Ditto, Zojirushi with non-stick (probably nearing 20 years old) its not one of the digital ones. Cooks all kinds of rice -- short grain, long grain, brown, black, jasmine, basmati, etc. Its been fine with any kind of rice. I usually soak the rice for a couple of hours before cooking.

I have a Buffalo smart cooker 10cup. It is great with its stainless steel pot which is very easy to maintain and there is not an issue with rice sticking to the pot if kept warm and moist according to instruction. Buffalo has a program for brown rice, but I have not use it.

Tatung is a well known brand in Asia. And if I am not mistaken, there is a model which is a steamer rice cooker where it actually use steam to cook rice. Inside the pot there are two chambers, one for rice + water, and outer chamber for water to generate steam.

Our Tatung is about 20 yrs old and going strong.

Have you tried Kokuho rice?

geoffrey_b I haven't tried kokuho rice. We mostly make brown basmati rice. It's good to hear your Tatung has lasted so long. I think I'll look into the Buffalo brand and Tatung some more, since I do want a SS pot.

The Kokoho is short grained and needs a rice cooker. But from my experience with white Basmati, it's long grained, and after soaking it in water (about 1/2 an hour) It cooks just fine (fluffs up) in a pot on the stove.

Have you considered an instant pot? I have my rice cooker in the donation box, it has been replaced with the instant pot ( have 2 so I can make rice in one and bourbon chicken in the other, or meatloaf in one and mashed potatoes in the other... etc ..)

Here is an article on premium rice cooking http://www.chowhound.com/post/cook-premium-japanese-rice-instant-pot-electric-pressure-996206

Sunnysmom- I followed the link to chowhound and to be honest Instant Pot sounds like a lot of work. The poster talks about scrubbing the rice, rinsing the rice, etc. Is it really worth the effort? I care about results vs. effort expended. The BS claim of saving up to 70% energy is nonsense. Without hard numbers it is nothing but marketing which can claim anything they want.

I ask because I shop for rice cookers every once in awhile. I always start out with an inexpensive model. Then I decide I need this feature, and that feature, and I could not possibly do without fuzzy logic. If the truth is known I do not use rice all that often so do not need anything all that fancy. I just want something that is easy and quick to use. Something that gives better results that using instant rice. Or spending all the time to cook "real rice" without a machine doing the hardwork.

I have a Zojirushi and before that a Tiger and a cheap Sanyo. I have a 10 cup Tiger and a much smaller Zojirushi. Either way, I don't a have a hot pot but you have to rinse rice to remove the starch coating sprayed on. Once the water runs clear during rinsing you are good to go.

We have a Zojirushi and love it. Yes, it has the "fuzzy logic" (or whatever it is called) but it works so well with everything we have cooked in it that I would buy another one tomorrow if this one died. Our son actually asked for one for Christmas to take back to college with him. We make pork buns, rice, pot stickers, etc. in ours. It is easy to use and easy to clean and the rice comes out perfectly.

JamesMay - Yeah, I agree that does sound like a lot of work. We just rinse the rice, put it in the stainless steel pot, add the water and cook. I add a minute or subtract a minute based on the type of rice. It always comes out perfect.

However, not sure how it does at reheating rice and keeping it warm for long periods of time which may be an advantage of the Zojirushi... The one we discarded was a Tiger brand. After the first year of use, it was not consistent, sometimes rice was overdone, sometimes it was not done.