I am actually looking to buy a rice maker. Does anyone have an opinion as to their favorite brands. I have done some research and it seems like a lot of people enjoy the Zojirushi brand.

That's what I have. Mrs JPW bought it when she was in grad school. It's been used about once a week for 7 or 8 years and never a problem. The "Keep Warm" setting works very well.

That's what we have and have been using it for nearly 7 years now, on average of about 4-5 days a week with the only sign of wear being a little discoloration. It does have the water and rice tick marks on the inside for those without finger creases.

Thanks for the tip, while it is new, it is the old style with a small bowl and a single button, it makes great rice. Interesting when my wife and I went to get one at Super H the appliance women that helped us decided told us the same thing about most of the rice cookers, and said that the Japanese brand that we ended up buying was the best for making good rice. It is very similar to the one my parents had and used regularly for about 25 years.

People who have rice cookers always say this. I am rice-cooker-less, and I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Is it that hard to cook rice on the stove? Am I really missing something here?

Honestly, I like being able to toss my rice in the cooker, set it, and have it do its thing while I'm making the rest of dinner. With only two burners in the whole joint, the rice cooker is pretty much indispensable. We have rice for breakfast many mornings, so we're big fans of the timer function (the rice doesn't seem to suffer for being in the cooker overnight). Also: takikomi gohan.

I love my rice cooker, yes I do. Let me count the ways.

Well, first and foremost, the neuro fuzzy logic thingie means you don't set the timer, you don't need to know whether the rice will cook faster and need less water because it's greenish or slower and need more water because it's dryish, the sensor senses and cooks until the water is cooked away, just right, every time. Turn it on, forget about it, it's ready when the fat pot sings ("twinkle twinkle little star" is what mine sings).

The rice comes out fluffy and separate grains, never sticky, never stuck together.

It sits on the counter and doesn't use up space on the stove, which is good because we have a four burner.

It doesn't put out heat which is good when it's hot outside.

Easy to clean.

I still use stove top for Persian rice to get tah dig (crispy brown crust), and find that using a folded up cloth between pot and lid does a lot of good things for rice, but still use rice cooker if I don't want tah dig.

My mother's rice cooker is not neuro fuzzy logic and I don't love it, and she doesn't love it, either. Mine intimidates her (as do computers and cell phones) but she likes it better than hers.

It's one less thing I have to watch while I am in the kitchen. Just flip the switch and walk away. It means that I can put on some rice for eating with leftovers and go for a jog. And when you're Asian and eat rice nearly every single day, it is totally worth it. In comparison to when I have made it on the stove, it is more consistently cooked. My stoves have had hot spots so there would be spots that are brown.

My rice always comes out sticky, and that is just the way I like it.

Then how does the rice get cooked if there is no heat applied? I would assume there would need to be heat, but I am guessing you mean it uses perhaps less (and less obvious?) heat, right?

And what's with the neuro fuzzy logic? Are ll of the rice cookers out there like this these days more or less? How much will one of these set you back? I am loathe to get a unitasker like this, but we've been eating a lot more rice of late and I do like the idea of getting it done right every time and being able to not have to keep an eye on th pot while I do other things. I do not like the loss of counter space, but it might be worth it. Maybe.

I can't speak for Ilaine's rice cooker, but our Tiger is well insulated and does a good job of keeping the heat contained. Steam escapes through the top, and that's really the most remarkable bit of heat.

Most of the modern rice cookers are fuzzy logic, I believe. Azami bought ours for around $30 USD (he thinks), but it's a) not very fancy and b ) not a Zojirushi.

I don't know about the fuzzy logic on these other ones. The old school ones seemed to run on the logic of, there's no more water in here to steam, turn off. So by knowing how much water to put in it would take more or less time to either cook or reheat the rice. The old school ones do let out a substantial amount of steam. As to its bulk effect on the room temperature, I don't know. The newer ones make no sense to me. I have a problem with them being too insulated because I find that it leads to mushier rice because all the moisture gets trapped inside. The keep warm function I've found to dry it out. I am not a fan of the new-fangled ones.

Has anyone ever had their rice get semi-burned/crispy on the bottom, or do I just have a cheap-o cooker? Most of the rice comes out great, but the bottom of the pot always has a crusty layer. Is there a solution, or am I perhaps cooking too long? Sometimes I avoid this by cutting off the power earlier, but that defeats the purpose of having an automatic machine, since I always have to monitor it.

It's not necessarily a unitasker. I lived for three months on a small isolated Pacific island rock with a "kitchen" that consisted of a single ring burner, a rice cooker, a sink, and a bar fridge. You can make pasta or noodles or potatoes in a rice cooker; you can also steam veggies.

No, but we've occasionally gotten browned (scorched?) spots on the bottom. I've chalked those up to inaccurate water measurement on my part. What kind of cooker do you have?

Ours also doesn't dry out the rice when using the keep warm function.

I've owned national and jiroshi (sp?). Both are fine and have lasted a long time and do a fine job with all the varieties of rice I cook (e.g., asian short grain, basmati, long grain, wild rice, barley). I've paid around $100 for the last one I picked up at Super H.

I've had a Zojirushi (not fuzzy logic, model is NS-MYC18,I think it was $90) for 8 years, use it 3-5 times weekly, & would not be without it. I usually turn off the 'keep warm' cycle, too. I have the Beth Hensperger 'Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook', but will shamefully admit the only thing I've ever used my rice cooker for is plain cooked rice, which it does, perfectly, every time.

I took a Thai cooking class the other day & I was dumbstruck that the teacher didn't have a rice cooker (not that it's difficult to cook rice, but the rice cooker is awesome).

I have found the same from the Tiger that we recently bought. The retractable power cord is also a big plus, just one less thing to either get in the way or loose.

I checked, it's an Oster. About 7 years old. I've tried numerous solutions, like adding more water and rubbing the bottom with oil first. Oh well.

Years ago some friends of ours stayed at my in-laws house for one night while they were visiting Phila. When they left they gave my mother in law a rice cooker as a thank you present. She said that she didn't know if she would use it, but a month later told me that she doesn't know how she ever got along without one for all those years. She still uses it and thinks it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.