I press START to cook and all I get is a chasing lines pattern. Is my rice cooker broken?

Are you are getting this effect on your the display of your rice cooker?

This means that your rice cooker has a last 10 minute countdown (good accuracy).

To learn more about why this is please consult how countdowns vary between rice cookers by looking at these pages:

Rice cooker countdowns can vary but some a more reliable than others. Some rice cookers have no countdowns at all.

The three main types of rice cooker countdowns are as follows:

1. Last 10 minute countdown (GOOD ACCURACY)

2. Full countdown from the start of cooking (MEDIUM ACCURACY)

3. LOOP full countdown (GOOD ACCURACY) - only available on the Fuji model.

Fuzzy logic are good at predicting cooking results but it requires some time to calculate the time needed to cook something. This is because of several factors that it needs to figure out such as ambient room temperature, starting bowl temperature of contents, what you are cooking and other various factors.

Until the fuzzy logic calculates these factors some rice cookers will either show a blank display (largely Zojirushi models) or will show a chasing lines pattern on the display until the calculation is confirmed. (Yum Asia models). The more accurate rice cookers don't calculate the remaining time until the final 10 minutes. If the countdown starts at the beginning of cooking often the remaining time will jump around a lot as it tries to work out what cooking time is required. Usually it cannot fix on one remaining time until the final 10 minutes also. Trying to work out what a jumping countdown time means can be confusing for users. This is why we consider this type of countdown to be less reliable, especially in the early stages of cooking.