Jean Eng Blog

Perhaps I’m in too much a of hurry to baby a kitchen timer with both hands when it is attached to the refrigerator but I bet if a manufacturer would make a cooking timer with a really strong magnet, they would sell like hotcakes!

I wonder if they purposely choose weak magnets because it cost a lot less to put in cheap parts (I can’t imagine it saving them THAT much money) and that a poorly placed small magnet will make the unit drop on the floor, thus potentially cause breakage and forcing the consumer to continue to buy these items over and over.

I have purchased more than a handful of timers in the past decade or so and obviously none of them have held up to my “abuse” which really isn’t that much of an abuse.  :bat:

Here’s what I want…

• I don’t need some fancy timer that I can program a spaceship with…just a simple countdown function and a toggle to a clock would be nice, although I had one previously with a clock feature which I rarely used but that may be due to the fact that pushing the button for clock made my unit slip down the refrigerator and ultimately fall to its death or lose the battery cover.
• I’d like a really strong, fuller surface magnet on the back and they can make the clip bigger just so the magnet will fit.  I’m sure a fuller clip would be a plus for those who utilize it….the set it and walk around with it feature.
• They must either engineer the magnet so that it covers a bigger area so pushing the buttons don’t “tip” it to one side or they need to remove the clip altogether.  I think removing the clip feature will give more stability to the magnetic ability even if it was a cheaper magnet.

Now…for the things that would be a nice addition…

• A more advanced battery cover that don’t pop off at the slight drop and is still easily accessible without having to use a screwdriver
• Uses standard AAA or AA batteries
• Oh, of course one that will withstand a fall if someone were to accidentally drop it…maybe rubberized corners to absorb the shock of impact with the floor :blush:
• Dual or triple timer capabilities
• LCD backlit at a push button
• A count-up feature from the time it counted down from your setting, that way you will know how much time have passed since your timer went off
• A fairly loud timer but not ear piercing pitch, maybe even an unconventional sound, like a gradual increase in volume or maybe even a programmable volume setting
• A setting that allows you to program the length of the sound alert: 1 minute, 2 minutes, forever, etc
• Large display area
• Reasonable cost…if a timer had all of these features, I would fork out maybe 19.99 24.99 for it.
• Fun colors to match kitchen decor or just so you can find your timer easily
• Vibrate, flashing light alert feature may be handle as well
• Push button numbers instead of hitting one button a bunch of times to select the number you want

I think that’s about it on the features I would want, not necessarily need.  Someone can invent this and call it smart timer or something like that…throw it up on an infomercial and make millions!  Heck, someone could have a series of timers that are smart.  If I knew more about this stuff, I could make millions myself haha.

Maybe someone already has invented what I want, I just have to find it.  I’ve been searching around and no luck so far in a reasonable priced unit.  My biggest thing is the magnet not holding the unit on the refrigerator.  When I’m cooking, I just want to set it quick and move on to the next thing, I don’t want to stand around holding it, I don’t have time for that, I’m multi-tasking!!

Perhaps setting the unit isn’t where the dropping occurs, it’s when I want to stop it, that’s when the unit tends to fall down because it slips down. So there’s my gripe for today…well, for now  :dunno:

Right now I’ve broken the last timer I had, I may have to resort to buying a cheap kitchen timer and doctoring it up with some heavy duty magnets I bought awhile back….where did I put them anyway…   :thinking:

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After doing some research, I finally decided to pick up two of the Polder 898-95 Digital Timer that’s also a clock and a stopwatch!  It’s got many of the features I want and it seems to get decent reviews at Amazon.com.  Plus it’s an eligible item for their 4 for 3 promotion so I ended up picking up a couple of other items around this price range.  I buy a lot of stuff at Amazon because I am an Amazon.com prime shipping subscriber!  I abuse the heck out of that prime shipping sometimes by buying one little thing…but then, they ship out a lot of the multiple item purchase orders singularly anyway.  I’m not sure how they make any money off of prime shipping!

I picked up some great tips from reading the reviews on these timers for other uses!  I am not the most disciplined person when it comes to staying focused on what I should do.  Time seems to get away from me at times when I’m doing research, I just love to absorb information!  Others have used it to help them stay focused while doing tasks by setting time limits and sticking with it.  It’ll be interesting to discover all the ways I will use the new timers…one for the kitchen, the other on my desk to keep me on track!  My stuff is estimated to arrive on thursday, prime shipping gets here in 2 business days!!  But a lot of times, it arrives in one business day, they are so fast!

I ordered some new rechargeable batteries and a new charger and it was estimated to arrive on wednesday.  When I checked my tracking, it said it will be delivered tomorrow!  LOVE PRIME SHIPPING!!  :luv:   I’ll do another post about the batteries another time, it’s a big experimental project, should be lots of fun!