Failed Circuit Alarm

I use this for my garage freezer because the ground fault keeps tripping, spoiling the contents of the freezer. It's loud enough to hear in the next room, it has an on/off switch, a test button, auto-reset (if the power flickers, the alarm doesn't stay on), a long heavy duty extension wire, a piggy-back plug, and all of the hardware required to mount it. The alarm is powered by a 9-volt battery when the power turns off. These things are more expensive than you would think. After searching around for a while I found this appeared to be the best value and it was exactly what I hoped for. The problem with the other brands typically is that they are not loud enough. It would be nice to have one with a low-battery alarm or a battery re-charger. The same manufacturer makes three different models: [...]

This little guy performed as advertised - a loud alarm when the power goes off. It is a problem, however, if what you are protecting does not reset automatically. This guy's alarm got turned off when power is restored. I my case the item I was protecting does not automatically reset. I went to CSH's web site & found they had a unit which is exactly like this one except it has to be reset manually (a button on the face does the trick). I sent this one back and for about $5 more got the manual reset version. It works great!!

This device works as advertised. On 28 July 2009 we received some very heavy thunderstorms that tripped a ground fault circuit breaker on the circuit the garage freezer was plugged in. We could hear the alarm even though we had a DVD movie playing somewhat loudly. We had no indication that there were power problems as the lights never flickered in the main part of the house. Without this alarm, we would have gone to bed and most likely not even have noticed the unit had no power for nearly 24 hours or more. Very handy device as it prevented a recurrence of a food loss we had earlier this year due to weather. We had just stocked that freezer the day before the storms hit. We have had two losses of food stuffs over the past several years when the circuit breaker on that unit tripped. This would have been the third as we don't often go into that freezer and the first sign that there is a problem is the water from the unit defrosting. As I mentioned above, we could hear the alarm within the house clearly enough to alert us that the power had failed on that circuit. The alarm is piercingly loud when in the same room - probably on par with a smoke alarm though the alarm on this unit is a steady tone. So, well worth the money...it basically just paid for itself the other night just a couple of weeks after we received the unit. Which by the way, was delivered as promised, on time.

Was a little worried would not be loud enough to be heard from basement, but is more than loud enough to be heard throughout the house. Perfect for what I needed. Also liked not having to lose the plug spot. Easy set up, and worked great during a short term power outage. Well worth it for the peace of mind.

I had reviewed people's comments on a couple of different circuit alarms for a garage circuit with a GFCI breaker. Our garage GFCI breaker recently tripped and went unnoticed until ice cream begain dripping out of the freezer. We needed an audible alarm that was reasonably loud enough to be heard from within our home. This alarm is true to its claims on loudness. The first night we had it installed the GFCI tripped and we heard the alarm while sitting in our living room (about 50 ft) with the TV on. While it was not so loud that it immediately got our attention, it was loud enough for us to notice it. I also liked that it was easy to silence by flicking the switch on the front of the unit. I feel this product was definitely worth the money.

Accomplished the goal. It's a simple device that works great and does not drain the battery unless it's in alarm. I would have given it 5 stars, but it trips instantly, even for brown outs. Would be much better if it waited a few seconds to confirm an outage before going into full alarm, but I do appreciate that its simplicity will likely result in better reliability as there are less things to break. If you are looking an instant notification the millisecond there is a power cut, then this device is for you. If you have unreliable power and don't want it to nag you for brown outs but do want to know if there is a long term outage, look for something else.

The product works as described, but there is a very important flaw in its design. You must install a 9-volt battery inside the case. The battery operates the alarm buzzer which sounds when the unit detects a power failure. The big problem is that, when you remove two screws and open the case to access the battery, you are also at risk of coming in contact with live 110-volt electricity unless you have pulled the plug from your electric outlet. There is a warning about this on the label attached to the front of the unit. At the very least, this warning should be printed in a different color (perhaps red) than the rest of the label. But to truly solve this dangerous issue, the battery compartment should be completely separated from the live electrical circuits inside the case, so that accessing the battery can be done without opening the part of the case where the 110-volt circuits are. A product such as this should be UL approved, and I am sure that Underwriters Laboratories would never approve of the current design of this product.

Every home needs this device. Here are typical situations: in winter a winter storm that causes a power outage while you're sleeping--the danger is that frequently this is followed shortly by intermittent power off and on, or worse, low power. These can seriously damage your furnace motor, and occasionally result in furnace failure when power is restored. In summer, an electrical storm can cause power failure, and if power goes off and on before full restoration, it can seriously damage an air conditioner. This alarm allows you to immediately shut off the appliance until full power is restored. After an experience of having a winter power brownout ruin a heating system, I was in the habit of shutting off the appliances at night; no longer--now I know that I can immediately respond to a problem. An incredibly low price for a great product!