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The atomic function wasn't so good because it was always slower than the clocks at school. I bought this alarm clock for my college dorm. Nonetheless, I would have given it 5 stars if it weren't for that I am now back in the market for another alarm clock a little more than 2 years after purchasing this one. It's been great. I like the programmable snooze and nap functions and the radio. The buttons on top are unresponsive to changing the time and the second alarm, rendering it useless after I tried to reset it by removing all power to it. I expect more than 2 years of use from my alarm clocks.
Keeps good time. Other people have had problems with getting the clock out of "nap" mode. A decent clock radio for the money. I use this C/R in an area where electrical outages are common. The instructions say to depress and hold down the nap button. They should say to depress the nap button once, then hold it down a second time to clear "nap" mode. I've had no problems using the internal re-set feature.The only draw back that I can see, is that if you use the radio portion as an alarm, the display shows the radio frequency vice the time when the alarm goes off. That's a little different from what I'm used to.
Of course the dual alarm is a must for me. I'm hoping to get lucky and receive a better made one in the next shipment. That is EXCELLENT. The beep starts at low volume and slowly increases until you can actually hear it all through the house. I bought one of these clock radios for my 14 year old daughter, and after almost a year it is still working without a problem. It has the same volume and tuning knob malfunctions plus the radio reception is worse. (love Amazon for that)My main gripe and the reason this particular item is on it's way to Amazon's returns bin, is that the lousy workmanship and null quality inspection allowed this one to get to me with both the volume and the tuning wheels both loose, feels like they're going to fall off. [.].
Hope this helps anyone in making a choice. The MP3 is an added bonus and I also like the tuning where you can see the stations in big digital numbers, makes it easier to find stations, although it is still an analog tuner. So when my old RCA Alarm clock (different model) got fried after a thunder storm after 7 years of excellent service, I wanted to buy another RCA , mainly for it's Gradu-wake alarm system. This would be a 5 star review if this radio had the same quality as it has features. I also like the big digits so I don't need my glasses to see the time and can easily see it across the room. I preferred my old RCA Clock radio with fully digital tuning and memory presets, but I couldn't find one like it anymore and I'm sure it will cost me at least 3 or 4 times as much as this Clock Radio. 04/06/2009 UPDATE: Amazon came through as usual and I received my replacement today, however, this one is even worse than the first one. I guess I'll have to live with these flaws.
I could have lived with that, but whatever idiot decided to put the nap button on top instead of on the back or side where it belongs, well away from snooze AND made it impossible to turn off, should be sent directly to the unemployment line.Buy this only if you enjoy being scared awake unexpectedly only to find that you're late to work. It says that to turn this off, you press and hold the "nap" button until the NAP icon disappears from the display.
The case is a bit cheap and plasticy, but you get what you pay for.What kills it is that should you accidentally touch the "nap" button, there's no way to turn it off until the timer has counted down. I purchased this in part because I liked the green LEDs and the features.
I read the instructions on how to turn off the nap feature once turned on. Hit "nap" instead of "snooze," and the snooze time is overridden.I did this.
It scared me awake 15 minutes later than I had wanted to wake up, making me late for work. Well, doing this had no effect whatsoever.I also found the thing with it showing the radio station frequency instead of the time to be annoying, as other reviewers have mentioned.
Otherwise, look elsewhere.
I liked this clock radio, but after about three months it began to make an intermittent, subtle (but irritating at night) crackling static-like noise as noted in reviews by M.D. They are commonly used to make noise for buzzers in electronic devices. Obviously cutting wires would probably void your warranty, but do you really want to try your luck with another RCA clock radio."So after opening the back, I located the piezo disk under the speaker (see Customer Image). (Unlike some reviewers' clock radios, however, unplugging mine solved the problem).To investigate the "Rice Krispies" issue, I looked at a couple posts at RCA RP5430 AM/FM Clock Radio with 1.4-Inch Display and Auto Time Set & FixYa. Since customers should not have to modify electronic goods internally, I am giving this item only two stars.BTW, B. On Amazon, reviewer B. Smith and SLH here. If you cut the wires going to this disk, the crackling noise goes away.
Ley wrote "if you open the clock radio there is a black disk on the bottom with a red and black wire coming out of it. This black disk is a component called a piezo disk. I cut one of the thin wires going to the disk, and the crackling stopped. Ley did not know the purpose of the disk; I believe it serves as the battery-powered alarm during power outages.
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