Hot take: my $9 rice cooker died mid batch and I fixed it with a bread tie and pure spite
So this happened about 10 days ago on a Tuesday night, right when I was batch cooking rice for the whole week because my grocery budget is tight and rice is basically my best friend right now. The little switch on my cheap 6 cup cooker just stopped clicking down, so I'd press it and it would pop right back up. I googled it and every answer was basically "buy a new one" which is not helpful when you have $14 in your checking account until Friday. Then I noticed the switch mechanism was just a bent piece of metal that wasn't catching the tab anymore. I pulled the plastic lever off, bent the tab back with a butter knife, and wrapped a bread tie around the arm to add tension so it would hold. It looks insane and my roommate asked if it was a bomb. But it's cooked rice 8 times since then and hasn't popped up once. Has anyone else fixed one of these things for real, or am I just delaying the inevitable trip to the thrift store?
Wait, a bread tie alone wouldn't hold that tension. The metal tab you bent back is what's actually doing the work, the tie just keeps it from slipping. Not to be that person, but if that tab bends again you're back to square one.