We have long had problems with cooking eggs. Scrambled and over-easy seemed to be the only ones we were truly good at. Hard-boiled meant getting cracked eggs, half-cooked, hard-as-a-brick, etc., poached meant runny or an explosion in the microwave.With this device, eggs are perfectly cooked. sure, some still do crack, but I think that is more a function of the egg, than the cooker.It automatically shuts off at the completion of the cycle, so you don't have to be within ear-shot of the device to make sure you don't set the house aflame.So far, we've done hard-boiled and poached and both are fabulous. The directions also told us how to "peel" a hard-boiled egg properly without a million pieces of shell. I still giggle with delight after a month with this device.Best $28 we've spent in a long time