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The board

Counts

Six kinds of number turn up on these boxes, across six categories of machine and 50 listings. The board below is the whole site in one table: each row is a category, each column is a kind of number, and each cell holds the range of values stated and how many listings state one.

Range of stated values, and how many listings in that category state one
CategoryIn-One NumbersPresets and ProgramsSettings and LevelsCapacity NumbersWatts and DegreesNumbers That Are Just Names
Electric Pressure Cookers7–10
4 listings		no listing here states oneno listing here states one4 distinct values
4 listings		no listing here states oneno listing here states one
Toastersno listing here states oneno listing here states one4 distinct values
7 listings		2 distinct values
8 listings		900
1 listing		6 distinct values
6 listings
Upright Vacuum Cleanersno listing here states oneno listing here states oneno listing here states one3 distinct values
4 listings		no listing here states one8 distinct values
8 listings
Air Fryers4–9
8 listings		4–17
2 listings		5 fan speeds
1 listing		12 distinct values
12 listings		6 distinct values
6 listings		5 distinct values
5 listings
Slow Cookersno listing here states oneno listing here states one3 heat settings
1 listing		6 distinct values
5 listings		no listing here states one2 distinct values
2 listings
Countertop Microwave Ovensno listing here states one6–12
6 listings		10 power levels
4 listings		3 distinct values
10 listings		700–1000
10 listings		6 distinct values
6 listings

One page for each kind of number

  • In-One Numbers

    What is one function?

    This is the number printed largest, and it is the one with the least behind it. It appears as a hyphenated compound on the front of the box and then never appears again in the listing text, except sometimes as a list of names that does not match it.

  • Presets and Programs

    What is one preset?

    The second most common count in this aisle, and the one with the most names. A preset is presumably a stored setting with a label on it, but no listing here says so, and no listing names a single one of the presets it counts.

  • Settings and Levels

    What is one step?

    The most honest count in the aisle, and still not much of one. A setting count is at least a count of something physically present. What it never tells you is how far apart two adjacent settings are, or where the scale starts and ends.

  • Capacity Numbers

    What is being measured, the machine or what goes in it?

    The only count here whose unit is defined by somebody. A quart is a quart, published and fixed. The trouble starts one step later, when half the listings measure the container and the other half measure what the seller expects to put inside it.

  • Watts and Degrees

    What does this figure predict?

    Two real units, in a catalog full of invented ones. That makes these figures the most trustworthy numbers on the shelf and the most easily over-read, because a real unit invites arithmetic that nobody on the box has authorized.

  • Numbers That Are Just Names

    Is this digit measuring anything?

    The last kind of number on these boxes, and the only kind that is honest about being arbitrary, provided you notice. A model code sits in the title next to real figures, in the same typeface, and reads exactly like one of them.