Customer Reviews

Atomic Bathroom Digital Alarm Clock With suction cup

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I bought this clock to help keep track of time in the morning, and it works really well. The clock sets itself to the atomic clock signal, which is nice because you don't want to be messing with buttons in a wet environment. Besides the time and date, it shows the day of the week, which is good for those mornings when you are really short on sleep.

The first time I turned it on, it took a few hours to sync with the atomic clock signal. The manual says that it does this at least once a day, usually at night when the radio signal is stronger. The time can be manually set too. But I just waited, and it was on time by sunrise, and has been on time ever since.

I was concerned about whether it would be sufficiently waterproof, but it is built well, and it's been in the shower for a couple months without any water issues. The suction cup also works very well, and it is still sticking to the tile after 2 months. It seems strong enough to survive a good drop, should it ever happen.

Note: To get it to stick to the shower, make sure to clean the tile until it is very smooth (this keeps the vacuum from escaping the suction cup).

Overall, this has made my morning routine much faster, since I don't lose track of time anymore. Very satisfied.

Those that are complaining about the suction cup are just using it wrong. You cannot just stick it fully assembled as it arrives, this will not allow the air under the suction cup to escape.

You need to unscrew the suction cup, you will be left with 3 pieces: the main unit, the suction cup, and a hard plastic "dome" piece. You must attach the suction cup to the surface first and alone, pressing it down firmly. Then put the plastic dome on, the outside edges of the dome will press on the outside of the suction cup preventing air from getting in. Then screw the main unit on.

If you do it the proper way, the cup will hold forever, and probably even hold several pounds (but of course do that at your own risk!).

Anyhow, on to the rest of the review. It works and looks great. It sync'd time within about 5 minutes of installing the battery (I'm in Canada). The numbers are large enough to read accross a small room like a bathroom. I don't need to use the buttons on the back at all, but they are hard to see without removing the main unit. I guess if you remembered which button you need (by counting across from one side) you could reach around and use them. I also don't get too much water on it, it's mounted high enough that it barely gets a few drops on it. But it seems to handle that and the steam just fine.

This is a great clock and I'm happy with my purchase!

Judging by the other positive reviews, this clock's suction cup has done well in the showers of others. Sadly, it did not do so in mine, and since this clock needs suction in order to function, I feel this product deserves the lowest rating possible.

So as not to seem overly biased against this clock since it fell from a height of 1 meter within ten minutes of attachment, I will say the following nice things about it:
1.) The atomic sync feature appeared to work as advertised, "overnight". Fine effort there.
2.) Displays all the information a clock should: time, date, day of week. No fault there.

Now, to unleash the sour crank within for having this clock fall TWICE in the span of a day, the not-so-nice things:
1.) The inadequate suction cup. I feel the engineers who designed this knew they had botched the cup size issue, as a special, separate add-on to the instructions explains in EXCRUCIATING detail how the tile/mirror should be very, very clean, etc. before attempting to mount the clock. I scrubbed and dried my tile: such work was already bordering on silly considering how many suction cups I've seen in action before succeed in worse conditions. Sadly, I think they made the cup too small for the considerably chunky clock: it's gonna fall, not if but when.
2.) No backlight. My shower has opaque curtains and no interior light. Hence, it's not that bright. This clock will not help remedy that issue if you have a similar setup.
3.) Operations written by a madman. I've noticed over the years that clocks tend towards the "ridiculously hard" side of "ease of programming household items" scale, somewhere near the legendary VCRs of yesteryear. Without reading the instructions, I would not have been able to so much as change the time on this calamitous clock. Thank goodness I can read!
4.) Waterproofing? I was rather surprised to see the battery compartment (which is secured by three tiny, easy-to-lose screws - better have your jeweler's kit handy to install the batteries!) had no rubber/vinyl on the compartment seal. The seal seems tight, but the lack of a waterproof seal was shocking...no pun intended, really. I shouldn't complain, though, as nowhere in the instructions is the word "waterproof" or "water-resistant" ever mentioned.
5.) The smell, the smell. This clock is made of some very cheap, very toxic-y smelling plastic. Maybe you're a fan of the odor - I am not.

So there you have it. If you think you can wrangle the too-small suction cup and feel all cool inside for paying $20 for a clock with no backlight, then may the power of atomic clocks everywhere guide your way.

This was just too predictable and I should have expected it after reading some of the warnings by other reviewers: after following the directions explicitly, within 24 hours the suction cup had failed and this timepiece met with an untimely death, falling about 3 feet onto hard tile. Stone cold dead, end of story.

My recommendation: if you buy this clock, which did keep very accurate time while it was working, attach some sort of tether as a safety line or place it directly above a shelf, if possible. That way WHEN (not if) it loses suction it doesn't fall.

This clock is a brilliant idea poorly executed.

Great product - holds very securely on the mirror and didn't fog over after the shower. I know the time is accurate (my last clock ran slow)so no second guessing as to how late I am to work in the morning! Easy to set up and change the battery. No complaints.

Works fine in our steam shower. It is reasonably water proof.

It will set up the time by the NIST time radio wave if it can receive it. You do have to put in the battery and set up time zone and stuff to get it started.

Our shower is in the basement and the clock has a hard time getting the signal. I stick it on a window upstairs when daylight savings time swaps to get it to resynch.

It is not waterproof if the front face comes off, like if it takes a fall from the wall.

Don't use the alarm function but it'd be hard to get to the buttons while it's stuck on the wall.

For those that are having a hard time getting it to stick to smooth (tile or mirror) surface in the bath, the trick is to screw the clock down onto the base, not just pushing the unit onto the wall. If you just push it, it will stick but come off in a day or so. The real gripping comes from cinching it down by screwing the clock body down onto the base while the it's stuck on the wall. This tightens the suction down dramatically. It's held on my tile shower wall for years. It takes couple of turns, and you just stop it when it's tight and straight up.

Keep the instruction manual for those times you want to manually set things. Ken-Tech is Chinese and not online with manuals. And yes, it is not at all intuitive on how to adjust the thing without the manual.

The plastic screw that is used to hold the clock to the suction cup broke the first time I tried to use it. Seemed like it was fragile, as if it had possibly been broken and reglued prior to my attempt to hang the item.

I read the instructions carefully and I tried to place it on a large, clean tile. The tile was big enough that the cup did not cross any grout. Despite this, the cup held for a few seconds, and then the clock fell into the bathtub and broke. Back to Amazon it went.

Well it was either this text or a video review from me in my shower...
So I went with the text.

This turned out to be better than I expected.
There are a few negatives like the screen fogs up, but easily remedied with a wipe and the batteries are a pain to change, but they last a pretty long time so it's not like I'm changing them every month. The other negative is I would tell my son he has ten minutes before he has to leave for school even if he had more and now I can't do that anymore :(

The clock is clear and easy to read. It keeps great time. The suction cup is great. Some advice there. Stick the clock on your glass with the suction cup lose and then once it's in place turn the clock until it is tight. That makes a tight suction seal to the glass.
The clock has yet to fall off the glass.

It's a keeper.

I attached this clock to my shower without any problems. I just followed the documentation which specifically tells you how to do it. I also set the clock manually at first (including setting the time zone which is important for the time signal) because it took awhile to find the time signal. By the next morning, the time signal was full and strong and the clock has kept perfect time ever since. Its a great little device.

The negative reviews are obviously the people who refuse to understand that
1. Reading instructions is a good thing.
2. Suction cups will NOT stick to porous surfaces. This is something that should be common sense to anyone buying anything that is to be mounted with a suction cup.

Also, this is not a back-lit clock...not sure why people are putting it down for lacking a feature thats not advertised on the product page.

I love this clock. It looks great in the shower and gets me to work a little earlier in the morning.