (the middle size, I think it holds 5-6 cups uncooked max) is that the bottom does seem too hot. Making just 1 cup (uncooked) rice tends to result in rice that's dry and crunchy on the bottom. My typical batch is 2 cups raw rice at a time, and I find 2-3 cup batches work well. The bottom can get slightly brown, but if you turn it off within 30 minutes or so it doesn't dry out too much. However, it's definitely annoying, and is the one problem that has made me want to ever investigate a different rice cooker ever. However, since this has proven to be a workhorse and reliably produces delicious rice for my purposes, I'm still giving it 5 stars.