I purchased one of these rice cookers from another vendor and I absolutely love it. My friends and family all love the wonderful and tasty rice the machine produces. If you eat rice on a daily basis then Zojirushi is the best electric rice maker made in my opinion. I also notice the reviewer above with the iq of 166 had misspellings in his review, I would say this machine is even smarter than he is.

Bought this item 3 weeks ago, it has changed my eating habits for the better, both health and taste wise, enormously. Super easy to use, super easy to clean (I mean like 15 seconds for a thorough scrubdown). The miracle is, once basic staples like oatmeal, grits, every kind of rice (by the way, if you imagine this means the very sorry versions you may be used to in your supermarket, overpriced overprocessed and just plain awful, shift gears girlfriend, any health food, general goods, raw food, or Internet source will provide you with the REAL ITEM at 1/10th the cost of the nonsense you may have grown up on!), anyway, once they are available to be prepared virtually FOR YOU, quite amazingly perfectly, then all you need to do is add an easy side dish, a bit of meat/fish if that's what you like, couple eggs with the grits, some vegetables if that's your thing, whatever, point being that with PERFECT rices, grains, so easily prepaired by this machine, meal prep is super easy, and the healthy center is wonderful.

You will eat much cheaper, TASTIER, and healthier with this cool machine. The instructions may seem a bit funky, but once you actually get going its way easy. The only aspect I can not comment on is the longevity of the item, but it certainly seems solid and built to last.

I never gave much thouht to cooking rice until I moved to Japan--and acquired a Japanese spouse!

But we're fussy about our rice here, and nobody would dream of being without a rice cooker. Rice cookers are actually pressure cookers, so the rice is always plump and perfect.

I have the equivalent Japanese model (the same but with a different faceplate). I've had it for almost fou years and it's a real workhorse. Zoji is a value-brand here in Japan, specialising in small appiances, and known for being simple and sturdy. I would choose them over some of the big Japanese names, given the quality problems I've had with some of the other well-known electrical brands that make everything from TVs to elevators.

The rice? Can't fault it. Nor can the other half, who's ultra-critical. Makes great oatmeal, too, but I can't get the other half interested in such exotic foreign foods.

Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I've purchased 2 in the last 2 months and they both died - I don't know how it happened but water got in the LCD display and fried it. Makes great rice but at this rate, I'd spend $1,500 a year on rice cooking. Forget it!

I purchased this machine from a local cooking supply shop, after doing some online research. The person who sold it to me told me that it was useful for little more than making really good rice. As I found out from research - that is simply not true. 'The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook' by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann (ISBN 1-55832-202-7) gives you excellent recipes that are wonderfullly suited to this device. It's the manual you wish you would have gotten with this device.