Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Reviewing The Acu-Rite Alarm Clock

Replacing An Old Alarm Clock

alarm clock on a night stand
We just purchased the Acu-Rite Alarm clock shown in the image at the left. We needed to replace our old alarm clock/radio because it no longer had a good digital display of the numbers and some of the buttons to change the time or alarm settings no longer worked. Now in all fairness to the old model that we replaced it was about 31 years old. (No one could ever accuse my husband and I of not getting our monies worth out of our stuff!) Suffice it to say, it was past time for our old alarm clock to take a journey to the big electronics shop in the sky. It had a good life and served us well;  may the odds forever be in it's favor and the force be with it. It was after all a faithful and loyal player in our life's game and stood by us like a faithful Jedi for so very long. 

Out with the old and in with the new

Wowsers! Technology in alarm clocks has grown in the last 30 years! When I saw the features of our new Acu-Rite alarm clock;I was duly impressed and did not hesitate to order one for us.

I decided that we did not really need a combination alarm clock and radio, since we rarely listen to the radio in the bedroom anymore. What first caught my eye with the Acu-Rite alarm clock was the large digital display of the numbers. The old one had small numbers and if I didn't have my glasses on the result was just a red blur. Who wants to grab their glasses in the middle of the night to see what time it is? Well, I am embarrassed to admit that I did that very thing for years (years I tell you!) and now that I have this one with the large read-out; I have to wonder why it took me so long to switch. Could I be old and set in my ways? My kids would say a resounding yes to that! Besides it is really difficult for me to part with something when it still works. Shoot, it still took me a couple of months to come to my senses and decide to just replace that old faithful clock. I get attached to things is my only defense.

Besides that large read-out that I don't need my glasses to see there are other features that I just love! The alarm is a nice beeping sound that doesn't make me shoot up out of the bed, startled half out of my mind. (I'm sorry old alarm clock your obnoxious buzz was enough to wake the dead and I never got used to it - even over the course of 30+ years!) The snooze button is right in the front and big enough that I do not have to grapple my hand all over the place to touch it.

Now for the feature that surprised me and I just love it! The alarm clock has a feature for DST. When you set the time it allows you to put the date in and on the bottom of the clock there are settings to pick what time zone you are in and to turn DST on or off. Glory hallelujah! No more worrying about changing the clock forward or back when the time changes!  One less clock to deal with in the house! Awesome-sauce!

There is also a battery back-up in the alarm clock; so when the power goes out the clock still keeps time. I love that feature! We get short little power surges every once in a while and they always resulted in me having to reset the time and alarm on the old model. When those storms roll through and cause a power outage, I won't have to worry my old little head about resetting my alarm clock anymore. I am delighted!

So, if you are in the need of getting a new alarm clock or perhaps you are looking for one as a graduation gift for someone who will be going on to college in the fall or moving into their own apartment after college; I highly recommend the Acu-Rite alarm clock. It is relatively inexpensive and does the job pretty darned well.





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7 comments:

  1. Well right now the battery back up to preserve it during power failures is the big sale feature for me! What a terrific perk. If you can believe this, I'm in the market for a new alarm clock for my fifteen year old (he uses his cell phone as an alarm, and I'm wanting him to leave his cell phone outside his bedroom at night!) So the rat argued that he uses it as an alarm clock (his alarm clock is way too convoluted to use; old technology) - So I thought, I'll fix you, I'm getting you a new clock. This one sounds perfect, simple and won't lose power during those frequent power surges that we also get. I consider your review a sign now, lol..'get him that clock'.

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    Replies
    1. I think you and your son will be happy with the choice, Barbara. My daughters use their phones for an alarm, too. That just baffles me to no end! What if your phone's battery goes dead overnight? What will wake you? Since they are grown and do not live at home any longer...Mom isn't going to come to the rescue like she did when you were young.

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  2. Wowsers! I love that you quoted two of my all time favorite movies (book). I know we would love to have one of these alarm clocks too. The big numbers are most definitely a necessity around here, but the wowsers is for the dst auto setting. That would be soooooo wonderful! Twice a year it is quite a process changing all of the clocks in our house. Every year it seems like a month later we come across one we forgot to change, usually the one in our washroom, and I inevitably think it is a different time when I need to be somewhere on time. Excellent review of a much needed product.

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  3. Well, isn't this interesting. I have a clock radio that is on it's last legs... er, numerals... lol. The readout is getting more and more difficult to see. And the buttons to turn the alarm on or set (reset) the time are on the BACK, which makes it very inconvenient to set. I've never really liked it, but like you I tend not to replace something if it's still working! And I really don't need a radio in the bedroom anymore, so just a 'clock' is perfect. I am bookmarking this article for future reference. I think I have just found my next home purchase!. Thanks, Bev.

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  4. The old alarm clock is something I was happy to replace after our house fire. The one we chose has both the features that you mentioned, the battery backup and daylight saving time setting by zone. So glad someone finally figured out how to make that happen in new, modern digital clocks - so very convenient!

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  5. It sounds like just the clock to replace mine if I decide to part with it. I like the automatic DLS time automation except for one thing. I had a clock with that feature once and shortly after I'd gotten it home the government changed the dates for starting and ending DLS time. On the clock you have that might just mean that you'd set the clock manually again. The clock I had was very hard to reset. You had to unscrew the top and go through other difficult steps I don't remember now. It was very hard to get the top back on. Since then that particular feature hasn't been a selling point for me. If a clock I'm considering has it, I make sure the clock is also easy to reset manually. I like the large display on yours, and like you I hate that jarring buzz. My current clock lets me wake to a loud bird song. That's one thing that keeps me from replacing it. I do listen to the radio when I'm starting to wake up or doing some mindless chore in the bedroom, but I have a compact CD player with radio next to my bed, as well, so that feature isn't as important for my clock.

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