I used to have a basic pan steamer but decided to upgrade to this electric one after seeing that lots of users reccomended it. It comes with a few accesories, an instruction manual and some useful recipes.

The appearance of this steamer is great. It looks very proffesional and impressive sitting in my kitchen with the silver stainless steel metal and blue digital screen. However beware of the size. It dosen't look to big in the picture but this is a large, bulky steamer and requires a fair bit of space. It can also be a bit of hassle moving it around due to the weight of it so I just tend to leave mine on the counter.

The steamer has a capacity of 8.2 litres and is meant to serve up to 4 people although can probably manage more than that. It has 3 seperate compartments and also comes with some extra add-ons including rice and sauce trays and a divider wall which can be easily removed. The compartments are quite sizeable and can hold quite a lot of food in one go. There is a gauge where you can check the amount of water during cooking and it is very easy to top up if you need to. There is also a safety feature were the steamer will cut out and an alarm goes off if the water drys out although luckily I have never used this.

Another great aspect is the digital timer which is indeed very intelligent! If you are cooking foods with different cooking times then the timer will automatically set it up so that each food finishes at the same time which is very useful. There is also a guide which gives you set times for different foods so you don't have to guess which I also found extremely useful. However you can also adjust these times if you find that the food is either to soft or to hard for your liking, but I tend to find the pre-set times are pretty much spot on. If there is a food you cook regularly but is not in the pre-set times then you can put in the correct time and have the steamer save it in memory for the next time. Thanks to the timer you can also walk away and get on with something else while waiting instead of regular steamers which you have to keep checking on. The steamer will let you know when it is done with a loud buzzer which you can hear from several rooms away. If the food is done before you are ready for it then the steamer will also keep the food warm for you for a maximum of 40 minutes. I used this and the food tasted just as good after 40 minutes as when I got it out straight away. I have used many different foods in my steamer and it does produce brilliant results and I find that the food always tastes great.

For those of you thinking how complex this steamer sounds and are worried about it being diffiuclt to use I can assure you it is very easy to use. The screen is very simple and straightforward and there are no complicated knobs and buttons. Everything is clearly labelled and easily understandable. You will get the hang of it in no time!

Cleaning is very straightforward as each compartment can simply be taken out, given a quick rinse and a wipe then replaced, job done. It is also fine to put in the dishwasher.

Overall I would highly reccommend this steamer and after using it I would never go back to normal pan steamers.