Alarm Clocks! Beyond the same stuff...

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I see a ton of stuff like that at Goodwill stores.


That's a great idea to try to find some of the vintage stuff.

I know we've tried a few new ones for the kids over the years. It's unreal how cheaply made even the recognizable 'brand named' ones are. Just for fun, I tried one of these eBay cheapies for one of my boys a year or so ago. It actually works well and is super easy to see from across the room.

Nice!

 

[Vern_in_IL]

I am on the fence with alarm clocks/radios....

Concerned with energy consumption.


How can I justify an alarm clock when I can just use the cell phone which is already running?

The problem I have with cell phones is they are not effective for us deep sleepers... and my model looses time/has wrong time issues.

There are NOAA radios/alarm clocks, Sangean makes one, however it is very complex, and running unattended most of the time!

I would like something like the Phillips "sunrise" alarm clock, but with more power to get your butt out of bed!

The biggest problem I'm seeing in these fancy alarm clocks is an EPIC FAIL, the "backup battery" only keeps the time, and does NOT run the alarm! Power goes out 5 minutes before alarm time... fail.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
The problem I have with cell phones is they are not effective for us deep sleepers... and my model looses time/has wrong time issues.

Mine can be set to pretty loud, plus it vibrates, so it makes quite a bit of a ruckus. It obtains time from the mobile network, so it's pretty much on time at all times.

Quote:
The biggest problem I'm seeing in these fancy alarm clocks is an EPIC FAIL, the "backup battery" only keeps the time, and does NOT run the alarm! Power goes out 5 minutes before alarm time... fail.


Realistically, how often do you lose power? And how often do you lose power right when it's time to wake up?

 

[dishdude]

Do they make one with a nice big dimmable display and a nice big snooze button I can hit without accidentally hitting other buttons?

I don't care about a radio or anything else, I want to easily see the time if I wake up in the middle of the night and not accidentally reset the alarm in a daze.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
I want to easily see the time if I wake up in the middle of the night and not accidentally reset the alarm in a daze.

I've got a projection one. It displays time on the ceiling above your head. It's easy to see in the middle of the night and you don't even have to press anything.

And yes, it has a decent size snooze button that's easy to locate.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: dishdude
I want to easily see the time if I wake up in the middle of the night and not accidentally reset the alarm in a daze.

I've got a projection one. It displays time on the ceiling above your head. It's easy to see in the middle of the night and you don't even have to press anything.

And yes, it has a decent size snooze button that's easy to locate.



Thought about that one too...

I kinda took mine apart and played with the volume button..seems to have fixed it for now.

Still want a backup though....

 

[javacontour]

The power failure vulnerability is why I like my cell phone as an alarm clock.

If the power goes out, the alarm still goes off.

Of course, I'm a light sleeper, so it works for me.

I have to have my phone next to my bed 20% of the time anyway, as I'm on-call one out of every five weeks.

For me, the cell phone works because I can set different alarms for each day. It's pretty easy to set an alarm compared to most alarm clock user interfaces.

There are pluses and minuses to each potential solution. (Obviously!)

 

[Triple_Se7en]

That's why they make alarm clocks with backup batteries.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
That's why they make alarm clocks with backup batteries.

As others have previously pointed out, the problem is that some of these clocks only use the backup battery to maintain time, but will not make the alarm ring if the power outage happens when the alarm was supposed to go off.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I use this one, with backup alarm
http://www.4alarmclocks.com/tit2ladidual.html

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
I use this one, with backup alarm
http://www.4alarmclocks.com/tit2ladidual.html



Like that one...very bright as well...