I love this rice maker! I use it very often. My only complaint is that it "spits" a lot of sticky moisture out of the hole. I have been covering the lid with a cloth napkin (hanging it over the handle) and that works great to catch the spray.

This machine makes nice rice. I use this machine in the kitchen sink because it boils over and sprays water when I cook rice. It would be great if this machine has a retractable cord.

We just got this cooker in the mail 6/30/11 and decided to try it out. First of all, I like to say it did an excellent job of cooking the rice, at least to our palate. We tried it with a generic California brown rice of no exotic brand and it came out perfect. We used the maximum amount that the instruction booklet called for and there was a little residue that spewed out of the vent hole in the lid but the cooker contents come to a rolling boil and the small amount that came out was no more than a pan on the stove would splatter.

Now for the little booklet that accompanies the cooker.......The NHS-06 cooker is called a "3 cup". That is for WHITE rice only. The maximum capacity is 2 cups of uncooked BROWN rice. The instructions are difficult to follow from one page to the other and appear to be in conflict with each other because one refers to white rice and the next page brown rice although it doesn't specifically say so. We'll just have to experiment but thoroughly enjoyed our first pot of rice.

If you don't have a need to prepare large quantities of rice at a time, this little cooker is a gem.

My first introduction to a dedicated rice cooker began in December 1996 when I moved into my new home in El Paso, Texas. My friend Mike who I worked with in Pakistan and his wife Kim gave me a large Zojirushi rice cooker as a house-warming gift. I really liked the way that it cooked rice but even with a family of 4 I never needed to cook more than 3 cups of raw rice which was its minimum and unfortunately I often pitched a bunch of rice in the trash.

Jump to March 2010 - Throughout the years I had enjoyed this cooker until it died. So off I went to buy an new rice cooker. Recently divorced, I did not need a rice cooker that would make a gallon of rice so I decided to scale down. This time I purchased the Zojirusho NHS-06 3-cup rice cooker. It is a very basic machine that does not have a warming feature that its predecessor had; but what did I need that for anyway. Besides, I can cook from 1-3 cups of raw rice and that is exactly what I needed.

I must say that my rice cooking experiences have varied somewhat since I purchased this cooker. I have found that your basic white rice, no matter how you cook it is terrible but that is just my preference. Basmati rice, however, RULES!

Being Filipina, I've been through MANY rice cookers and found it difficult to find the perfect one for a household that no longer needs to make 4-8 cups of rice on a daily basis. Yes, there are better rice cookers that have cords that retract, lids that snap shut, are made to insulate, and play digital tunes when the rice is done. They are ALSO close to $100. I'm cool with the old school "ding" for $30. The size saves space on the counter top, it's easy to clean, and the rice comes out just right every time. I have also found my Zojirushi water boiler to be a trustworthy product.

after owning several salton 3cup rice makers that died (see reviews on them - a lemon model), i decided to try this rice maker. this is a simple design that works just fine. i normally cook rice that i eat over a day or so, then scoop portions out for different meals. as such, a "keep warm" feature is not desired by me (this has no keep warm feature). the lack of an off switch is not a problem - the thing turns itself off when done, and i tend to store it unplugged anyway. the pot is the same size as the 3 cup salton, so my old pots will work if this pot is in dishwasher. this does spit a little from the steam hole, so i aim it at the sink - not really a problem. there are many fancier models which i don't need, and some cheaper brands which i have several dead examples. i don't know how long this may last, but i hope it lasts longer than the saltons! if you want a keep-warm feature or some fancy electronics, or the cheapest 3cup model, this isn't for you; if you want something that just does what it is supposed to do, i'd suggest considering this cooker.

I am totally thrilled. For breakfast every morning I cook Old-Fashioned oatmeal with apple and cinnamon in it and for dinner rice with spices, veggies, shrimp or fish and have a meal in a pot. I highly recommend The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufman which has amazing recipes. The pan inside has very slippery non-stick coating which I carefully wash by hand. I rinse my rice first which is how you prevent the spitting that some people report. You MUST wash the rice to get the starch off. Cooks brown and mixed brown and wild rice wonderfully. Great for 1 or 2 people.

I purchased two of these (large size and smaller one) for my family in the US. I use it when I am home for a visit. I have never been able to use this cooker w/o it spraying water all over my countertop. In short, I regret the purchase.

I now live in Tokyo and realize that Zojirushi is just pushing an inferior product on the US market. You cannot even purchase a thin-lid rice cooker here, especially one w/ a blowhole in it that lets turns the cooker into a steady spray of boiling rice water every time it is used. Not good.

If you are serious about cooking rice often, and not having to clean up your kitchen after each use, I suggest that you invest a little more and get a better designed product.

Perfect rice every time. Even brown rice cooks great.

A little hint, when you put the water in the dry rice before hitting the COOK button make a little depression like a crater in the center of the rice bed. It promotes the circulation of the heat and cooks more evenly.

This worls wonderfully with Japanese style rice such as Kokuho Rose or Nishiki. It comes out nice and fluffy.Look down at the bed when the thing dinks done and look at the perfection below.

Enjoy. This is a terrific cooker

This machine is designed to give baseline service in a rice cooker. It uses a design and technology over 15+ years old. For the amount of money being charged you might want to consider getting a machine that at least has a retractable cord.

On the plus side - the pan heats well and is teflon coated; does white long grain and Japanese medium and short grain very well.

Be aware that the water markings on the interior of the pan correspond to cooking Japanese rice which uses a different ratio of rice to water than other varieties such as, wehani or short grain brown.

This machine has to be played with to do shorter grain varieties of brown. It can handle long grain brown fine.

I would make the suggestion of looking at (all) the rice cookers there and find one that has the following things for the money:

1) stainless steel pan or aluminium pan lined with teflon; 2) retractable cord; 3) warming function;

An on/off switch is NOT standard on an Asian rice cooker. It is due to the fact that in Japan and Australia there is an on/off switch right in the wall plug area. The manufacturers did not take into account that Americans with their different outlet styles would be rice junkies (silly them).

Do not cook anything less than a cup or try for more than 3 cups. Too little rice cooked comes out a bit odd while too much means your pot lid will pop up due to too much steam.

Oh yeah, that's another thing - the lid can make noise due to the steam lifting it during the cooking process (bubbling pot lid kind of stuff). It is not dangerous so don't freak from the noise.

This machine is fine for the dorm or home. But do examine the cost of the machine, the amount of rice you eat and the cost of the machine to features.

This machine is good but it is not great.

...is the lack of an on/off switch. We bought this a few weeks back and the cooking is generally good and even. The heavy glass lid was a vast improvement over the thin metallic one of our panasonic cooker.

But the lack of on/off means you have to plug and unplug it from the socket whenever you want to turn the system on/off. That sucks.