Customer Reviews

BioBrite Sunrise Clock Advanced Model Charcoal

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

We've had this for about a year now. I always have had trouble waking in the mornings. This helps a lot. We don't need to use any other alarms or even the "beep" function. By the time the light is halfway up, we're pretty much awake. (As long as no one succumbs to the urge to turn it down again mid-way!) Using the sunset function works well for limiting the length of bedtime story reading and transitioning from stories to sleep for the kids.

My only quibble is the quality of this lamp/clock. When we first got it, the light would flicker or strobe unexpectedly. Time and tinkering seemed to fix it. The white noise function barely works. It only comes on when the light is on, if I screw around with it, and goes off when the light does. There's no separate control for it, nor a volume control. I wish that were separate. Is it just me, or doesn't it seem counter-intuitive to have the white noise only run when the light is ON? It doesn't come back on when the sunrise function begins, either.

The clock also runs consistently fast. Every few weeks I have to adjust it as the time grows ten or more minutes ahead.

We like it a lot, but there are a lot of foibles to contend with for the price.

I only wish I had purchased my sunrise lamp years ago; I love it! While it took me a couple of mornings to get the lamp and alarm settings exactly how I need them, it is so nice to wake up more easily and in a better mood. Programming the light is fairly simple, but one thing to remember is that the light will turn itself off about 15 minutes after the set wake up time. I found that extending the wake up sequence from 30 to 60 or 90 minutes made a big difference. My husband and I both have to get up early and it's always dark in the winter; our sunrise lamp really does make getting up easier and we both agree that we are actually happy instead of grumpy when we get up. We no longer need to set our audible alarms as we naturally wake with the lamp.

Here are my 3 issues with this:

1. Low quality design and construction. As soon as you take it out of the box you wonder why you paid so much for it. It looks like it was spray painted by a child and the buttons are flimsy.
2. It is tedious to use. There are only 3 buttoms to use all of the features(not including the alarm on/off button). Just to set the time, you have to go through a menu with one button until you get to the time set mode and then you can only increment/decrement one minute at a time (no hour incrementing). Major pain in the ass.
3. It doesn't work. I was really excited about having this clock. I was so sick of waking up to the beep-beep-beep of my old alarm clock, and this seemed like it was going to make my whole day better. Unfortunately, the "sunrise" hasn't woken me up once, and I still wake up to the beep-beep-beep of it's backup alarm everyday. And I'm a very light sleeper.

I wish I had something good to say about this, but I don't. For me it was a lot of money for something that works no better than the cheap alarm clock I've had for 10 years. At least on the old one I could set the time very easily.

I had a Soleil Sunrise clock before this and it was just a night light. The BioBrite is a 60 watt bulb--a real light. I also love the other features:

* Dimmable bedside light for reading or soft lighting
* Security option so light comes on at random intervals from 4-11pm as if the house is occupied
* Nightlight option
* LCD display fades to low level when it is in night mode

I have the one with white noise and it is wonderful.

I was so frustrated with the first clock we received. I had the clock for 1 week and it did not work once. I set it for 5am and at 4:30am instead of starting a gradual brightening of the room, it would immediately start at full brightness and then progress to dim, before strobing. Not the way I want to wake up!

I contacted customer service and the woman asked me (in a rude manner) if I had held in the Program button while I was plugging in the light. I told her of course not. She told me I should have. This was not in the manual anywhere! I tried doing that and was woken up again the next day at 4:30am to immediate full light. I waited 3 days to hear back from the company via email about what to do with this product. They said I could ship it to them (at my expense) and have it serviced.

Thankfully, we bought it from Amazon, and not the company, or we would have had difficulty returning it for a working model. We have since received a new one, and this one works fine. As long as you don't get a defective clock, it is a nice thing to have, but save yourself the hassle and buy it from Amazon, rather than Biobrite.

Wish it was a bit cheaper - would buy two. For the relatively low (but robust) technology used in this product (a clock, some timers, a small display, and a simple bulb and a dimmer) the price is really high- it should be priced at maybe 60% less of what it is (say $50) and a lot more people will buy it. Hopefully the prices will drop :-)

Besides the price part, it works fine and really does help the person I gave it to sleep earlier and better.

Another potential issue might be that the bulb does not have a standard socket size- not sure how much Biobrite will charge to replace it, or if it will be available in a regular store.

Low quality, controls are not intuitive. Light was erratic--some mornings it went from off to full brightness in a matter of seconds, other mornings it came on full brightness an hour before the alarm. One bright spot--the vendor (TrueSun) gave me no problems about returning the light.

This is my third dawn simulator product. Noisy alarms make my heart thud, but waking up gently to increasing light is perfect. I'll never go back to audible alarm clocks again.

My previous two products had to be plugged in 8 hours in advance of the time I want to wake up. Whenever there's a power outage, I'd have to remember to go in the bedroom exactly at 10pm and plug the doggoned thing in again. So, I bought the Bio-Brite because it looks like what I wanted all along: a digital alarm clock that I can set (any time I want) for my desired wake-up time. The Bio-Brite works quite nicely. I typically wake up about halfway through the "dawn" phase.

I have two quibbles with it: first, the controls are not as easy to use as your average alarm clock. There's a "program" button that has to be tapped between 1 and 5 times for the various features you're trying to access. That means your instruction booklet always needs to be kept nearby so you can remember how to reset the clock if there's a power outage.

Second, my previous dawn simulators stayed lit for an hour after they reached the desired wake-up time. I could wake up, get ready for work, and leave the house; the dawn simulator would be on for that hour and then go off automatically about the time I was leaving the house.

The Bio-Brite, on the other hand, only stays lit for 15 minutes after reaching full brightness. That means if I procrastinate about getting out of bed, my room will be plunged into complete darkness again. I'd rather have the full hour.

Nevertheless, the Bio-Brite is a good value for the money, and is worthy of your serious consideration.

I bought the Sunrise Digital Alarm Clock Dawn Simulator Clock as a way to help myself get up in the morning. The clock does exactly as it promises. I have always been one of those people that can't get up in the morning until the sun does. I used to go to work at 9:00 am because of it. I now am getting up between 5:30 and 6 and making it to work by 7:00. It's so nice to be able to leave before 6 pm! My kids are appreciative of it too. I highly recommend this product for anyone in northern climates who has trouble getting up in the dark winter mornings like I do! The only thing that I would add is a radio alarm clock function.

UPDATE: In April 2006 I sent the clock in a second time, and BioBrite replaced the clock entirely. I now have a white noise model. However, this clock is now randomly making static noise like a hand radio stuck on a bad signal! The noise is random and wakes me up or scares me while I lie in bed. I do not have the noise feature on. Now, I have to call BioBrite again, pay to ship the clock again, and pray a working clock can be acquired!

I bought the clock in late 2005. The clock's "Sun Rise" was not fading up or down constantly and the bulb was flickering sporadically. I sent the clock in for service early 2006 and the BioBrite company replaced the Display Board; however, the clock is still not working correctly. I am very disappointed and quite furious every morning the clock fails. Rather than waking peacefully to a slow "sun rise", I wake up to what I feel is more like a strobe light. I have spent close to $150.00 on this clock including shipping back for service. I don't feel this clock was made to act the way it has with me, I am sure it's just a 1-in-a-million glitch, but it's not amusing.

I cannot wait for the clock to work consistently ... when it does work it's the most wonderful way to wake up I have ever experienced. In the past I've had the most difficult time waking up in the morning and I was chronically late before this clock. It has been a great tool, even if it worked just the first few nights; those mornings waking up with this clock when it worked were enough to motivate my wake patterns!