Panasonic 5 Cup (Uncooked) Rice Cooker with Fuzzy Logic and One-Touch Cooking for Brown Rice, White Rice, and Porridge or Soup – 1.0 Liter – SR-DF101 (White)

This is my favorite rice cooker. My first one was given to me by my daughter. After many years of excellent service, we pretty much wore that one out and decided to buy this replacement. It makes rice perfectly and is so easy to care for. The only thing you should know is that if you want to leave the rice in the cooker all day, this is not the cooker for you because after a while it will scorch the rice. That is no problem for my family since we make our rice, use what we need and then put it the extra in storage containers and refrigerate it.

Bottom line: This baby makes perfect sushi rice and keeps it warm without crusting it all up on the bottom -even if you leave it for a bit. It's very well built, as most Panasonic products are and looks nice. You hit the button for the rice you are cooking and it just makes your rice perfect. Way, way better than my old Oster. It also comes with a paddle with little knobbly things on it which makes it really easy for the rice to release -it doesn't all stick to the paddle.I'm a little surprised the manual is so poorly translated that some things are not possible to figure out: Panasonic is usually pretty good about manuals. Luckily it's not a complex device to use -the key is that the measurements marked on the side of the pot work differently: you measure your rice with a measuring cup (handily provided) and stick your rice in, then bring the water up to the cup markings which have already taken into account that you stuck the rice in. I.e., if you are making 2 cups of rice and need 2 3/4 cups of water, stick the rice in, then bring the water level up to 2 3/4. This is a great idea. The only issue I have, and why I dinged it a point on "easy to use", is that it is nigh on impossible to read the markings inside the pot unless you hold it outside the cooker in just the right light while trying to keep the water level. I've gotten around this by marking a bamboo handle to match the pot markings and I just stick that in. (I'd also like to know more about the "Fuzzy Logic". I know what fuzzy logic is and would be interested to know exactly what it's doing in this device.)But hey, stick the rice in press the button and you get perfect rice every time -what more could you ask?

Works very well. Rice comes out perfect every time. The issue is that it is VERY hard to clean. There is a lot of rice build up on the corners under the lid that is very hard to reach.

Let me start by saying this: I suck at cooking rice. This rice cooker, however, makes it super easy to always have fantastic tasting rice provided that you plan ahead a bit. Both the white rice and the brown rice setting work great, with white rice usually taking 20-30 minutes and the brown rice taking significantly longer (1 hour pre-cook soak, then about 1.5-1.75 hours to cook after the brown rice cook mode has been started).In my experience with the SR-DF181 so far, I've found that taking the time to rinse/wash your rice thoroughly prior to cooking is very important (also, as the manual mentions, don't wash the rice in the cook pot... the dry rice is pretty abrasive) and if you have heavily chlorinated water or water with any sort of strong taste/smell, I'd recommend filtering the water you'll be cooking the rice in with a Brita pitcher or equivalent first so that the taste of the rice ins't impacted. For those complaining about poorly cooked brown rice, I think it may have something to do with the type of rice being used (i.e. there are probably some assumptions being made on the part of Panasonic). I've only experimented with Nishiki brand medium grain white and medium grain brown rice in the cooker thus far (both are a California grown Japanese style rice) and haven't had any issues.Quick cleaning tip: after emptying the cooked rice from the cooking pot, leave the pot out or cooker open so that the residue in the pot can dry out. It's a lot easier to clean when you do this because nearly all of the residue in the pot will peel right off and can be thrown away. If you just toss the pot into a sink full of water for cleaning, then the moistened residue will become very glue-like and hard to remove.

I basically bought this to make many different rices such as white, jasmine, brown and other foods such as quinoa and mixtures. There is a slight burn patch toward the middle but I think it's a ratio of water that I need to adjust from time to time. I personally DO NOT follow the water marking levels within the inner pan as the rice gets extremely mushy.I go under the waterline by 2 or 3 millimeters. The quality of the unit seems very well made. The controls look simple and the quality of the non-stick inner pan is excellent. Too many times manufacturers cheapen the teflon coating and it food still ends up sticking. The only issue I might have is a slight confusion on the quick cook/steam button. It has the same image of the White Rice button although different colors. So what exactly is the quick cook/steam function for? Is it just for steaming veggies? Then it should just be a labeled STEAM. I haven't tried the porridge function but it will be rare that I ever use it for making homemade soups.Wish it had a beep tone when done. And I wish there was a holder for the scoop. Wish there was a steam/water drain removable reservoir rather than the built-in left and right side drain areas.But other than my own confusion...and some minor minor wants...it works very well. I can see this lasting for years to come.

Do you enjoy rice that dries out about 5 minutes after it’s cooked? Well, you’re weird, but you should definitely get this rice cooker!This thing is a joke. The Keep Warm setting would more accurately be labeled Dry Up, because that’s what it does best. Makes rice and then lets it dry out asap, as if you unplugged it and left the top open. Truly amazing.Spend a little more money on a decent rice cooker (you know the one, the $$$ one you want to get but aren’t quite ready to commit to) because it’s so worth it. This guy is trash. Or it will be, very soon, because you deserve good rice. You know you do.