Chipshot, in our model, if you use regular rice you are supposed to measure with the clear cup, wash it, put it in the pot then adjust the water. For rinse-free rice you are supposed to measure with the green cup, put it in the pot, adjust the water and press the "prewashed" option before selecting the cycle. I believe when you prewash regular rice you are only removing starch and bran. But I'm not so sure with converted (parboiled) rice that the nutrients won't be washed away -- apparently the process is to heat the rice in a partial vacuum and then inject either water and/or steam, then dry the rice and remove the husk, thus driving most the nutrients into the rice and preserving them, but they are water soluble. I'm with you when it comes to white rice, I figure the actual food (except for starch) will have to come from the other dishes... as a matter of fact, for the longest time I worried that in America we were getting excess vitamins and minerals, everything seems to have "(7/9/11/15) essential vitamins and minerals" -- but lately, lots of news have been popping all over the place about people who have deficiencies that are unthinkable in a first world country (like the B complex of vitamins) and I discounted them as "they only happen to other people", until friends of mine were diagnosed with mild scurvy and/or Vitamin D deficiency; so many things are low/no fat, or are processed in such a way that more than just fat/sugar/salt gets removed and the doctors have not caught up yet, they still think that if you have a balanced diet you'll get all the nutrients you need; but who gets a balanced diet, I ask -- I had to pester the managers in my local supermarkets 'cuz every single yogurt they sold was "fat free", which simply doesn't work for baking, for example, not to mention that now one thinks one is eating actual yogurt but one is actually missing several of the key ingredients and nutrients. More news recently are popping up about how one of the vitamins in the B complex (niacin? I'm not sure) controls cholesterol better than the medicines given to people who have high cholesterol. The number of friends who are on those pills is a little disquieting and I figure I won't poke fun anymore, there'll always be other foods that are nutritious on my table, but I don't see why I should remove any nutrition from things I know people will eat no matter what diet they may be (rice, for example) even if they eat less of the rest of the dishes. Anyway, I just made some parboiled/converted rice today, used the clear cup and regular cycle and didn't wash the rice, and it came out OK, even if a tad harder than when I cook it on the stove, but still perfectly edible, so I won't worry too much about it, I may try the other cup/cycle options but it's perfectly acceptable as it is. I'll try the other white rices with and without washing and several options etc and see if there's any difference. If anything, it seems that the computer is compensating quite well for the differences and it might very well be that your model is advanced enough that it compensates fully for everything and you don't need to worry about it. My impression is that "mixed rice" might be like when you have a regular rice mixed in with some wild rice, for example, but it might very well be that it means rice with beans or peas instead. Lots of fun trying the different things, that's for sure. I have not had anything yet get the inner lid dirty (except for steam), but I continue to remove it and clean it every cycle. Maybe it only happens when one uses more rice/cereal and water? And I'm still a little surprised by the number of kitchen stuff (this rice cooker included) that is imported from areas that seem to care way more than we do about saving energy and resources but then manufacture things that are not dishwasher safe or, even if they are ostensibly made with materials that are traditionally dishwasher safe, tell us to wash the things by hand. All things being equal, using the dishwasher saves not only time, but also water and energy, and I vastly prefer to put things in the dishwasher -- so far, the only thing I don't care for in this rice cooker is the hand washing, everything else has been working better than I expected.

Over the course of a year I will cook literally hundreds of pounds of rice. Most of that is cooked in 20 pound batches in large cast iron kettles. I also own and regularly use several electric rice cookers in various sizes. The largest will cook 3 lbs of rice. I like to cook Cajun style potatoes in my electric rice cookers because of the "special flavor" that develops in them. It comes from the "browning" that occurs during the cooking cycle. The taste is very unique and absolutely delicious. With that said........... THE MOST HANDIEST rice cooker of them all are my "microwave" rice cookers. I am single and use a 6-cup rice cooker the most. I can cook 1 to 6 cooked cups of rice in it......which meets most of my needs. It is made out of inert high temperature plastic and has a lid & insert that by design, allows steam to "circulate", creating the perfect steam cooking environment. It has locking handles to keep the lid secure. It comes with a graduated cup for measuring the rice and water.....and it comes with a rice spoon for fluffing it up. And best of all; since it is made out of inert high temperature plastic, you can store any left over rice in the cooker right in the refrigerator. AND since it is made out of that high temperature plastic, cooked rice CANNOT STICK. So cleanup is super simple. And when you want to use that leftover rice, just put a couple of TBS of water in the container and heat it backup in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Rice will taste as good as if freshly cooked. These microwave rice cookers are very VERY cheap.......only 6 dollars at Walmart. They are made by Miracle Ware.....with Main-Stays Home the brand name. These do not take of much space on the shelf. Don't let the cheap price fool you.....this is a well made, high quality product and it will cook rice perfectly every time with absolutely no attention. Again, this is "THE BEST DEVICE" for cooking perfect rice every time...since sliced bread. IMO, everybody should have one of these microwave rice cookers. Now the electric rice cookers are great too. However, they take up much more room and you should not store any leftover rice in its aluminum cooking pot in the refrigerator. And they are not as easy to clean up since rice will stick to the aluminum cooking insert. My microwave is used only to boil water, warm up leftovers & TV dinners, make roux, and cook rice. It is used most often for cooking my small batches of rice........only takes 15 minutes to cook a batch......and takes less than 1 minute to clean it. Dan Semper Fi-cus

shaun, I hope I didn't make you feel that I was criticizing your choice in instant rice. I'll admit, I'm picky. I don't like pizza, or red tomato based sauces, or blue cheese, or olives or white pasta or a zillion things that other people just love. I don't like beer or wine either and people look at me like I've grown an extra head when I say the best wine I ever tasted only got rated a "that doesn't completely suck". However, I will eat peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwiches, so I'm sure not going to criticize anyone else for anything they like! Like others, though, I don't think instant rice saves much time, by the time I boil the water, stir in the rice, let it set for 5 minutes or whatever. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes to make instant rice and about 20 to make regular rice, so I can't say I'll make instant rice if I'm in a hurry, it only takes about 5 minutes more to make regular rice. Whatever I make, I usually make extra so I can have some for breakfast or use leftovers for rice pudding or fried rice. And I did find that I shouldn't just use arborio rice in chicken rice soup when I'm out of regular long grain. (grin) I did that last week and ended up with a big ole' pot of chicken flavored rice, no soup to it at all. The rice sucked up every bit of broth I had in the pot! Annie

I make my rice in the microwave. It is whole grain rice though. I boil the water then as required I use double the water to rice and microwave on high for 25 minutes. I find that is the easiest for me for cleanup and steam and rice sticking problems. Nephew says it is just the same as his rice cooker in texture and flavor. I wouldn't know because I don't have a rice cooker or an instant pot. I'm sure most people would prefer the rice cooker to the microwave but I prefer the microwave.