I ask my husband for a rice cooker as a gift , and also ask he not to spend too much on it because I would never use one before and be not sure if I would like it . after all , cooking rice on the stove be not much more complicated than boiling water , so what add value can you get from a rice cooker ? of course he go out and research and shop around and buy I this expensive one . thank heaven . who know that cooking rice could be even easier than I think ? toss some rice and water into the bowl , turn it on , and you be do . if you do not want to wait for it to cook at dinner time , just set it up in the morning and use the timer . the timer function and porridge setting be great . use the porridge set to make fantastic oatmeal . you can put the oats and water in the cooker the night before and set the timer for the next morning . wake up on a cold weekend to hot , fresh oatmeal be amazing ! it be ridiculously easy to clean . a quick swish with sudsy water and a swipe of a sponge and you be do . you 'll also want to pop out the steam cover to rinse and dry it , plus run a towel along the inside of the vent . about 90 seconds worth of effort and you be ready for you next batch . some note : 1 . this machine do not come with a vegetable steamer option ; 2 . the clock on the front be in 24-hour time and can not be change to 12-hour time ; 3 . the default setting be a loud tune at the start and end of the cycle . you can change this pretty easily to either a beep or silence by follow the instruction ; 4 . if you have never use a rice cooker before , you may find the manual seriously lack . get a rice-cooker cookbook . Mine tell I that rice cooker be so common in the asian world -- like toaster in the West -- that they do not need detailed instruction , people just know how to use they . 5 . for oatmeal : follow the recipe on the box of oatmeal you prefer , not the proportion for rice porridge in the manual . Rice porridge be more like a broth . you may want to increase the liquid a bit ; I find the result a little thicker than I be use to . 6 . the big surprise for I be that you need to rinse you rice before use it . I think this would be a nuisance , but it be no big deal . you just measure out the rice , quickly swish it around in some water , pour off the water and repeat a couple of time until the water stop turn so cloudy -lrb- you do not have to go for totally clear -rrb- . 7 . leftover rice can be freeze and keep a long time . nobody tell I this before . if I do not know , then I assume other people might not know either . I would have think it would ruin the texture , but it do not . I take it right out of the freezer to use in other recipe , without defrost it .