Customer Reviews

La Crosse Technology WT-5360U Atomic Projection Alarm Clock

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Not surprisingly, I chose this clock for 3 reasons: it sets itself, it projects the time on the ceiling/wall, and it's quite inexpensive. After a needlessly painful setup (more on that later) it set its own time, and the time projected on the ceiling is easy to read with my glasses on (just barely readable w/o glasses).

The first problem I encountered was plugging the power supply into the clock. It uses a standard coaxial DC power connector that plugs into a socket on the bottom of the clock. Unfortunately, the hole through which you access the socket is not only much larger than the socket, but so much larger than the socket housing (a box containing the socket connector) that unless you have sharp eyes and carefully align the plug with the socket, the plug will slip into the gap between the socket housing and the hole in the clock case.

After getting the power connected, I left for work, and when I returned, the clock showed the correct time--only off by 3 hours. OK, so I needed to set the time zone. There are no buttons labeled "time zone", "TZ" or anything similar. A quick check of the manual (don't lose that manual!) revealed an unintuitive process for setting the time zone (typical of devices that don't have enough buttons):
1. Hold down the "Mode" button for 3 seconds. The currently selected time zone will be displayed.
2. Click the "Mode" button until your time zone appears.
3. Click the "Snooze" button.

Despite its poor design features, this clock basically works as advertised and is inexpensive. Since most of the time, you won't need to touch it, if you can read relatively dim, red 3" numbers on your ceiling, then it's probably a good choice. Just don't lose the manual!

1. Atomic accuracy.
2. Indoor thermometer.
3. Projects the time on the ceiling (in red, for view in the dark only)
4. Very readable LCD display.
5. Snooze alarm.

All for about 20 bucks!

You can adjust the brightness of the projection (three levels plus "off"). As well, you can rotate the on-ceiling time display in 90-degree increments so it works if the clock is set up behind you, in front of you, or to either side of you. I have no clue how they made this possible (a mirror? a motor? two displays?), but it works great.

AND you can rotate the projector forward and back so you can project on a wall if you wish.

When I bought this I was worried about focus. Don't. It is fixed focus for any distance over about 4 feet. No worries about focus.

You can display seconds on the LCD clockface, but not through the projection display, which is just 4 digits and a colon.

It will work without the (included!) AC adapter, except that the ceiling projection will not be continuous. It'll turn on momentarily when you press the snooze button.

No complaints except there's no way I can find to *manually* set the seconds to zero at the new minute.

A hint: don't power up the clock until it is pretty late at night, like around midnight. Receiving the atomic clock signal is hard during the day, and you may find it hard to bear waiting for the clock to set itself if you power it up before bedtime. I'm not sure how reliably the clock will set itself if you lose patience and set it manually.

A very nice, fun clock at a great price!

it works as advertised. I can only see the projected time on the ceiling when it is very dark, but it's not that important to me.

I bought this because of the automatic setting with the atomic clock, and use the time to set my manual watches. It does update ever night. However, this clock doesn't display the seconds, which I didn't notice before I ordered it. My fault, not the clock's.

The clock is hard to read from six feet away and the numbers it projects on the celing or wall are too small and not bright enough.

I like this clock, but it makes me crazy. It resets itself automatically to the correct time when the power goes out, but it forgets what timezone you are in! GMT for everyone until you go back through the infuriating menus using the horrible buttons. The buttons are horrible! You can use a battery, but then it wouldn't have lost the correct time in the first place.

Did I say the buttons were horrible? You press as hard as you can, and sometimes they won't click at all and sometimes they double click. Since you can't back up in setting the alarm or anything, if you go past your time due to a double click you have to go all the way around and try again. Don't lose the manual or you will never figure out which horrible button to press in which order. Machiavelli had nothing on the enginerds that came up with this thing.

I like the temperature and projection features, they are great. I don't use the alarm anymore and as long as I never have to touch it, we get along fine.

This clock is great. I'm always looking over at the clock through the night, now I just look up. I recommended this to a friend and she said they love it. This will be Christmas presents for everyone next year.

We have enjoyed being able to just open our eyes & look at the ceiling above us & know what time of night it is.

This clock for me was very confusing in how to set. It would be great to simplify. Also it does not shine on ceiling as bright as I had hoped. You can see the numbers, but have to look for them. Also I think it changed to daylight savings before daylight savings had begun (due to the change I'm sure) so rather than have to figure out how to change it and then have to change back, I am having to add a number when I look at it.. It is ok, but was hoping for more.

I think that a number of people who rank this clock with 4 or 5 stars, are doing so because of the novelty of ceiling projection. To me, it's no longer a novelty, because I also own a $6.95 ceiling projection alarm clock. I expected this clock to perform at least as good as my "cheapie". It doesn't, here's why:
1 - Projection is dim, so I can't see the numbers in dusk or dawn conditions as I can with my cheapie (also refer to note 4).
2 - Projected numbers are small.
3 - Setup of features is entirely based on guessing where you are in a long sequence of steps so that the instructions in the manual align with what you're attempting to do.
4 - Any my biggest annoyance by far is that the entire setup and operation of this complicated clock is limited to just to 5 buttons, AND the manual forgets to tell you how to use 2 of them !!! One of the buttons is proection intensity, which I believe I have turned up all the way after playing with it and other buttons concurrently, but without instructions, I'm only guessing.

I received one as a gift, and liked it so much that I bought one for every room in the house.