How did they cook rice in olden days before rice cookers!?
Rice was cooked in a pot with low heat, steamed in the wok or cooked/steam in bamboo.
This simple £22.00 Cookworks 1.5L Rice Cooker should be sufficient. Nothing fancy.
Mine is a Taiwanese Tatung Rice Cooker, exactly as shown below, that I have use almost everyday for nearly 20 years. Looks nothing fancy but it can last for many years. I have a spare one too,
The only cooking appliance I need is my Tatung rice cooker
This is the most reliable rice cooker I have ever used. It looks cheap but beat most rice cookers hands down. It does not have moving parts apart from the heat plate contact. The outer part of the rice cooker is just simple steel, the inner part of the rice cooker is aluminium but the container to put rice in is 304 stainless steel, and Not some cheapo aluminium. The usage is also slightly different from the above Argos version, as this version requires to pour a bit of water into the inner aluminium bowl before you put in the rice. It actually half steamed and boil the rice.
The model shown above is the red traditional version but they do have many fancy versions too but expensive. However, if you are going to use it for 30 to 40 or even more years, get one.
Crikey, I just saw the online retail price for Tatung in the UK. But if you happen to visit Thailand for holiday they sell them there too so get one or get three.
Also if you fancy some digital ones just check out all the Japanese rice cookers.