Average Rating:

I suppose its possible that they came from a bad production run, but I give up with Panasonic.

It does a fine job with all kinds of rice, including long grain brown. The unit is simple, logically and well designed and only has one switch: on/off. Clean up is easy enough, especially if you soak the inner container for awhile before swabbing with a sponge.

There is no warming function after the rice has cooked -- the unit gives a quiet chime and powers off. This has not been a problem for me but if you want to keep rice warm in the middle of a meal, just switch the unit "on" for two minutes and turn it off. Alternatively, buy a more expensive cooker.

To re-heat left-over rice, use the steaming plate and put the rice on top of it. This works far better than trying to revive cold rice with a microwave oven and only takes a few minutes. The steamer works very well for vegetables -- would be worth having it just for that alone.

The cooker cooks one to three cups of dry rice -- more than enough for four people (probably six). The unit is small and compact in size (a 7" circle -- 9" counting handles -- that is 8" high with lid on) and easy to store.

Be aware that a "cup" measure (included) is actually about 6 ounces in volume. That still makes far more rice than I can eat at one sitting. I'd recommend buying a plastic or wood rice paddle (not provided) -- a wooden or nylon spoon would do -- to protect the non-stick coating.

The only product glitch is a printing error in the instructions. The user is told to add one cup of rice and one cup of water. Skeptically, I tried using one and a half cups of water and had to steam the resulting under cooked rice (but even that mistake turned out pretty well). The correct proportions are 1 rice to 2 water -- just like mom told you.

The instructions also tell you to soak the rice before cooking, something most European Americans do not do. Though I do soak my rice, it is not necessary to do so to produce satisfactory results.

I've been eating more brown rice since I bought the steamer because its so easy to make now. If you think cooking rice on the stovetop is easy, try a rice cooker. Just put the rice, water and a pinch of salt in and turn it on. No timing, no fiddling with the heat, and perfect results every time.

I have had good luck with Panasonic products in the past -- good value and reliability for the money. This rice cooker
appears to be no exception.
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