Customer Reviews

GE Indoor or Outdoor Electronic 2-Oulet Digital Timer: With Light-Sensing Photocell

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My father bought this awhile back and never even opened it, but I needed an outdoor timer and he gave it to me. I thought the product had neat features; Turn on at dusk, stay on for a pre-set number of hours, then turn off. Simple, right? Not really.

The first day it was supposed to turn on on it's own, it turned on at about 2pm. My house faces the sunset, and the outlets are on the side of the house (not, say, on the porch), so the timer is literally dangling from the outlet and facing the sun. Why it chose (and continues to choose) 2pm for it's on time is beyond me. When I realized four hours later that my lights had turned off way too early, I went to reset the time for a longer duration. As soon as I pressed the button, I knew something was wrong. The button was stuck. The timer cycled through it's settings on it's own...and then again...and again, while I tried to get the button un-stuck (not successfully). Finally, after a few cycles, it stopped at 8 hours, which has been working fine for a pre-set time. However, the button was still sunk in the timer. My husband had to get a pair of pliers to pry it out, and when he did, he noticed that the trigger inside the timer was a cheap little plastic nub and it had broken in half upon pressing the button. When I go to take down the lights in a month, he will try to see if he can fix it so we can continue to use it (hey, just because it's cheaply-made and turns on too early, doesn't mean it isn't usable!)

Neat concept for a timer...but needs to be made not so cheaply!

EDIT 12/10: I went to leave my house late one morning at about 10am and found the lights ON. So, I no longer use the timer. My lights are LED, they're on all the time now.