The easiest way to make rice is in the microwave, and then you don't need to have an extra appliance to store *says the small kitchen appliance junkie*. Just make sure the container you use is big enough for the accompanying 'blubbing'

or you'll have a mess to clean up. I don't like heating up plastic in the micro, so I use either a Corningware dish with glass lid or a Pyrex glass casserole dish with lid.
I had a rice cooker I actually did love. My mom bought it for our family when we had eight kids at home. I recently donated it to my mom's church since I no longer need a thirty-cup rice cooker but I did need space in the pantry. It did make wonderful rice.
Maybe I should play around with my rice cooker before I get rid of it and see if I can get to like it. I did figure out if I flip the base of a tea ball over the hole in the lid, it doesn't make such a mess. The holes in the tea ball allow the steam to escape without letting the starchy water splatter all over.
There are different kinds of rice cookers. Some have a sensor on the bottom below the bowl that shuts the cooker off when the water cooks off and the temp starts to rise. Those are the splattery kind. Others are steamers that you put water into the bottom of, below a bowl that contains the rice and more water. They work on the same principle, they shut off when the water boils away, causing the temp to rise.
The thing I don't like about the kind without the water below the rice bowl is they form a crust on the bottom of the bowl that's prized in some cultures, but for me is a pain in the neck to clean up. Hmmm... Two strikes against my rice cooker. Maybe I'll donate it after all and forget about trying to learn to like it.