Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We have never owned a rice cooker; we've always just cooked rice on the stove. But our son is coming home from Bangkok with his Thai girlfriend, so we bought this one which is similar to theirs. Some reviewers say it spatters and bubbles through the hole in the lid, and makes a mess. We debated whether rinsing the rice was necessary. The directions say to, but our rice bag did not say to. I have never rinsed rice, but the Thai lady does. So we did an experiment. The rice we briefly rinsed and drained before cooking was perfect. The same high-quality Thai jasmine rice, unrinsed, caused spattering and spitting out of the hole in the lid. So, there you are.