Been there with the bean standoff, except my weapon of choice was an old crockpot that cooked everything to the same temp as lava. My tip for next time is just skip the rice cooker for beans, a plain pot on the stove does the job and dried pintos really want like 2 hours of a low simmer, not 20 minutes. As for the $7 cooker, mine lasted about 14 months before it did the same sad click, so you got a normal run out of it honestly. Cheap ones are basically disposables, but if you just need rice, the little Aroma ones at Walmart for around $15 hold up better and cook rice way faster. One thing I learned the hard way, never trust a rice cooker with anything but rice.