[Steko]

It looks like they've switched to some less reliable technology based on Amazon reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Tatung-Tac-11kn-Stainless-Steel-Cooker...

I grew up with Tatung rice cookers. They used to last forever - only get replaced when owners get tired of looking at them or they become too dirty. I replaced mine with this stainless steel rice cooker about 1.5 years ago thinking it will really last forever since it's stainless steel (the old ones were made out of aluminum). Unfortunately, it stopped working a few days ago.

I just couldn't believe it, I opened it up (I am a hand-on electrical engineer) and found the heating element to be the culprit. Tatung no longer uses solid metal heating element, instead, Tatung uses a much inferior heating element made out of a sandwich of 3 to 4 layers of thin circular heat-resistant cardboard. With metal wires (the heating element) looped around these circular cardboard. After probing a bit, I found where the metal wire broke.

Called Tatung customer support and was told that they can't sell heating element because of liability issue. It'll cost $40 for them the repair it but I will need to ship it to them.

Side note: curse Wade and Giles for making everyone mispronounce this company's name.

[nsns]

Pinyin: "Datong".

[Steko]

Further derail: for those who aren't familiar, datong (大同, "great harmony"), is a idealized state of society in traditional Chinese philosophy that been re-appropriated by just every school of thought or "-ism" from before Confucious to Mao and beyond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_unity

There's some lengthy (English) discussion on the term in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Chinese-Revolution-Historical-Pers...