Customer Reviews

Coldmate Princess International TR200 Electronic Rotating Tie Rack

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This tie rack fits neatly in any closet and saves a whole lot more space than it takes up. I recently received and installed it, and here's what I think:

PROS:

- Quiet motor

- Sturdy construction

- Stays in place with tightening screw

- Lots of storage space

- Built in light is decent and turns off after the right amount of time.

CONS:

- The buttons to rotate the rack are set up so that you'll have a little difficulty stopping the rack. I'll give you an example: If you press the rack to rotate to the right, it will keep going to the right even if you let go of the button. The only way to make it stop is to press the left button with just enough pressure so that neither button is pushed in. Often times, you'll end up pressing the left button too far in and it will go the other way.

- The ionizer is pretty loud. This is my first tie rack, so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be loud and annoying, but man, loud and annoying are the first words that come to mind after using it.

OVERALL:

Overall I'd say you may want to consider getting a different tie rack. For the price, I'm pretty sure there are better ones out there that will do the job just as well without the annoying buttons. If you need the space for this many ties, it does a good job so long as you can get used to the buttons.

The idea of this tie rack is good, but it doesn't hold up to its description. The "hooks" that hold the ties are made of a plastic/rubber type material, and that same material is what rotates as the tie rack turns. It snaps into a groove on the side of the body of the tie rack. However, once we placed all my husband's ties on the hooks (evenly distributed, with several empty ones left) the hooks and the loop of plastic/rubber they are a part of kept falling out of the groove, dumping all the ties onto the floor. A big disappointment for the price!

I purchased this unit after my old one quit. I tried another model that I bought on line and it crashed and died the first time I used it, too many ties?!

This unit, however was a nice surprise. The price was right and it had adequate power to get the job done. I wear ties to work so it gets used every day. The light feature is nice, you have to be a little quick to push the buttons to make it stop at the right spot but not a big deal. I have not used the ionizer function so I'm not real sure what that does for you.

Over all, if you are a heavy user with a lot of ties, I give this unit a thumbs up.

Revised 1/2010
I changed my mind. This thing is junk. It eats batteries for breakfast, and by dinner it's hungry for more. Works great for awhile, but now, even with new batteries won't turn. It came with an ionizer button in the middle but don't know if it was supposed to function, doesn't seem to do anything. I've spent more on "C" batteries then what it cost new. Anyway, I apologize for misleading anyone to buy this product.

I purchased two of these and one works great, while the other doesn't work at all. The defective unit did not work from day one, and it was more hassle/expense shipping back than it was worth.

IF you get a functioning one, you'll like it.

The rack is made of plastic. Since I had bad luck with another manufacturer's product purchased earlier that did not hold up well, I installed this one carefully. The motor is slow enough to adequately select my ties. The light feature helps.

Maybe I have a dud. Once I put fresh batteries in it will only last about a week. It's draining the batteries too quickly.

If you own over 50 ties like I do, you'll love the Coldmate Princess TR200. It's very easy to install (much easier than the Sharper Image tie rack it replaced) and it rotates quite fast. The price was lower also. I've only had it for about a month and I am completely satisfied with the TR200.

Trying the install it on the rod was not the easiest thing. You definitely needed two people. The light works when it wants to and after a week it stopped spinning. Tried buying new batteries, but still doesn't work. Very dissappointed because I was so excited to give this to my boyfriend. =(

Good Product...ths is the third tie rack we have purchased...they all wind up breaking within a couple of years...hopefully this one lasts longer!!

I've had two of these battery-powered tie racks from The Sharper Image over the last 20 years or more. The drive band that also has the tie hooks eventually deteriorates and splits and then the band won't mesh with the cog wheel to be advanced around it's track and deliver the desired tie. Not really unexpected; the flexible plastic band isn't rubbery enough to conform to the cogwheel and eventually cracks at one of the tie hooks and, if it were rubbery enough, it probably wouldn't be stiff enough to hold the weight of the tie(s). I just buy a replacement after 7 to 12 years of use. I'd been searching around for an alternative vendor/manufacturer of one that holds over 70 ties because The Sharper Image company had gone belly-up a couple of years ago and then my tie rack failed again. Last week I bought and tried this company's product and, right out of the box, I noted that they did NOT include the shown/described belt hooks. After installing the batteries, I then found the drive band did NOT work. Yeah, the arrow lights lit up on the buttons to activate the drive band to rotate the ties and the light to illuminate the ties in a dark closet lit up and then auto shut-off (nice touch)and the 'ionizer' worked, but no motor action/sound. Nothing. I see no use in the 'ionizer' aspect of this, anyway, an little need to have 'lit up' arrows (I know which way the rack will rotate when I press a button, so do you!). I got a refund from the vendor and THEN performed exploratory disassembly on it to see if I could fix it. I found that the mechanical switches all worked and there was no loose wiring, so have to assume that the wiring to the motor was soldered onto the wrong spot(s) on the circuitboard or that the drive motor itself was a dud. At this point, I cannot be bothered to take the time to follow the wiring and the electronic components on the board to confirm that. Later, I might hotwire some batteries directly to the electric motor terminals to see if it works. SO, my opinion of this item is: 1) it's a great functional design which I'ved used before; 2) the 'ionizer' function is probably a useless power-consuming gimmick; 3) the unit does NOT have the hardware to hang from wire closet racks or non-standard closet poles; 4) packaging quality control failed to note missing belt hooks; and 5) unit function quality-control testing of the completed unit is lacking even though the rest of the materials used and assembly thereof are great. Too bad. Try another brand or just get The Sharper Image unit, now that they are selling stuff again, if you dare. I'm gonna see if this drive band fits on my old The Sharper Image unit.... Probably too much bother for most people to make a 'salvage' effort of the unit and I guess that's the bottom line.