# I need a kitchen timer **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 27, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127 "2009-06-27T01:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/1 "2009-06-27T01:07:46Z")
I have a wonderful kitchen timer, or, rather wonderful other than the fact that it is worn out and has ceased to work. Brand is out of business: **Cook’s Club**. What I like about it: separate little input buttons for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Enter 4, 5, and hit Start and it ticks down 45 seconds. Enter 4, 5, 0, 0 and hit Start and it ticks down 45 minutes. Enter 4, 5, 0, 0, 0 and it ticks down 4 hours 50 minutes. Accepts 7, 5, 0, 0 as 75 seconds or 1, 1, 5, 0, 0 as 1 min 15 seconds, either way. At 0:00:00 it beeps emphatically and loudly enough to be heard throughout the apartment, for a full minute, then quits. What I do not want as a replacement: irritating “minutes” button and “hours” button and possibly “seconds” button, each of which requires that you bop it once for each increment. So to enter 1 hr 30 minutes you’d hit hours once and minutes 30 consecutive times. Or hold and wait while the display ratchets through and release when it finally gets there. What I also do not want as a replacement: retro mechanical thingie that you twist around and align the arrow thingie with a | mark that says 1 or 30 or whatever and you let go and it goes tick tick tick until it gets to the end and goes “Ding!”. Especially since the ones that are good for, say, up to 6 hours for roasting meat are next to useless for timing 1 min 30 seconds accurately and vice versa. Also do not want: full fledged alarm clock whereby you must set _not_ how many hours and/or minutes and/or seconds _from now_ but rather at what exact time you wish it to beep. Can anyone recommend me a kitchen timer that sounds like it would fit the bill? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/2 "2009-06-27T01:26:53Z")
Existing one: [Pic](http://home.earthlink.net/~ah3files/Stuff/CooksClub%20Timer.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/3 "2009-06-27T02:02:37Z")
[This looks like yours.](http://www.amazon.com/West-40005X-Bend-Timer-White/dp/B0002JA1JE/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1246068020&sr=8-6) [This is similar but cheaper.](http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-91640-Minute-Second-Digital/dp/B000JRGBRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1246068020&sr=8-1) I use my microwave’s timer function. StG ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/4 "2009-06-27T02:28:54Z")
ordered. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/5 "2009-06-27T02:29:45Z")
Which did you buy? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/6 "2009-06-27T14:55:17Z")
The first of the two. I like the appearance of the readout on that one better. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/7 "2009-06-27T17:06:27Z")
Does it keep sounding until you turn it off? Also, is it loud? My new stove has a timer that is inaudible if you’re not standing right in front of it. It’s the stupidest fucking thing ever. I need one that I can hear from 20-30 feet away, with tv or stereo playing. Is that too much to ask of a timer that’s attached to a $900 stove??? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/8 "2009-06-28T00:47:13Z")
I don’t have the new one in hand yet, and you can’t buy the old one for the same reason I can’t buy another copy of it (company out of business) but the old one kept sounding for 1 full minute then stopped; and you could definitely hear it across the apartment even over music etc. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-kitchen-timer/501127/9 "2009-06-28T17:10:56Z")
I bought this one about a month ago: > **[Amazon.com: Polder 898-95 Clock Timer and Stopwatch Black: Home & Kitchen](https://www.amazon.com/Polder-898-95-Clock-Timer-Stopwatch/dp/B000G2OT9U)** > > The Polder 3-in-1 Clock, Timer, and Stopwatch combination is great for indoor cooking or outdoor grilling, timing a run on the athletic field, or any other use while on the go. Keeping the unit close by is easy with the included carrying strap that... For those who don’t like to follow links, it has the 1 to 0 buttons to enter the time the way the OP requested, but it’s a long narrow gidget, like 1" X 5" X .3" thick, and it comes with a neck cord. It’s great for setting you free from the kitchen! The beep is that commom di-di-di-dah pause di-di-di-dah pause etc. a lot of digital stuff uses. Loud enough to hear across the room, or upstairs if there isn’t a tv or radio or whatever playing. …but when is that true? But if you have it around your neck, there’s no way you won’t hear it. 🙂 It does have a magnet so you can leave it stuck to your fridge if you prefer. It has clock and stopwatch and count down timer functions. The best aspect I’ve discovered that I wouldn’t have known to look for is that when you are using it as a timer, and it goes off, and you hit ‘stop’ – it resets to the time you’d last set. As in, if you’re cranking out sheets of cookies that take 9 minutes, all you have to do is enter the nine minutes once. Then as each batch finishes, you push stop to turn off the beeping, shove the next sheet in, and just push start. A small convenience, maybe, but I love it. This is also wonderful since lately I’ve adopted the ‘pomodoro’ process of getting things done. Basically, you work at whatever for 25 minutes and then take a short break, then do another 25 minute work session. Having my timer resetting itself to 25 automatically helps me keep to the plan.