Miracle Exclusives Stainless Steel Rice Cooker Model ME81 (Formerly ME8)

You purchased this item on May 31, 2012.It is now November, and I'm writing this review to remind myself when the quality of this product began to degrade.I noticed maybe two months ago that the lid's handle was poorly constructed or made out of cheap materials. It was loose and wobbly, so I inspected the screw at the bottom of the lid and decided it needed to be tightened. It began to peel as if it were coated in a silver paint, and I'm pretty sure it is made out of some kind of plastic or glazed aluminum. Aluminum contamination in your food is just as bad as teflon, and I'm sure we're all here because we wanted a teflon-free cooking device. When I clean the lid it also gets water trapped underneath the handle because I can't seem to tighten the damn screw well enough.The stainless steel insert has held up and was once a beautiful, mirror polished pot. It's now slightly warped (inside) and has what I call water stains/spots all over it that I can't seem to get rid of. However, I am glad that it hasn't rusted, even despite being slightly scratched.I have no idea what to say about the steaming lid insert. I use it to cook fish. It feels thin and flimsy, but the company has told me that it is indeed stainless steel.The heating disk has brown spots all over it. They began to slowly appear one by one, after each use. I'm not sure how to avoid them or what advice I could give you. It may just be a normal occurrence.It has been a wonderful device for what it is designed to do. It steams food. It cooks rice. I refuse to use a microwave, so this has been my go-to for when the food I eat actually has to be cooked (I try to eat mostly raw foods.) I haven't required anything else for my cooking needs. I used it 1-3 times a week, but I've limited the amount of rice that I eat and mostly use it to cook fish now.It says to use oil when cooking rice or it will stick to the bottom. This is true; sometimes I don't use enough oil and it still sticks. It has a nifty function where it automatically turns to the 'warm' temp when it doesn't detect moisture anymore. It might save your food if you forget about it for too long.The small hole in the lid lets out steam, maintains heat and prevents your water from boiling over. If you decide to cook something like oats in it, do not use the lid at all. It will boil over. There's a plastic ring (vent grommet) inside the hole of the lid when you unbox your cooker. Remove that! You don't need it; it works fine without it. Put it aside and save it just incase you notice a difference in quality without it.I give this product a 3 and a half or 4. I love what it does and I love how it is just a stainless steel pot with a glass lid, but the cheap lid handle and screw really make me mad and prevent me from giving it a 5 star rating. It is still the only rice cooker I could find that met my no-plastic and no-teflon standards. In the future I will try out bamboo steamers, but I wouldn't hesitate to try other Miracle products. There's lots of cool stuff on their website that I would like to buy.I might e-mail the company to find out what the heck that screw is made out of. I'll let you know when I get a reply.**Update 26/11/2012The screw is made out of aluminum. I will try to find a stainless steel replacement for it.**Update 3/12/12"This is a metric size screw.The thread size is M6.A good quality hardware store should be able to supply this item."Miracle has amazing customer service and if you have any problems I'd recommend e-mailing them. They took care of me and I'm satisfied with my rice cooker now.When I was removing the old aluminum screw and replaced it with a stainless steel one, the screw had rusted and was very difficult to remove. Do it outside -- I got lots of glittery aluminum shavings all over the place when I did this. You might even see water leak out of the knob of the lid when you do this.I'll go ahead and up my rating to 5 stars (from 4) due to their customer service but remember to change the screw. It's really the only downside to this product unless you NEED an oatmeal/porridge setting or other low heat and simmer options.

I had never owned a rice cooker before, but I do make rice about once a week. I had grown tired of timing the rice and the other dishes, so I purchased this rice cooker so I wouldn't need to time everything perfect. I did not want none-stick coating, so this stainless steel model is great. The stainless steel bowl is very pretty and shiny; your kids may enjoy looking at themselves in it [...] The included measuring cup is not really one 'cup', so keep track of that. I just have it in with my rice.When I received it, I felt so lost as the instructions are not very clear...a little recipe book would be nice to have included. But once you realize how darned easy it is, you realize the instructions didn't need to be extensive.I LOVE it! It makes great white rice, sushi rice, and oatmeal. I had bad luck with brown rice, but it was my error...I'll have to try again. I spray the bottom with cooking spray prior to adding my dry ingredients. And I add a tablespoon of olive oil on top to prevent spillover. There is consistently over cooked food gently stuck on the bottom, but I can deal with that. I let is soak a few minutes before hand washing, and it cleans up so well.I made AWESOME California Rolls using Alton Brown's recipe ([...]). For my sushi rice, I used 1.5 cups (actually dry measurement cups) of sushi rice and 2 cups (actual wet measurement...16 fl oz) of water. I rinsed the sushi rice thoroughly until the water was not milky white prior to adding to my rice cooker. I followed Alton Brown recipe mentioned above other than the sushi rice & water measurements.My son and I have been eating oatmeal for breakfast now. It's so easy! I premix the dry ingredients at night (making multiple bags so I don't have to measure out ingredients every day.) Here's what works for us (serves about 3)...RICE COOKER OATMEAL:1 1/4 c rolled oats2 T oat branpinch salt1/3 c raisins1/4 c brown sugarcinnamon (just sprinkle in to taste)2 1/2 c waterAdd all to rice cooker and set to 'cook'. It cooks for about 15 min, then goes to 'warm' when it's ready. Stir before serving.I even made mac-n-cheese in this one day, just to prove I could. It took about 10 minutes for the water to get hot enough and I added the macaroni, but it was sort of fun! I think it would be a nice thing to take with you if you were camping and there was electricity available...not really roughing it too much but just to make some meals on the road.