Oster 4724 20-Cup Rice Cooker, Stainless Steel

I decided to try a rice cooker because my family prefers rice over potatoes and I wanted to be able to leave the rice to warm while I did other things for a meal.

Good points-
*This cooker is easy to clean.
*This cooker is easy to use. Just fill according to directions and portion size needed, press the lever and let it go.
*It comes with a steamer basket to give this cooker double duty for veggies, dumplings etc.
*It is a very handsome design that matches a great many other products from different manufacturers.
*The liner is non-stick and removable for easy cleaning.
*In my use it has never boiled over BUT a great deal of HOT steam is vented from the top as it cooks so be careful.

Not so good points-
*It can tend to over cook and make a brown crust to the rice on the very bottom of the pan. This is not helped by the warming cycle that continues as long as the cooker is plugged in. The best thing is to be aware when...Read more

We have been trying to switch to a healthier carb lifestyle so I finally had to break down and buy a rice cooker for cooking my wild rice. This rice cooker does an excellent job of cooking our wild rice when you follow the package directions of 1 cup wild rice to 4 cups liquid (we use Bob's Red Mill rice). Wild rice takes forever to cook (about 1 hour for a cup of uncooked rice). This rice cooker is great because now I can put it all in and walk away instead of having to stick close to the stove/oven. I haven't used this cooker to make any other type of rice, but given it's performance with our rice I'd have to guess it would do an equally excellent job with other types of rice.

I bought this rice cooker last year and have only used it a few times, so I couldn't speak to it's longevity/durability.

For the first year we owned this rice cooker it was very nice. Many times we have been cooking rice in it and steaming vegetables in the tray at the same time, and it has always come out nicely. After about 18 months of use, it just flat out stopped working. It worked one day, and the very next day - nothing. No light on the front, no heat from the heating element, nothing. As it was well out of warranty, I took it apart and could find no parts that looked to have failed. All of the electrical connections were solid with no corrosion. No broken or shorted wires, no burned out components. It just gave up the ghost for not apparent reason. Not worth the money.