I used my phone as a kitchen timer for years and thought it was fine. Then I set it down on a wet counter, burned a batch of cookies, and dropped the phone into a sink of dishwater. That was the day I bought a dedicated timer for eight dollars.

It has been one of the best small purchases I have made.

Why a real timer beats a phone

A dedicated timer does one job and does not distract you. My phone would buzz with a notification the moment I walked away, and I would end up scrolling instead of cooking. The little timer just sits on the fridge and beeps loud enough to hear from the next room.

• Magnetic back so it sticks to the fridge or range hood.
• Big buttons you can hit with wet or floury hands.
• A loud alarm that does not get buried under other notifications.
• No lock screen to fumble with mid-recipe.

What I looked for

You want a timer that can run multiple timers at once if you cook a lot, since pasta and vegetables and bread rarely finish together. A count-up mode is nice too, for timing rest periods or proofing dough.

For eight dollars it is not fancy. But it lives on the fridge, the battery lasts forever, and my phone stays safely on the counter where it belongs. The cookies have not burned since.