Customer Reviews

Polder 891-90 Triple Kitchen 20-Hour Timer/Clock/Stopwatch

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I, too, have had nothing but trouble from this timer. It worked fine for the first month or six weeks, although as others have noted the buttons are excessively debounced and have to be pressed and held to function. After that initial period of unenthusiastic mild satisfaction, however, it began to "freeze" sporadically and, more recently, continuously. Even the kids now know how to remove the battery cover, take the battery out for a few seconds, and replace it to reset the timer. I ordered a new (different) timer today, and figured I'd stop by here and leave this review while I was thinking about it. Avoid this thing.

Conclusion: Avoid this cheaply made timer. It has little buttons that are unresponsive to presses. It is too quiet to hear. It also has a tendency to frequently lock-up or freeze, like your computer does, and stop counting time, requiring a battery removal for reset.

Cheap: The timer is made very cheaply in China out of soft plastic. The buttons are unresponsive and jiggle in their holds. Unless they pressed exactly in the center they do not work and often times you have to press them multiple times hard to make them work.

Quiet: The timer's alarms are very quiet and hard to hear. With the pots cooking and even a little water running it is hard to hear it when it goes off. If you happen to put your dish cloth on top of the timer, then you won't even know that it went off.

Freezes: Worst of all after a few months of dealing with this timer the real serious problem came up. It started locking-up and freezing just like a computer does. It would stop counting down time and just sit there, completely frozen. I burned a few dishes this way when the timer didn't go off. To this fix this problem, I had to take the batteries out and put them back in to reset the unit. Changing the timer's battery to a new one didn't solve the problem. It became progressively worse and started occurring more frequently, now when you sometimes pressed a button to start or stop one of the timer counts it would completely freeze and require a reset.

Defective: I am not the only person that had this problem with locking up, another reviewer Colin Bowness from Weston, MA USA had this to say: "When little more than a year old our timer failed with the display locking up.". Hearing another user reporting the same problem as myself it l looks like I did not just have one defective unit, it looks like the problem is more widespread with other units also. The worst thing about this is that the timer was working fine until the problem started happening many months after the purchase and it became progressively worse, further showing the poor quality of the manufacturing.

I really liked the functionality of this timer since it allowed three count-down timers, one count-up timer, and a clock to run at the same time, giving me a lot of information for the many dishes that I was cooking. However, I have to be honest with my experiences with this timer so I had to write a negative review of it. Now I'm back and looking for another timer to purchase.

I didn't really like this timer. It was cheaply made and the controls were too small. I wouldn't say it was difficult to set, but the procedure involves an unnecessary number of steps (for instance, why can't I just set the timer and hit start? Why do I have to move that very small little slider switch back to "lock" before I can start to time something?)

If you really need three timers at once, maybe this is the one for you. But unless you have specialized needs, you may want to steer clear of this timer. I mean, I just bought the thing and here I am back on Amazon shopping for another one.

After reading the other mediocre reviews, I still purchased this product. I'd much rather buy 2 or 3 separate devices that work the way they should instead of purchasing this one. The buttons are HORRIBLE. I often cook 3 things at the same time, and it's the biggest pain to try to shut off one alarm while not messing up the other ones. It's also impossible to set the timers. Overall, it's just barely useable. I'd rather have either of my old single digital timers back any day.

I just purchased a new triple timer today from Williams-Sonoma. The display is the same, but the color is metallic. The key difference is the BUTTONS! It's slimmer and not as flimsy. The beeping is also literally twice as loud as the Polder. I give this Williams-Sonoma triple timer 5 stars even though it costs $18 dollars. It even has individual buttons for each timer. Trust me, when you're busy timing things and rushing everything to get done at the same time, the extra (or should I say less) time spent really makes a difference. With all 3 timers on, I guestimate saving a total of about 45 seconds between the Williams-Sonoma compared to the Polder.

Even my girlfriend doesn't want my Polder timer for free.

I will admit it; the main use I have for my microwave is as a timer. Not very sophisticated. Problem with the microwave is that you need to be within earshot of it. Same applies to my cute little rooster timer that sits on the counter.

This nice-sized timer fits in my pocket and has three settings, so if you are baking a cake and timing something on the stove as well, you don't have to set (yes, you guessed it, the rooster and the microwave.) I like the digital display as it is easy to tell the time left. A lot easier than looking at the dial on the rooster. The timer also acts as a clock. So you can set your times for the roast and the pie, use the third setting for to get cleaned up before your guests arrive.

A very good timer. We needed to be able to time multiple things in the kitchen. This timer has three separate settings, plus a clock and a count-up timer (stopwatch). Has different beeps for each of the three timers, so you can tell which is going ringing.

It's different than pictured, and I think better. No slides to move, just a "mode" button to switch between the timers.

Has a magnet on the back, so sticks nicely to the refridgerator. Battery included!

First item came with the LCD display scratched UNDER the protective film from the factory. Yes from the factory. Put a battery and it ran for exactly 15 seconds and died. Tried a new battery, different brand etc. Yup, dead. Don't buy this thing, I've never seen worse quality in my life.

Display is small with numbers less than 0.5 inch high. Alarm sound is too quiet for many kitchens. When little more than a year old our timer failed with the display locking up.

I have had this timer for years and loved it. This new one, however, is not the same. The alert/alarm is just too soft. You have to be right on top of it to hear the sound. Too bad as it is a great timer.

The alarms are not loud enough. Running water, dishwasher etc. will cover them up and I have a quite dishwasher. I tried a new battery but did it not help. Also buttons did not respond as quickly as the other three digital timers I've used. I loved the features and was very dissapointed. I gave it one star because the alarmes do not do me any good if I can't hear them.