Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For the last ten years or so, we had an Oregon Scientific projection clock in our bedroom. It put out a nice, easy to read big display that had both time and outside temp together, in red light. We actually were on our second one, since it seems these things only last about 5 years of daily use and although the LED doesn't wear out, the projection screen the LED shines through fails and the light cannot get through. (I took the second on apart to see why it failed). So, I went looking, trying to be a little frugal since the Oregon models had popped up into the $60+ range. Decided on the La Crosse WT-5220U-IT. What a mistake. First, if you have never had a projection clock, this might seem like a pretty good unit, but if you are experienced in this technology, you understand this is scrapped right off the bottom of the projection clock barrel. First off, the instructions are worthless. They are missing key indicators like how to make the hour and min flash since they don't tell you what button to push to get there, they just say they are flashing and to push the second button to change the settings. Huh? Tip: Put the batteries in the sensor then within one minute the clock, set them next to each other to get the temp connected, hang your temp sensor outdoors, and pray you are close to an Atomic Clock signal for the rest of it. Otherwise, you had better know your Greenich Mean Time -point, since that is how it reads while setting. Very Chinese... As far as the projection, at 6 feet, it projects a dim, 5-6" high time, then changes to temp every few seconds. The numbers are small, and if you wear glasses, you might find yourself reaching for your specs in the middle of the night to see the display. It's that dim and small. It takes three pushes of a "sometimes it works, sometimes it don't" button to turn off the light in the morning to save the lifespan and scroll through the dim-medium-bright settings which are really dimmist-dimmer-dim. ANY ambient light in your room? Forget reading this thing on your ceiling. Do yourself a BIG favor and just go out and pay for the Oregon Scientific and be done with it. This thing is totally second rate.