Panasonic 10-Cup (Uncooked) Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker - 1.8L Capacity for White Rice, Brown Rice, Porridge & Soup - One-Touch Cooking - SR-DF181 White - Perfect for Family Meals, Meal Prep & Healthy Cooking

Awesome economical fuzzy logic rice cooker. Cooks rice just like the fancier $300 fuzzy logic rice cookers albeit with fewer options. We have used it for white rice, porridge, sticky rice and a white rice/quinoa mix. All have come out fantastic when using the recommended amount of water (marks on the sides for white rice and porridge vs measured liquids for others).One thing to be aware of. The inner lid isn't removable for washing. While you can remove the plastic/silicon vent to hand wash, the metal lid and silicon seal isn't removable. You have to wipe it down in place with a sponge/paper towel to clean it. Its easy to wipe down when damp/warm but much harder after it has cooled down to room temperature. Not a deal breaker for us but could be an issue for others.Another word of caution is that this rice cooker doesn't have any audible indication for when the rice is done cooking. The only indicator is the light on the control panel. Not an issue for us since we start the rice cooker before any other part of the meal prep but other reviewers found it to be an issue/inconvenience.Makes enough rice for a family of 4 and very quick. Cooked my rice all the way through even when I used a lot. Also cooks brown rice very well, although it takes a long time.We've used National (Panasonic brand) and Panasonic higher-end rice cookers for -- I dunno, probably decades. We bought this one to replace another Panasonic 5-cup when the silicone seals finally tore after years of service. We received this one on 12/3/2020 and it stopped working by mid-February. It now just shows error code "H 02" and does not work at all. Looks like we have to pay shipping to to a central Service Center to get warranty repair. Quite disappointed in this model.Pros (while it lasted):- Nice design - a bit slimmer than our older Panasonic 5-cup model.- Does brown rice extremely well - nice and fluffy. Better than our older model "Fuzzy Logic" Panasonic, IMO.- While it's not recommended by the manufacturer, it keeps white or brown rice warm and ready to eat for 24 hours, without the rice drying out and becoming too hard and brittle. While all the Panasonic rice cookers we've owned have been able to do that, the 10-cup Zojirushi we have will dry out the rice overnight, so its cooked rice has to be stored in the fridge and steamed in the microwave the next night. This is what I've liked best about Panasonic rice cookers and is really the primary reason I've continued to buy them.- The teflon pot coating seems adequate - about the same as our previous models.Cons:- The water lines in the pot seem a bit too high compared to all the other rice cookers we've had. Not a deal breaker, but it's a bit of a hassle at first, as filling water to the appropriate lines produced wet mushy rice - both white and brown. We need to use less water than indicated by the line markings in the pot.- The timer function in this new model is much more of a hassle to use than it was in the older models we've owned. Now you have set it to start a certain number of hours (which will depend on what type of rice you're cooking) before the time you want the rice to be ready. With our previous Panasonic rice cookers you could just enter the time you wanted the rice to be ready and the rice cookers would automatically start cooking when appropriate. I guess Panasonic didn't want to put in a battery to keep track of the current time in this model. (We kept our older models plugged in all the time, so we never had to replace their batteries.)- The pot cover seal (silicone?) seems considerably thinner and therefore less durable than those of our older Panasonic models, but I guess time will tell.- Durability is in question given ours broke within 3 months. This unit is too expensive not to repair under warranty, but having to pay to ship it to a Service Center adds to the total cost of ownership. We may just have gotten a "lemon" of a unit, but it does leave a sour taste in our mouths - which we will remember the next time we shop for a rice cooker.[Update: It cost us over $60+ to ship the rice cooker from Hawaii to Panasonic's Florida service center via USPS (including return receipt); there is no "Ground" shipping available for us to Florida. Panasonic refunded us the purchase price, but we're out the $60+. Going forward, we won't be buying any Panasonic products that aren't cheap enough to just throw away if they break or are small enough to fit into a flat-rate box. Seems Panasonic has essentially abandoned the Hawaii market.Found out that Zojirushi at least has a service center on Oahu. ]Being an Islander, we eat rice almost everyday. So far, this is the best rice cooker I have owned. Easy to use, easy to clean and doesn't look too bad on my kitchen counter. Cooks rice to perfection!The rice cooker has a compact design. I like that it comes with a steamer basket. It cooks rice perfectly both long and short grain rice. Just follow the measurement cup that comes with it.We needed a smaller machine. Cost a lot less than our trust Zojirushi “space ship” but the rice is very nearly as good. It cost a lot less than the same size Zoji. Unless you are quite picky about your rice, this is an excellent choice. After owning it for a year, yes. We would buy another.This is by far the best kitchen gadget purchase I’ve made in a long time. It’s super easy to use and easy to clean. We’ve had perfect rice every time we have made rice since the purchase of the rise cooker. Love it!As an Asian-American, I have to have a rice cooker in my kitchen. That's non-negotiable. Until now, I've always used cheap dumb cookers and had mostly decent results. When ours finally gave up, I decided to splurge on a smart cooker and I'm happy that I did. I wasn't about to throw down $300 on a Zoji so this seemed like a good alternative. I didn't need all of the fancy cooking programs, just a button for white rice is sufficient.Pros:Non-stick is excellent! I haven't' had it too long now, but it's already been better than my last one ever was.Easy! Just put in your (rinsed) rice, add water (to the knuckle) press start. That's it.Great rice every time.Removable cord (Doesn't seem like much, but I hated the non-removable cord on my old machine)Stays hot. Even after unplugging, it keeps warm for a long time if you keep the lid closed.Cons:Annoying to clean. The lid doesn't come off so you have to wipe it clean and leave the machine open to dry. Luckily, it cleans up easily.No time remaining. My old machine didn't have that either, but it also didn't have a microcomputer.Kind of big.Bottom line: A huge upgrade from our older basic cooker. If the non-stick coating holds up, I'll have no regrets ever for spending the extra money for this superior machine.Great cooker. Unfortunately it is hard to get real Japanese rice where I live. I end up getting Kohoku rice and then after a few times using it turns out very tasty. Not perfect Japanese source rice but its the closest I can get. If your use to eating rice in Japan I highly recommend this cooker and the Kohoku rice. The fast timer works well for only like 20 mins instead of the slow 60 mins. Reasonable cost for what it can do as this has the "fuzzy logic" sensor which is best mainly for rice portions. For me this is a 99% rice maker for a family of 4, the other features I might use once in a blue moon. So get this if you do not want to pay a fortune for a rice cooker unless you get one from Japan itself. Average powerful rice cookers are close to 200-300 dollars which is a bit much honestly just because you can do more than just cook rice. Though rice cookers just stick to Japanese technology and you will be amazed in the difference. I got this on sale for 100 and have had good meals each time. Thank you Panasonic.This replaced a no-name, no electronics cooker we've had for over a decade so we rather thought it was time to get one that had a few more features. While the unit does have multiple modes and a pretty smart timer there are a couple of critical things that you only find out once you start using it.- It lacks an audible completion alert so you have to keep going back to see if it is done.- The Brown Rice mode REQUIRES that it sits through an hour-long Soaking Cycle regardless of the type you are using.While the latter is likely done for some reason doing with how brown rice SHOULD be cooked the former is an inexcusable omission on a modern small appliance. A small piezo buzzer, attached to the timer relay, costs almost nothing to add-in.Its only real saving grace is the absolute ease of use, ease of cleaning, thanks to everything being Teflon coated and generally decent performance outside of these two glaring annoyances. We are going to keep it but if we had known of these prior to purchase we likely would have continued searching for another model.You decide if these would be a deal-breaker for you.Quality degraded. I bought the exact same. Model from Best Buy a year ago. This current one heats up very slow. The unit does feel lighter.Update: I bought my 3rd unit already and this one is even more downgrade quality. The inner pot has a weird chemical smell after washing. It does take longer to heat up.I really like the appearance of my new rice cooker as well as the multiple functions and the delay timer. Now I could woke up in the morning or coming back home to freshly cooked rice. I’ve tried the white rice and jasmine rice settings so far, haven’t tired all the other features on the menus. I’m curious to see how the cake function would work. I’ll have to play around with it a little more. But so far I’m very happy with ait and I do think it’s reasonably priced for its feature and quality!Decide how much rice you want based on number of dry rice cups (included measuring cup). Add water in pan to the appropriate measuring line, add rice. push button. Get delicious rice when its done. Couldn't be simpler.