Will you still use it in six months?

Countertop appliances have a failure mode that has nothing to do with build quality. Six months after purchase the machine that seemed essential is in a cupboard, and the reason is almost never that it worked badly. It is that using it cost more effort than the result was worth.

The good news is that effort is predictable from the specification, as long as you read for it rather than for performance. Three questions do most of the work.

How many parts touch food?

How many parts touch food, and do they go in the dishwasher? This is the single strongest predictor. A machine with three removable parts that are all dishwasher safe gets used on a Tuesday evening. One with seven, two of which must be hand-washed immediately before something sets, gets used on a Saturday and then gradually stops getting used at all. Manufacturers publish part counts and dishwasher compatibility; they just do not present it as the important number, because it is not flattering.

What is the footprint, including height?

What is the footprint, including height? Counter space is the real currency in a small kitchen. An appliance that has to be lifted out of a cupboard before each use has already lost, and a machine that does not fit under a wall cabinet lives somewhere else — which usually means nowhere. Check the height with the lid open, too, which is a figure that appears in the manual rather than the listing.

How loud is it, and when will you use it? Noise is rarely published for kitchen appliances and matters enormously for anything used before seven in the morning. Where a decibel figure is given, check the measurement distance: one metre is the convention, and a number quoted without a distance tells you nothing at all.

There is a fourth question that no specification answers, and it is the one that actually decides the purchase: how often will you really do this? A machine that does one thing brilliantly is excellent value at weekly use and expensive storage at monthly use. Be honest about which of the two you are, and the specification decisions become much easier — because a machine you will use weekly justifies more cleaning effort than one you will use occasionally.

A useful test before buying anything in this category: describe the full cycle out loud, from taking it out to putting it away. If that description takes longer than the cooking does, the cupboard is where it is going.