This is a simple rice cooker with two modes: rice and soup. Soup is a basic simmering mode, which keeps the pot at a rapid simmer when the switch is "on". The rice cooker is the "sealed and insulated" kind, so it looks like a more expensive electronic rice cooker, but, it's not. It's an "analog" rice cooker that happens to have the insulated pot. The big advantage of this type of pot is that all the energy goes into the rice, and the surroundings don't get hot and steamy. It's energy efficient.

Unlike the better "fuzzy" or computerized rice cookers, this doesn't make perfect rice every time. You have to pay attention to the amount of water. Pay attention, and your rice will be perfect.

You can cook anything in the soup mode. A pot of beans cooks up in a couple hours, and the insulated pot helps prevent the kitchen from heating up.

One problem with this rice cooker is that the steam builds up and drips off the steam vent. As the steam escapes, it condenses, and drips back into the pot, creating a wet spot.

Overall, this is a good deal (at around $60). A step up from the old-fashioned rice cookers, without the high cost of the electronic type.

(Wrote this for MySears.com, for their $10 gift certificate prize.)