Chef'sChoice Automatic Electric Egg Cooker 7-Egg Capacity with Electronic Timer, Audible Signal & Nonstick Stainless Steel Design Hard-or Soft-Cook 7 or 3 Poached or Scrambled, 350-Watts, Metallic

I will begin by sayinng that I have NO REGRETS about buying this thing!First time I saw someone use an egg cooker was at work about 20 yrs ago. I thought that is the silliest thing I've ever seen. What a gimmick! How hard is it to boil eggs? Well I've learned, it can be very difficult. To make matters worse, I live at high altitude where water boils at a lower temp. Thus, getting the science right is a challenge: Standard sea level recipes don't work up here. And I don't have time to sit and watch eggs boil. It shouldn't be this difficult!I love jammy eggs. That's really my prefered way of eating boiled eggs. How do I define "jammy"? It's a completely cooked egg white, about a millimeter of custardy yolk, and the rest is creamy and runny. Sadly, while trying to achieve this on my (gas) stove using boiling water in a pot, my success rate to actually getting JAMMY EGGS is about 1 per dozen at best. Extremely frustrating, especially when they are undercooked. I have tried the following techniques: Bringing the eggs to room temp first and/or starting the eggs in cold water first, or adding them when there is a rapid boil and cooking for a certain amount of time, or adding them to a rapid boil, shutting off the heat, and letting them sit in a covered pot. Oh yeah, I've also tried sous vide (this method works, but is hugely impractical if I only want to eat 2 to 3 eggs for breakfast). I am currently on a diet plan where I eat a ton of eggs, so the fact that I only have a success rate of about 8% is extremely frustrating. I was extremely frustrated...and kinda desperate.It was time to suck up my pride and my skepticism and see if these egg cookers really work. I heard that they are plug and play and that the results are consistent. But a lot of the models and reviews were around their ability to cook mainly hard boiled eggs very well. What about my jammy eggs? Will I ever find the solution to consistently perfect jammy eggs every time? Or am I just asking too much from the egg world?Along comes the Chef's Choice egg cooker. Pricier than most, but the process is timer based, not water level based as other models had. I was especially interested in it's claim that it has a variable cook feature: You can cook soft, med, or hard boiled eggs in one batch. I got it on a Black Friday sale for a bit of a discount, and decided it's time to give this thing a test drive. I was still skeptical.This morning, hubby and I tested it out. We set it right smack on MED setting and filled it with water. We tried 2 eggs first. The alarm when finished is LOUD, but I like that. I can be in my office at the front of the house and hear it easily in the kitchen, which is a plus. Again, I want to know when it's done cuz I don't want overcooked eggs! The cooker doesn't stop automatically when it beeps either. You actually have to manually shut it off.We noticed minimal water was used when our eggs were done cooking. A quick plunge in cool water to stop the cooking and we dug in. EASIEST EGGS TO PEEL EVER. How? What is this sorcery? And we didn't even have to prick the bottom of the eggs to make a hole first? Wow! And oddly satisfying.You probably already know how this story ends. The eggs were cooked essentially perfectly. And again, so easy to peel! So delicious! We inhaled the first two. The water in the cooker was still hot so we decided to see what would happen if we immediately made a second batch. Would it throw the timer off? I backed it down to one hashmark below MED (that would be a "9" on the slider scale) to see what would happen. Turned it back on and away it went. Result? Could an egg be cooked even more perfect? Yes, YES it can! So from now on, this is my setting: a 9 on the scale and the ideal jammy egg every time! Why is this so simple? Why have I been a fool for 40+ years?So in conclusion, here is my summary:a) If you eat a lot of boiled eggs and you want a quick, reliable way to make them (unattended) that doesn't require standing over a stove. then buy this cooker.b) If you struggle with peeling eggs after they're done and are sick and tired of eating warm but mangled looking eggs, then buy this cooker.c) If you're a family where everyone likes their boiled eggs cooked in different ways, then buy this cooker.d) If you're a gadget lover, then buy this cooker.e) If you're not a gadget lover but are willing to invest in simple technology that will last seemingly forever, then buy this cooker.Note: I haven't tried the poach feature yet, but I suspect the results will be equally impressive. I don't have struggles with making poached eggs so my goal was to solve my jammy boiled egg crisis. Also, there is a very faint mark on the slider knob that is hard to see when you're positioning it to your desired setting. I took a dab of white nail polish and made a line over it so that it's easier to see it and position the slider to the exact setting that I want. This step is not necessary at all but it makes it easier for me to see and makes me feel better.Lastly, be careful when removing the lid. Like the warnings say: the steam underneath can scorch you if you're not careful. Other than that, I'm embarassed that it took me so long to get one of these. Could've saved me dozens of eggs and years of disappointment.

Just received and did one poached egg this morning. I put water to the MAX level, but an Extra Large egg to poach in the egg holder, set the lever on "P" and when it was perfectly done, the audio sound could be heard, even with my poor hearing. What is strange, compared to other egg poachers I have, is the the water level was almost still at the MAX level, indicating that the slider lever works for perfect egg result. The poached egg had a runny yoke, which I prefer, and the white was hard. So far, this is the best egg poacher I have every used -- which is my fourth and different poacher in 52 years of marriage.UPDATE: If you want a little more runny yoke, move the slider slightly to the left; but the white will be a little runny. Also, even though I use filtered water in the water reservoir, there still is a slight indication of water. So I use a 50-50 mix of lemon juice (which can be used instead of vinegar) and water. After I have eaten the eggs, I let the mixture stand for about 5 minutes, dump the water, and then wipe the area dry. This will keep the poacher efficient. I never did that with my previous poacher and the regular tap water is now hard to remove from its reservoir -- and it affects the poached egg timing.NEGATIVE ASPECT: Water collects on the egg rim for poached eggs, which can be an issue when removing the poached egg, even when using a spatula. Too bad each of the three egg holder for poached eggs are not separate. Stove-top egg poachers have this feature.

As a single guy, this egg cooker and the blender are the most used tools in my kitchen. I was never good at multitasking, and truth be told, I've had my good share of burnt toasts that were consumed anyways, so it was nice to remove hard-boiled eggs from that equation!This little machine is fantastic. I like my morning eggs hard on the outside and a little soft, but not runny, on the inside. I found the perfect settings to be halfway between number 8 and 9, and it delivers every single time! Unlike my old Cuisinart 8-egg cooker, I don't have to worry about the amount of water I pour, nor the number of eggs that are placed inside, because the cooking is independent of either variables. Above all, I no longer have to drill tiny holes in raw eggs beforehand to prevent them from exploding as required by the old Cuisinart. Accidents still happen, but that's usually when I pour more water than the maximum limit mark.I don't have filtered water running through the pipes, but I use the filtered water from the fridge dispenser to reduce the residue buildup in this egg cooker and my electric kettle. I didn't do this with our old Cuisinart egg cooker, and the black plastic was covered with hard-to-clean white sediments pretty quickly. Of course you can boil some vinegar inside to clean it, but with filtered water you never get them in the first place.This is a very good egg cooker, better than the Cuisinart I had before. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this device, and I don't remember the last time I said this with this much enthusiasm about any kitchen tools! Thank you for reading this mini review.Pros:- The tray has a handle that you can pick up and pour cold water directly on the cooked eggs. No need to get the eggs into a different bowl first.- Has a complex setting that makes variety of soft and hard boiled eggs in a single run!- Brushed stainless look matches other kitchen appliances.- Cooking to perfection neither depends on the number of eggs nor the amount of water.- No need to drill holes into raw eggs to prevent them from blowing up egg whites all over the place.Cons:- The alarm is a little annoying. I wish they had a nicer tone or a musical chime.- It doesn't turn off automatically after it is done. You have to manually turn the switch off.- If you are not careful with the water maximum limit, it may overflow, or the eggs may explode.- You have to carefully remove the lid after cooking to prevent skin burns, because a lot of steam builds up underneath.