Others say...

"More of the same."
Like many others, steaming rice in one of these contraptions is a waste of time. We thought perhaps we were missing a gasket, given the mess that was on our counter after each use. And reducing the water made the rice come out crunchy. So, we're chalking it up to a bad purchase and returning to our tried and true pyrex casserole dish in the microwave. That always worked just fine.

"Looks Great, but Makes a Mess!"
Being a daily 'rice maker' I wanted a rice cooker I could keep on the counter top. While it looks sharp on the counter, this rice cooker boils over when cooking- even if only making one cup. I have discovered the problem is with the lid which allows boil over. I simply used my old rice cooker lid and problem solved! For aesthetics, I switched the top knob so that it matched. Also the existing lid is difficult to clean as it has a small lip underneath that can only be cleaned out with a toothpick... Rice cookers are simple devices, just boiling water for x amount of minutes... So overall looks great, works fine, but needs a different lid!

"I really disliked this rice cooker"
I gave alot of thought to buying this cooker after my old trusty Black and Decker cooker died after 15+ years. It makes a mess, spitting out water. If I reduced the water, it came out dry ( I live a t altidute). When steaming one day, the water ran out, and the heating element melted giving off a awful smell. At least it is dead now, and I can try again with a different brand

"Easy to use"
We have used the rice cooker every night since we received it. Delivery was very fast, received it 2 days before their ship date. Very easy to clean and does steamed vegetables really fast.

"Cool design, bad execution"
We finally gave in and replace our very old but reliable Salton RA3A. The handle broke a while ago but we used it many times since it still works although the switch has gotten a bit loose that sometimes it would turn itself off when you thought you turned it on. It was a cheap basic cooker and we never had complaints. It does what it does satisfactorily. We were thinking of buying the Rival from Target which costs only $13 (hey that's even cheaper than Amazon's next-day shipping!) plus it has a warmer, but we were turned off by the red color which is the only color available. So we decided we reward ourselves with something better and can be used as a steamer.

When we first saw the Cuisinart CRC-400, we thought it has the coolest design, also has nice stainless steel finish with chrome and black accents. Looks perfect for the kitchen and it only costs $50. Unfortunately, this cooker makes rice a little mushy but that's not our biggest complaint. We thought it's a defective product but after reading some of the reviews here, the design flaw mentioned by many is major and for real. The rice cooker makes a big mess! The rice water spills over and this is because the lid is not flush. Don't know why they did this on purpose because there is already a hole on the lid to let steam out. I believe Cuisinart QA were sleeping when they were testing this product. They should be fired. It also missed on one functionality, and that is the on/off switch. It's easy to forget to unplug it because we were so used to the old one which turns itself off automatically. We did forget at first use and that can be a fire hazard. Maybe they try to cut cost by omitting this switch.

Anyway, you have been warned. I guess the people who gave this higher ratings don't mind the clean up and non-environmentally friendly products. We really want to like the CRC-400 because it looks perfect in our kitchen but I find it hard to recommend it for its shortcomings. My partner bought this without reading the reviews else I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. We even paid fast-shipping on this so shipping was not free. We've already thrown the old rice cooker away the moment we got this new one. Hopefully, Amazon will give us full credit for the return because we already threw the box away, thinking it will perform flawlessly.