FOR 4.5 million Britons it was a domestic vision too blissful to resist: making your own pistachio gelato at the first hint of sunshine.

But for most people who buy an ice-cream maker, all that churning and freezing quickly becomes a painful bore.

Ice-cream makers have replaced fondue sets as the least cost-effective item in the home, a study has found. They are taken out of the cupboard on average only once a month and cost £19.50 for every use in the first year of ownership. Fondue sets, although used only once every two months, are cheaper and work out at £5.50 a session.

About £2.5 billion worth of gadgets begin to gather dust only a month after purchase.

Among the other poor performers were foot spas, which average two uses a month at £1.75 a go, exercise bikes and games consoles, which are used only ten times a month after an initial high of 20.

By contrast, a kettle costs only 5p per boil.

The survey, conducted by the price comparison website pricerunner.co.uk, asked 1,500 people how often they used a range of items during the first year of ownership.

“People often buy ice-cream makers and games consoles because they think they’re must-have items, but don’t consider how much time they have to use them,” said Gary Goodman, European marketing director for pricerunner.co.uk.

“It’s far better value to buy a television or an MP3 player that you use every day.”

Lucy Grass, 28, a doctoral student from Shoreditch, East London, said she bought a £35 ice-cream maker two years ago and has used it only three times. She said: “It just takes so much time to churn . . . also by the time you get the bowl cold enough — usually two hours — you could have gone to the shops and bought some.”

DAB digital radios pay themselves off quickly, at 25p per listen, and a mini-vacuum cleaner costs only 31p a go.

Also highly efficient was the shredder, costing 14p for each use.

A spokeswoman for John Lewis said that ice-cream makers had become more popular because people liked being able to control the amount of fat in their ice-cream, and that £279 would now buy a machine with an in-built compressor which overcame the need to put it in the freezer.

“For a serious hostess, that’s a good investment,” the spokeswoman said.

WHAT TO PASS BY AND WHEN TO SNAP UP

The least cost-efficient purchases were: ice-cream maker, £19.48 per use in the first year; fondue set £5.52; exercise bike £4.56; rowing machine £3.66; TV £2.99; laptop computer £2.92; DVD player £1.84; foot spa £1.75; sat-nav system £1.48; games console £1.17

The most cost-efficient were: kettle 5p; electric toothbrush 14p; shredder 14p; toaster 18p; steamer 24p; fitness video 24p; DAB radio 25p

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