I hate to admit how much time I spent trying to find a basic, reasonably priced digital kitchen timer. Every time I thought I found one, the reviews were terrible. Either the device was missing some essential feature (like only measuring minutes/seconds, or not letting you adjust volume), or it was poor quality with lots of reports of dead-on-arrival or broken-after-two-weeks.This timer gets good reviews, and for good reason. It is small enough to stay out of the way but big enough to be easy to handle and read. There are no esoteric menus or overly complicated features to deal with. It just measures time. Start/stop and set/reset is simple and intuitive, and you can switch between minutes/seconds or hours/minutes via a dedicated button on the back. The alarm has three volume settings: silent, loud, and insanely loud, selected via a dedicated switch on the back. The lower volume setting is loud enough to be heard over a vent hood or radio in the same room. The high volume setting can be heard in adjoining rooms and possibly adjoining counties.The face plate feels like it actually might be stainless instead of faux-stainless plastic. Either way, the timer matches most brushed stainless appliances and feels well built. I've been using it regularly for about a month now, and so far no problems. Well worth the few bucks extra.