Verilux Rise & Shine alarm clock
Posted on Oct 25, 06 12:40 AM PDT
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By NewsView , 16/03/07 6:30 PM (CommentID #118067)
If you are considering the purchase of this product, please consider my experience as an owner of the Verilux Rise & Shine lamp.
It took three tries on this lamp to get one that was "less defective" than all the rest.
The first lamp had a DOA internal speaker (and since it is mono there was no sound except when bypassing the internal speaker using the included pillow speaker). In addition, there was a pretty obvious nick in the plastic housing right next to the LCD display.
The second lamp came out of the mold wrong. The lamp shade wouldn't sit straight. The bright white shade also had a beige stain or blemish on it. The light bulb leaned at an angle because the socket was skewed. As for the cosmetic appearance, the edges you see illustrated in the photo show a plastic "face" in which the LCD panel is mounted. Those edges were rippled and pitted as if they ran one too many through the mold without cleaning it out (or the mold wore out). There was also a scratch — once again straight out of the retail packaging.
As per the instruction manual, I called to report the problem to Verilux. Since Verilux offers an impressive three-year warranty covering defects in workmanship and materials, I expected a sympathetic response. No such luck. I might have been able to ignore the misaligned bulb if they had simply sent me a new shade, but Verilux refused, and in contradiction to their own user manual, directed me to make a third 40 mile trip to the retailer.
The third lamp — yeah, I know, you're wondering why I didn't just get my money back. Well, that lamp works except that it is subject to station drift and more static than the previous two even though it is installed in the same place as the previous two lamps using a Belkin surge protector. Oddly, walking in front of the lamp or pressing the lamp's buttons seems to trigger this static reaction in the tuner. I suspect there is a grounding issue, but it is not serious enough to warrant yet another trip back to the store. As for overall build quality, this lamp doesn't have any scratches, pits or ripples in the plastic — but it wobbles on level surfaces! In other words, it won't sit flat.
As they say, the third time is the charm. So I doubt continuing to exchange it will result in a better product. Poor quality control is apparently par for the course — which is sad because this is otherwise a fantastic, space-saving concept.
Last but not least, this is a lamp that uses full spectrum light. People who are "night owls" and want to learn how to get their body clock readjusted to morning wake cycles will probably benefit most from this lamp (since full spectrum light will trigger hormonal changes in the brain to "reset" one's internal clock). The reason I mention this is because the bulbs are 12-volt proprietary "Xenon" bulbs that retail for $19.99 (and good luck trying to find them anywhere locally). They are rated at 2,000 hours, which may or may not justify the price (you can't use regular bulbs).
Despite my experience, I sincerely hope that Verilux will continue to offer this product. They just need to fine tune it a bit to include a digital tuner, stereo speakers and better quality control. Combining so many convenient features in a single product — roughly 6.5" wide at the base and 20" tall — is an excellent concept, which deserves further development. I'm just not sure if the present MSRP, $149.99, is justified considering the quality control issues.
By Zack , 27/11/06 2:01 PM (CommentID #069734)
Cool, Its a bad design but I like the Bird sound when you wake up to it. Also it way to expensive
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