Would you be alarmed at an alarm that actually didn't work as alarm? (Philips Dual Alarm AJ3225)

Member Name: chele2002

Product:	Philips Dual Alarm AJ3225
Date:	12/02/02 (406 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See opinion

Disadvantages: See opinion

Having divorced my only means of waking me up in the morning, via wake up call from Eurobell, it was time to invest in an alarm clock.

Due to lack of transport and the dreaded thought of having to hike around town with two little ones, I decided to have a look more locally beforehand. On my quest for a helping hand to wake up each morning, I came to Tesco's, thinking to my self there is just no way that they will stock such an item but to my surprise they did. That is when our love, hate relationship developed with our alarm clock.

Now I am not the worlds best when it comes to waking up, there is just no way I can rely on one of our little darlings waking up before we do and waking us in the process, but that's not saying that it doesn't happen, it does just when we don't want it. As for my husband he is worse than me when it comes to opening his ice blue eyes in the morning. He has even said his self that if I do have trouble waking him the push him out of the bed, that will do the trick, but there is just one problem with this, I never have the energy to push a grown man out of bed that time in the morning.

Well getting back to my alarm clock it was not through choice that I went for this particular brand or model it was the only one available locally, and the price was just about fair.

The question is: Did it exceed expectations or did it leave us sleeping like babies? Read on, all will become clear ......................................


The look of the alarm clock
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I have to say on first impressions when it come to appearance it does look stylish, compact, sleek and very fitting for any type of bedroom style and decor.
In a way it kind of looks like my creative labs modem blaster but just that little bit bigger and the obvious, you try connecting to the internet from it (mind it could be fun trying).



The alarm clock in ge
neral
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Well being a Philips, I would have expected it to be a cut above the rest and in some ways this clock is, well it got style for one, but then who really cares what it looks like, as long as it wakes you up in the morning .............exactly!


The clock
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Not everyone likes 24 hour clocks, so not everyone will like this one, the clock is displayed in 24 hour mode, which personally I find far easier than am/pm clocks as it saves any confusion when setting the time, or the alarm time. The clock is also an LED display, which is a nice shade of green, and the numerals are just the right size, quite large but not too in your face, when you?ve just woken up, you have sleep dust in your eyes and the rooms quite dark.

Setting the clock time, and alarm time is simple, with the use of up and down buttons and the alarm 1, alarm 2 and time set positioned around the up and down it is simply a doddle.


Dual alarm
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One feature that I did like was the fact that the alarm is a dual alarm, meaning that the alarm can be set to go off two times, which are completely independent from one another. Which, if you needed a reminder, lets say for example you like to do something at a certain time, such as take a vitamin tablet, then this feature will allow you to be reminded, and above that there will be no need to adjust the alarm setting as you can still have it set for the mornings, etc.


Loudness of alarm clock
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What can I say but, pass me the bloody HAMMER! Yes this alarm is loud and yes it is very annoying, perhaps that's the secret of alarm clocks, the more annoying the alarm sound, the more likely it is to do the job and wake you up from the land of nod. To give you all a general idea of how annoying, here are a few words to describe the sound: loud, piercing, screeching, and so damm repe
titive.

Or if you prefer to wake up in the morning to your favourite radio station, then it could always be set to activate the radio instead of the buzzer, and for those of you who like to listen to a certain radio program at a certain time, the duo alarm could also come into value for this purpose.


Repeat alarm
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Just above the clock display, there is this curved shape, silver button, which I have to say not very noticeable at all. This button allows you to repeat the alarm, once the buzzer wakes you up, and if you keeps it pressed the repeat time can be altered, in minutes, as for how many minutes I am unsure, I keep mine to the regular 15 minutes, which provided the alarm goes off when it should, it is just right.


Alarm reset
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So here's the gist of it, if you are one of these people who get up the moment the alarms goes off then this is your button (sadly for me I need an extra kick, every 15 minutes or so). This is the answers to your prayers, the alarm has woken you up in reasonable time and for the moment you feel quite mellow, but another 30 seconds listening to the alarm and you are going to turn psycho, and probably be the next up and coming moving star to feature in the latest horror/chiller box office hit (Pah! You can dream), just a gentle taps, then peace and tranquillity returns.


The radio
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There is not a lot I can really say about the radio; well it's a radio, just a basic radio, with a basic choice of stations. The volume comes as standard too, not very loud indeed, and when you consider this is also an option to wake up to, instead of the buzzer, then its pretty crap, ok for hose who need very little help to wake, but to me completely useless. As for reception, I am not very impressed with it at all, yes it does pick up a couple of stations, but for the band I should pick up far more, and those I do manage to pi
ck up are quite clear, but you walk past it and it ends out becoming quite susceptible to interference.


No nonsense, what it doesn't do on the box
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Well we have had our alarm clock for quite a few months and at 1st it was a saviour but now it is a different story completely.

What once was a reliable necessity, needed to wake us up for our morning commitments and duties, i.e. get the children dressed and to school on time and to see my husband off to work, is sadly no longer.

Yes our trusty alarm clock is only that when it feels like it, oh yes, it has become quite temperamental.

Just in the last 2 weeks alone, it has caused my husband to miss a working day (Sat 8:30 - 12:30), by the time we had woke up and having to rely on public transport it was pointless turning up.

Failed to go off this morning, even after it was tested last night and was working fine, leaving my husband, needing to call for a taxi to get into work, even thought he was an hour late.

In fact on quite a few occasions during the last couple of weeks has caused many a rushed morning, and at the moment I can put more reliability in our children waking us then this alarm clock.

I am not blaming the manufacture, for my inability to wake in the morning with out some kind of assistance, but I would like to say is, would you by an alarm clock that fails to work at times, causing lateness and panic for all, extra expenses due to a failed alert and the fact that it has nearly cost my husband his job on more than one occasion.

Given what I know now, and the good and bad that we have experienced while using this product, there is just no way that I can recommend it, with out sounding like an hypocrite.

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