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.

This is my second steamer. The previous one is still going strong from 2016.This product is the best because it is easy to use and view the food.The bowl is stainless steel and very easy to clean.

Maybe the rice cooker I got had a problem with its stainless steel pan or maybe there all bad, but here is my story.I used this cooker for over a year. Not my first rice cooker. The rice was always burnt on the bottom or really mushy on top. I tried more water, less water, long soak before cooking, short soak before cooking, long sit after cooking, short sit after cooking, etc. Lots of careful notes. Nothing worked, until I tried unplugging the cooker when it sounded like the rice was cooked. It is hard to describe the sound, but I learned to recognize it. Ah! Good rice. Ok, so the thing is not turning itself off at the right time. So I contacted the US importer and even though the warrantee had long expired, they sent me a new thermostat for free. I put it in. Same problem. So, I tried putting the aluminum pan from my old ricer cooker in this one. Worked great. I tried every combination of old and new pans, thermostats and cookers I could. In the end, every time I used the stainless steel pan the rice was over cooked or mushy (depending on the amount of water used) unless I unplugged the cooker at the magic time. Every time I used the aluminum pan from my old cooker the rice was great.I conclude that there is a problem with the stainless steel pan.I went back to using my old rice cooker. It is really banged up and the pan is permanently stained, but at least the rice is edible.

I bought this rice cooker in Sept of 2021. Back in the days we used to use aluminum rice cooker for many years. And then non stick rice cookers came into the market. Like most people we started to use those as it was the new trend and also it was much easier to wash. But as time passed people began to realize that the teflon was chipping and wearing out. We went through a few non stick rice cookers. Finally we decided to switch to stainless steel. Best decision. This rice cooker is easy to use. Like the old aluminum rice cooker, there is only one switch and one setting. You press the button and when the rice is ready the switch bounces back up. It uses old technology. The only difference is the pot is stainless steel instead of aluminum. The stainless steel is good quality. It's a little harder to wash than no stick. You need to soak it for around ten minutes but it's better than buying a new cooker every 2-3 years. The only downside is the price. For old technology it's a little pricey but if you consider your health it's probably worth it. We have used this rice cooker everyday and so far it is holding out really well. Great rice cooker.

This is the second time I buy this rice cooker. I bought the first one in 2013 and I use it several times a week. I like it very much so I buy another one. It has been 3 years and it's still perfect! I cook 2 cups white Jasmin rice in 3 cups water. They come out perfect each time.I also soak 2 cups brown rice + 1/4 cup brown sticky rice in water for 8 hours then drain them and cook them in 3 cups water. When the machine switches to "Keep Warm" Yellow mode, I let it as is for another 10 minutes to complete the cooking. They are also perfect every time. To prevent the cooked rice to stick to the bottom of the rice cooker, I wait a bit for the rice at the bottom to cool a little bit before removing them. Sometimes I test a bit, if it still sticks to the bottom then I wait a few minutes more. When they are ready to be removed, they all come off, no rice is wasted and the clean up is nice! I never use the steamer. Actually I throw the steamer away to save spaces.

So far, so good. The cooker works well, rice comes out perfectly.Edit November 2017: After a few months of heavy use, the cook button stopped working! It won't stay on Cook most of the time. so my review goes from 5 to 1 stars. Too bad, I was hoping to enjoy this for a lot longer. The search for a durable stainless steel cooker continues...

Very easy to use as a rice cooker, particularly as there are no settings to choose -- simply an on-switch. Makes fluffy rice very quickly. The rice does stick to the bottom of the pot, even if I lightly oil the base before adding the pre-washed rice, so some of the final product is lost due to wastage. However, the pot cleans easily just by soaking the residue rice in water. This was an upgrade from a very old aluminum rice cooker where we were concerned about contamination from the aluminum, but the stainless steel presents no concerns.

The Product description was not good need review by seller. Cos it did not say how many cups. I was worried if it was too big, I would have to return. But turn out in my mail box 8 CUPS BEAUTIFUL! PERFECT SIZE ! PERFECT COOKED RICE! if you dint get perfect rice and some reviews say hard in some areas that's because you dint have enough water.How my mom taught me was to put the washed rice in and put water and get your middle finger on middle of rice and when it touches the rice on tip the water level, It should be just on or over the 1st line of your middle finger. Also, add some Salt sprinkle 1/2 Tea spoon or even one teas spoon and try a Tea spoon of Turmeric as well kids will love the yellow and good for all... Capitho ??Already Ordering 2 more for my In laws. And for the steamer, have some Brussels Sprouts and Carrots and steams perfect. Melts in your mouth.