Ta-Tung is actually a very good brand. They are a Taiwanese company and a common household brand in Tw. You might heard of them if you've been shopping for LCD tv's. I don't know why they went into that market, and I'm not sure if their TV's are any good. But their rice cooker are very good. In fact, my mom said that "You never need to buy another rice cooker if you buy a Ta-Tung." We still have the original rice cooker from when we first move to America, and thats around 15 years. We cook rice pretty much everyday.. so really its that good. We gave our grandparents the Ta-Tung rice cooker that we used before moving to America.. and my grandpa still uses it. So that would make it around 20-23yrs old. Can't vouch for the new rice cookers made by them. The japanese Z elephant brand is pretty good too, but it'll be more expensive, as i've heard they are programmable. The cookers that we own are old school and not programable lol.