I give 5 stars because it makes me five stars happy, almost no imperfections for my needs. i have had it going on 4 years, i use it every morning to make oatmeal with steel cut oats. i have never made rice with it!!! i had wanted to and intended to, but i have been putting it off after learning about arsenic in rice. But i am sure if i did make rice with this cooker, it would make great rice. Taking into account, compared to some other reviewers i read, i wouldn’t know how to make it exactly right if i tried, and as long as it’s not dried out, i would be happy with it. As for oatmeal, even after using it for so long, i often think to myself how glad i am that i got it. it’s one of those really good things i’ve done for myself, though it wasn’t cheap. My daughter asked for one for her wedding in 2012 and she said it had to be induction heating, so when i got one in 2014, i stuck with that after enjoying the rice hers made so much. what i love about it is--- super easy to use, preparing breakfast takes seconds when i put the oatmeal and water in the cooker and set the menu to Porridge setting. i use, as per the instructions, one near full measuring cup ( the clear one, not the turqois blue one, it comes with two, the blue one is for rice), and then put in two of those cups with water. i don't set the timer because i always wake up once during the night, so i just go and push the start button then and sleep 2 or 3 more hours. It makes a little musical sound to let you know it's on, so you don't accidentally forget. That's all there is to that. Just eat the oatmeal. When i eat the oatmeal, i don't clean the rice cooker at that time, i have found that when i wait until later, usually at night, the cooker is still so easy to clean, that too takes seconds, less than a minute. When they say nonstick, they mean NONstick. Once is a great while, i forget to turn the rice cooker off after getting my oatmeal out to eat, and once in a while it's still on (lid closed) hours later before i notice the little orange light is on. This does not matter--when i go to wash the rice cooker bowl and cover thing later, the small amount of oatmeal debris in it does not stick and isn't even dried on, it's still kind of moist, or soft. Less than a minute and it's clean. Also, even if i leave the lid open and the oatmeal debris is exposed to air, it doesn’t dry on. it stays soft. always easy to clean. As user manuals go, the one that comes with this is good enough, no aggravations. It comes with a long detailed user manual and also a short quick start guide. The only imperfections for how i would have designed it are, one, it can only be set to 24 hour time, no 12 hour time. It doesn't matter to me, but if i were cooking something where it's relevant what time it is, it would be inconvenient. i would not even take a small fraction of a star off for this. The other thing is that the little screen with the settings on it is really hard for me to see and to read, it's a strain, takes some patience for me, to make sure i don’t make a mistake because i'm reading it wrong, easy to do, so it's not as carefree for me as everything else about using this is. There is a more expensive model on Amazon which shows a very nice orange back light which gives contrast to the digits and setting names, but it says it's a 1 Liter size which i think is 4 cups. When and if i replace this, and i will definitely replace it if it stops working, i will get the one with the back light. It's model number NP-HCC18XH. i would pay more. i just like to save space on my counter so i don't want one that is much bigger than the one i have. i don't take a star off for the poor visibility of the little screen. i don't take a star off because if this is the only one of these i can get, i will gladly buy it again, it's that useful and that easy to use, other than the poor light, i love the rice cooker. Some reviewers have complained about the battery going out and costing $70 to replace and others have complained about the nonstick coating on the bowl chipping off or peeling, and replacing the bowl is $60-$70. I agree, that is annoying, but it would not stop me from replacing those parts ASAP. i’m even thinking of buying back ups of both of those so as not to be without my daily breakfast.
