Customer Reviews

Factory-Reconditioned Bosch PB10-CDR-RT Power Box Advanced Job Site Radio with CD Player and Remote Control

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I saw this device on job-site not too long after it was released. I had to search around to find it, now it's for sale everywhere.
Pros:
-cage allows it to be chained down with ladders and job box.
-cord wrap keeps cable tidy when not in use.
-light weight.
-square shape lets you stack it on a two wheeler (unlike the DW & Mil).
-snap-down CD tray keeps discs from jamming if you tip it or crash into it with a skyjack.
-EQ was designed to be LOUD and fill a room with sound (see cons).
-on-board GFCI cleans up cable clutter.
-12v output and mini-jack input lets me tie in an i-pod or other gear.
-battery charger cabinet holds 8-9 CD jewel cases for safe transport!

CONS:
-EQ was not designed for the audiophile carpenter. If you want booming lows and tight high-end, buy a Bose Wave Radio and hope you don't trash it.
-no line out jack for sending to a transmitter or other device.
-FM reception is garbage, I use CDs and MP3s unless we are listening to AM.
-backlit display is not designed for viewing above horizontal. If you have the box setting on the ground, you must tip it back (or lay on the floor) to read the display. From above you see all possible icons.
-volume control doesn't give you much room for subtle music. I normally keep it on 1 or 2. Volume is electronic with a momentary up-down control via a shuttle knob (on the left)
-GFCI doors flip up, so you have to tip the unit to the side to see the plugs for mating. I just tore the doors off after a while. I figured, why have rain lids? I work indoors well after the job has been dry.
-all of the nooks and crannies on the molded case collect a LOT of dust and debris.

HINT!
The antenna is discretely hidden in the round top handle. I disassembled the unit, cut the antenna lead to the handle and soldered it to a retractable antenna (from my local RadioShack) that I attached easily to the top of the main shell. I do not reccomend this procedure, but I can tell you, it SIGNIFICANTLY increased my FM reception.

New-----
I Read the reveiw about the new antenna and ordered the unit. It's well worth the price. And now reception is as good as any other radio out there. It's playing CD's and MP-3's as I type. and I get all the stations I need on the radio. Kudo's to Bosch for the quick fix. I wish I could increase the actual rating, 5 Stars, no question.
--------

I saw the radio in the store and had it in my cart. I thought I should read the reviews prior to purchase and put it back. After reading the reviews I went back to home depot and with the Dewalt on one side and the Milwaukee on the other I performed the reception test. Don't buy the Bosch. I'm a great fan of their tools but the Bosch would not pick up ANY FM stations while the others would tune clearly to 8-10 local and not so local stations.

The Good- The MP3 function puts 11 hours of music on a disk, and with 12vdc and 4 outlets of GFCI It's still a good tool. I may need to take it apart to put an external antenna on it tho'

I've been waiting for this to be released, and finally I found one at my local Lowes store. It's larger than I thought, but I guess you have to be big to be all the things this thing is.

A few thoughts:

1>Bosch sound - actually kind of amplified trebly, as opposed to a bass boost - which is what you expect from a sound boost option. EQ settings also amplify the sound to different degrees.
2>Power cord is a bit short for the unit to truly act as a remote power strip, which, with the gfci outlets - you get the idea that's what Bosch had in mind.
3>I was hoping I could use the 12volt outlet to charge my phone with the 18volt bosch pack - but it only works when plugged in...
4>Some had said that the internal antenna is a little weak - I guess I'd agree, sometimes you have to turn off the stereo option to lose some of the static.
5>I was hoping for a bit more bass overall, but then I'm coming from a JVC Kaboom box - which rocks, But the Powerbox is not too bad, it puts out a nice loud sound - loud enough for all my uses as a boombox.
6>The manual doesn't specify how long it should take to charge the battery - it seems to take a lot longer than my standard charger.

I'd definitely buy it again, but then I'm committed to the Bosch 18Volt platform. I look forward to being able to put an MP3 CD in it with 100 or so songs - nice feature. I also use it with my iPod directly hooked up to it. I do wish it was a bit smaller/lighter, but it does seem to be built like a tank, so I'll quit whining. I'm looking forward to the future 18Volt products Bosch will release, as the basic 4 piece kit plus the planer and now the Powerbox are all very well designed and made.

The newest version of the Bosch Power Box is a winner. The poor ratings in other reviews refer to the original version of this unit. I am listening to it as I type. Sound quality and radio reception are now strong points for the new PB10-CD.

The new model includes many upgraded audio features including separate bass and treble controls, remote control, speaker upgrades with separate tweeters and strong clean sound. The built-in CD player is great on CDs I burn myself as well as regular CDs. Bosch is offering a free IPod dock for a slick set-up to satisfy us IPoders.

On the job site, the GFCI is super handy and the square roll cage lets you sit on it, stand on it, stack on it...things you can't do with the "boom box" units from other vendors. I do not use Bosch cordless tools, but I still appreciate the battery charger on the Power Box. Whenever you plug it into an outlet, the battery I purchased separatly recharges and is good to go where there is no AC power.

The feel of the controls is excellent and you can tell just by touch that this is a quality product. Just be sure you buy the new "Advanced" model with the folding rubber antenna and the keychain remote control. You will not be disappointed!

Update After 10 Months...I revisited the reviews on this unit and it seems to have the widest range of opinions of anything listed by Amazon. After using the Power Box for about a year, warm weather...cold weather...whatever, I still find it to be an absolutly great job site piece of equipment. I live in Minnesota and have NO cold weather issues. It still sounds great, no skipping or reception problems and charges Bosch batteries completely. I wish all my equipment worked as well as this radio.

****FINAL UPDATE

I finally quit trying to believe there was anything redeeming about this radio. The FM tuner reception, even with the new antenna fix, is quite simply so bad that it ruins the radio. I was lucky if I could tune in one station clearly at any given site.

ONLY BUY THIS UNIT IF YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT FM RECEPTION.

After letting my Powerbox sit unused for several months, I called Bosch and asked for a refund. It took some doing, but they agreed to take the radio back and refund my money. They acknowledged its problems; they know it is a piece of junk. To Bosch's credit, they did take it back. Maybe they'll come out with a new design some day and get it right.

****UPDATE

This is the second time I've updated my review. I've had my power box for months, and I've had the improved unit with the added wire antenna (see below) for over a month.

The FM radio reception on this unit is simply horrible. In my opinion, the wire antenna Bosch has added does nothing to improve reception, and even seems to make it worse in some cases. Adding the wire antenna was simply slapping a band-aid on a serious problem. It didn't work, and I'd like my money back. Do not buy this unit if you want to listen to FM radio with it.

****UPDATE (original review below):

Bosch finally acknowledged the FM reception problem with these Power Boxes and is willing to replace them. They added an external antenna at the rear of the cicular, silver Bosch handle on the top of the unit.

The antenna consists of a thin wire that is about one foot long. At one end of the wire there is a threaded connector that screws onto a small connector that Bosch has added at the back of the connector. At the other end there is a velcro strap that you can use to attact that end of the wire to something to keep the wire extended.

Of course, there usually isn't anything to attach that wire to, and I find it only modestly improves the Power Box's reception. I would have much rather seen a "rubber whip" style antenna.

If you have the old Power Box, you can call Bosch and they will send you a new one with the antenna. You then send yours back to them in the box the new one was sent in. They take your credit card number for security (in case you don't send them the old Power Box). Bosch pays for all shipping, and they even sent me a free gift separately for my trouble (a case of drill driver bits).****


I've owned my Power Box for a couple of months now. I read the other reviews and my comments relate to them.

I don't think this radio is too heavy or too big. I would have never thought of that as a possible compaint.

I have been wondering about the FM reception. I get many stations fine, but the PBS station, which is usually the easiest to get, is hard to get on the Power Box. But AM reception seems surprisingly good.

The one thing I really wish this thing had is a headphone jack. I have a small radio transmitter that I use at sites to transmit to my Peltor Alert hearing protection AM/FM headphones (I put them on when I'm using power equipment). I'd really like to be able to transmit whatever I'm listening to or playing to my headphones, but I can't with no jack. But, I'm sure I'm about the only person out there with this complaint.

One thing I have noticed is that once I charge a battery pack, it goes dead within a day or two even if the radio is not on. I really don't understand why this is, but it has happened several times with a fairly new battery pack.

I think the sound is good. But I wouldn't expect amazing sound from a jobsite radio, and I listen mainly to talk programming.

So, in the end, I guess I don't know if I like my Power Box. I wouldn't return it tomorrow for what I paid for it. But I'd sure like to keep that option open.

In case anyone is wondering bosch is offering to replace your original Power Box with their newer version. They have put an external antenna on the unit. Right now it is only a wire but the reception is much better. Hopefully this is just a quick fix for there current stock and they decide to put a flexible antenna like on the DeWalt but it is definetly improved. They also disconnected the clock when the power is off when running off the battery. This was the main draw on the battery when not in use. I sell these units and the most impressive thing about this radio is the ability to drop this radio from above your head with a CD playing and not have it skip. The sound quality could be a little better but the EQ helps a little. I was impressed at Bosch's quick action to fix these problems though.

This review is for the newest model with the hard rubber antenna and remote control. I've read the horrible reviews for the older models with the bad reception being the biggest complaint, and I'm happy to say that I don't think the reception is any worse(or any better) than other brands' jobsite radios. That being said, there's not much I like about this radio after using it for several months now. Although it has some great features like the 4-way gfci outlet and the 12v receptacle, and it does seem to be sturdy and well built for jobsite abuse.

But I have major complaints about this radio. First of all, it doesn't work in cold weather. Plug it in and it will light up, but you can't get any functions working unless the weather is somewhat mild(at least above 45 degrees). Being an electrician, I don't always have the luxury of working indoors in the winter.

And you can't rely on it for being your main battery charger. A pretty dead battery will take over 3 hours to charge. That doesn't seem like a long time until you realise that's almost half of the work day.

I can't complain about the sound quality because it really does sound great. Plus you can play around with the equilizer settings to find the sound you're looking for. However, I will complain about the volume level. The fact that you can't turn it up very high at all is the biggest problem I have with this radio. You literally can't hear it unless you're working right near it. To me that alone makes this useless as a "jobsite" radio. I'm sure it would be great in an office or something. Any radio that costs 1/10 of this could be turned up 10 times as loud. I'm assuming that Bosch doesn't want you to blow the speakers, but we should at least have a choice to turn the music up loud. Seriously, I can't believe none of the other reviews mentioned this incredibly annoying problem.

Maybe it deserves more than 1 star but I bought this to listen to the radio at work and to charge my batteries. The max volume is EXTREMELY low, and the battery charger is EXTREMELY slow.

**UPDATE**

Sorry for such a bad review on the sound. The equalizer was on the custom setting and all of them were down very low. It took me a little while to realize, but once I took care of this the problem was solved. It's still a lousy battery charger and won't work in the cold, so I can't give it more than three stars.

I am on my second unit. The first one I purchased, I had to prop the front of the unit back, else it wouldnt always play a cd. So I returned it to Home Depot for another. Which for the most part works to my satisfaction.

drawbacks:
reception is garbage
I have to remember to unplug the battery. If I leave the battery in overnight, it is dead in the morning. bad, bad, bad!

the display needs to be angled upward for better read-ability.

the sound is a little strong in the "high-end", but bearable

It would be nice, that if the unit was not plugged in (to either wall or battery) that there was a function to read the clock. As in push a button and the time displays for a few sectons.

The AA batteries should be rechargeable, it's not like there isnt a charger built into the unit. it would only add pennies to the manufacturing cost.

It would also be nice if the clock had an alarm setting (3 in fact, for break, lunch & quitting time). again, it would only add pennies to the manufacturing cost.

My GREATEST disappointment is that I have registered this unit with BOSCH, and have had it for 6 months. (purchased the first week available at Home Depot). I was at a different distributor this weekend and was discussing the unit with the salesman who informed me of the following:
there is a retrofit kit available for the antenna, with another retrofit coming.

that BOSCH has fixed the problem with the battery draining overnight.

Why was I finding this out for the first time from my tool guy.
I thought this was why we sent in product registration cards, so that the mfgr. could inform us of things like this. A simple postcard "we are aware of a problem with some units, you may bring it to blah, blah, blah,. or at your option (where practicable) you may return this card and we will send you the parts to perform the retrofit yourself.

As an owner of of the 24V cordless set, the decision of which brand of jobsite radio to purchase, was for me a no-brainer. The Red or the Yellow one just made no sense while owning BOSCH cordless tools.

Overall, I am very happy with this unit. it is LOUD and clear sounding. 10-11 hours of music with an mp3 cd is nice for when i travel to places without any radio reception (which I hope to be fewer after the retrofits). It is rugged & square.

Being square may sound like a dumb thing to get happy about, but it allows you to stack things on it.

I was glad to finally get ahold of a work site radio that is sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of... well.. a work site.
This one does it. However, the quality of the sound emanating from those small speakers keeps this piece of equipment from being a good buy. I would gladly pay a little more for better sound.

First of all any btty that last's 8hrs on a charge is great. Reception is not the best but for a jobsite radio its fine. To compare it to Milwaukee is not fair as thiers isnt even a charger. Sound is by far the best of all three.