GE 74837 AM/FM Clock Radio with Green LED

I bought this trusting the GE brand. My sturdy GE clock radio of ten years took a few too many bangs and drops, and wore out. It lived a good, useful life. I thought I could trust GE for quality with my next clock purchase.

This is the worst clock I have ever owned.

The numbers are big. I like that. The dials are big. I like that too. The loss in quality comes with the functioning of the clock, not the appearance.

When tuning a station, even a major megawatt big city AM station, the most careful attention must be paid when rotating the dial. It is far too sensitive, allowing no room for accuracy. Increasing and decreasing the volume is the same way. Fine tuning is impossible, and so I suffer with the station sounding fuzzy and too loud.

The electric cord is unusually thick and inflexible. It has an industrial-strength look to it, making it inappropriate radio for any visible place in my home.

The alarm has a feature that the makers brag about which frustrates me. It gets louder beep by beep, becoming annoying if you happen to get up early and jump in the shower minutes before the alarm goes off.

It feels silly to go on about what a poor product this is, given that it is an economical item. Be warned. Whatever the price is, it is no bargain.

Anthony Trendl

editor, HungarianBookstore.com

my parents own this thing and put it in the spare bedroom, and every time i stay at their house, i wonder why, for the love of god, they keep this thing.

i hit the on/off button on accident repeatedly because it makes no sense where it's at. they are larger than the snooze button. someone needs to tell the manufacturer that snooze buttons are big because you reach up and hit them in a sleepy state. you might as well get out of bed if you need to expend effort looking for the snooze button.

it took me an eternity how to figure out how to set the alarm so that it would go off in the morning, and how to turn the alarm off so that it didn't beep every few minutes. now, i can't figure out how to turn the alarm off. i've pressed cancel and every combination of buttons that i can think of. all cancel does is make the dot that signifies that the alarm has been set to flash at you for a few seconds before it goes back to normal.

an alarm clock shouldn't need an owner's manual. an on/off button...i mean, what in the heck is that? what's "on"? shouldn't it just say "off"? and shouldn't "off" be indicative that you've turned the alarm completely off until the next time you choose to reset the alarm? if they mean "off" to signify that you've turned the alarm off, but it's still armed for the next morning, shoudn't there be a button that says, "really off"? and "on" button means that the alarm is set, right?

i think this is the stupidest alarm clock i've ever dealt with.

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11/2006 update: The clock is still going strong. It's difficult to believe how annoyed people are by some of the positive features of the clock. The alarm-cancel and alarm-off functions are different. The latter lets you turn off the buzzing without having to remember to turn the alarm back on at night. Unfortunately, that means you'll have to remember to turn it off on Friday nights. It seems a fair trade-off.

The battery backup feature means you need to put a battery in there so that when there's a blackout, your clock will keep time. If you don't personally put in a battery or the battery you put in there goes dead, you will have no battery back up. This is a standard feature with almost all alarm clocks and GE certainly did not go an extra step to build-in an internal battery.

It's a cheap alarm clock. Let's not get too obsessive about it.

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I got this clock about 6 months ago. It's been a reliable, decent purchase. I like the graduwake feature and the alarm cancel feature is convenient. It's also pretty sturdy and I've dropped it a couple of times without damaging it.

It's pleasing enough in appearance and the thick, flat cord doesn't bother me. It resists becoming twisted and keeps a neat appearance.

Cons:

My very curious and wandering cat inadvertently sets the alarm and also switches the clock between alarm/music mode when she walks on our dresser. So keep it out of reach of wayward pets if you have them.

I wish it had a weekend feature so that I wouldn't have to remember to turn it off on fridays. But the clock is so cheap, I don't think it's fair to ask for such features.

Conclusion:

You can't really go too wrong with such a cheap clock. It's only $10. What have you got to lose? I don't know of any other clock that offers the graduwake and the alarm cancel features at such a low price. Don't think too much about this purchase.

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I got this clock in a silent aution just because it looked cool. I didn't know that it would become a clock that I would love for several years. This clock have MANY wonderful features like the ramp up alarm feature: It always woke me up w/o jumping out of bed like I'd heard gunfire. It also has great sound quality in the radio, unlike many other alarms. Its also easy to set and easy to turn off. I also like the large display, its easy for me to read at night. The only downside is also my favorite upside, the ramp up alarm. After awhile, it does get kind of obnoxious, but it still keeps me from jumping. I had this alarm for about 5 years before I purchased an iHome for my iPod, and I would recomend it to ANYONE!

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I bought this unit to replace my old one that was just...well....old. I love the gradual awake feature. This means I won't wake up the neighbors like my monster loud old one did. There are a few drawbacks to this unit. First, the numbers are so bright it lights up the entire room at night. There is no dimming feature on this unit. Secondly it is hard to tune a radio station, and when you do, it has to be adjusted the next day. Thirdly the volume adjustment goes from high to low to off. There was no way for me to play music low enough for me to fall asleep.

And finally some bright engineer put the on/off button next to the snooze button. So if you reach up to hit the snooze in the morning, and accidentally hit the on/off button, you are screwed. The alarm is now off and won't go off again until the next morning.