VitaClaySmart Organic Clay Pot Multi Cooker - Toxin Free Clay Rice Cooker, Delay Start Slow Cooker, Stew Cooker, Electric Soup Pot, Yogurt Maker, with Natural Earthen Clay Crock, 8 Cup / 4.2-Quart

I bought this slow cooker three years ago. I don’t trust most slow cookers because of their non-stick inner pot even if they are stainless steel on the outside. There are some on the market which have a stainless steel pot, however I thought that the flavor benefits of the porous even heating surface of the clay would be worth trying.So, three years later we are using the pot almost every day! I like to make very creamy porridge in the mornings. Either I put all the ingredients in the night before and set the automatic delay timer on, or I do it in the mornings and don’t have to worry about watching the pot or turning the heat off when it’s done. The automatic keep warm function is very handy for that. I add wheat germ, raisins for sweetness, hemp seeds and sometimes collagen powder along with the milk to our porridge recipe. I can’t tell you how glad I am to make something so nutritious for my kids for breakfasts with the minimum energy and effort. No more than it takes really to pour a cup of cereal!Other than for breakfasts I use this pot to make quick easy and nutritious meals when we have an extra busy day and either I only have 30mins to prepare a meal, or we need something ready as soon as we get home. Some of my favorite recipes that are a staple now in our family and are part of my recipe collection came from the recipe book that comes with the VitaClay. For example, the veggie sauce just involves cutting up the veggies and then pouring everything into the pot and setting it on stew function for two hours. It takes about 20mins to put everything together but the sauce is super healthy and I love the taste, it seems way more sophisticated than it really is and can easily be used as a main meal with some kind of protein added. Another favorite recipe from the book is their lentil stew and their minestrone soup. It’s my favorite minestrone soup recipe :)Lastly, I love using the pot to make something extra that would otherwise take up too much burner space on the oven top or be too much fuss. E.g. a side of rice or soup. I just have to put in the ingredients and then it cooks, switches off and keeps warm so I don’t have to pay attention to that and just focus on the rest of the menu. Wonderful! Impress your guests with how much you can cook in a short period of time :)There are only a couple downsides for this pot that we have found. Firstly, we are a family of four and sometimes I wish the pot was bigger so I could double the recipes and have enough left overs for a second meal the following day. At the moment only a little is leftover, enough for a side maybe. Also it’s not really big enough to make bone broth in bulk.Second point is that I would not use the pot to make yoghurt. The yoghurt I tried to make several times came out a little soggy and didn’t taste that great. I think that perhaps the porous nature of the pot means that unless you have any to do an extra tough cleaning job before you make your yoghurt the bacteria and flavors from your savory meals probably won’t mix well with making a vanilla yoghurt if you know what I mean! It’s just like a cast iron pan retains flavors I suppose. I just got a special yoghurt maker with separate small glass pots for making yoghurt and we shall see how that goes.Thirdly, although the recipe book is genius, the instruction manual is dodgy to say the least. The English is a little poor and you can tell someone who’s English is their second language wrote it. Secondly, there is an issue with the delay function. I believe you set the timer for the time you want the food to start cooking rather the time you want it to finish. However the manual says the opposite lol. Once you get the hang of how the slowcooker works you don’t really need the manual anymore for the most part and that’s a great relief.Lastly, our lid did break once but it was my husband dropping it by accident. We got a replacement shipped with no problems and have had no other breakages thus far. I am careful not to create sudden changes of temperature for the pot or put it in the sink with other dishes.The lid is hard to lift but the new models I believe come with a little metal hook which solves the problem with the flat lid knob. Customer service did ship me the metal hook after I asked which was great.Some of the The porridge can get stuck on the bottom if I don’t add enough liquid or leave it on warm for too long. However it’s easy to get off since it scrapes off with a wood spatula safely or if the worst comes to the worst you can just cook another meal in it and it will loosen up the bottom burn on.

I could not be more pleased with the VitaClay rice cooker! It is everything I hoped it would be.I probably invested about $1000 of my time researching rice cookers before making this purchase. I was very concerned about the VitaClay due to prior reviews I read here. I called VitaClay's manufacturer twice and I also did research at a lot of other sites. Ultimately, I decided to take a chance on the VitaClay, but I also planned to order a purely stainless steel model too.However, now that I have used the VitaClay for a week (cooking with it every day), I know this is the rice cooker for me. I do not need to look any further.It cooks perfect brown rice. I have also cooked rice + mung dal in it many times. The food doesn't stick to the clay pot. The flavors are great.I am satisfied that the quality of the clay pot is good. It passes California's tough regulations. These days I hesitate to purchase anything from China, but I'm comfortable that this product is safe.The rice cooker does not give off any unusual smells. My concerns about potential toxic materials in the cooker have disappeared after inspecting and using it. The construction quality is very high. It is super easy to clean. The controls are easy to use. The design looks nice. I feel I got a lot of value for my money.UPDATE:I have had my VitaClay rice cooker for almost two years now. i like it more than ever. It has held up well. It still looks like new even though I use it almost every day. I have had zero problems with it.BTW, the heating element does not come into contact with the food. The heating element is outside of the clay pot. The food only touches the clay. And, at the time I purchased mine, the owner of the company told me they do not use a non-stick coating on the heating element.Is there a better and safer rice cooker on the market anywhere? I have not found one. I think the VitaClay rice cookers are the best available - and the price is incredibly low too. If I ever find myself in a position to give a rice cooker as a gift, I will only give a VitaClay. And I will not cook with anything else myself.UPDATE 2: Well, it is now more than four and a half years later and my VitaClay rice cooker is still working well and I still like it as much as I did when I first wrote this review. I still give it 5 stars.