Showerthought: my $25 rice cooker from the Walmart on Colfax outlasted the $180 one my wife picked
So my fancy Zojirushi finally died last month after maybe 2 years, and I dug the cheap one out of the garage just to get dinner going. That thing has been dropped, packed in a moving truck twice, and it's still cooking perfect rice at 5 years old. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I've been paying for features I never use this whole time. What's the cheapest thing you own that just refuses to die?
Gotta disagree on the cheap stuff always winning. My Zojirushi is going on 8 years and I use it 3 or 4 times a week, so yeah yours dying at 2 is rough. But here's the thing, the cheap ones usually have a coated pot that starts flaking after a couple years, and then you're eating bits of nonstick with your rice. My in laws went through three $20 cookers in the time we've had ours. What I've found is the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, like the $60 to $80 range, where you get a decent pot and it actually holds temp right. The Walmart one that lasts forever is kind of the exception, not the rule. Take that with a grain of salt though, maybe I just got lucky with mine and you got lucky with yours.