I've had the same problem that a lot of others have had. I've been trying to use it for weeks, and in that time it has successfully cooked rice once. Most of the time it doesn't heat up at all. The fact that almost all the negative reviews are that it is literally unusable should tell you that shoddy craftsmanship means you'll either get a decent product or a very expensive bowl. It's not worth the risk, buy something else.