Intermatic EJ500C Indoor Digital Wall Switch Timer
by Intermatic
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Intermatic EJ500C Indoor Digital Wall Switch Timer
Customer Review: Works very well
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used this item before and they work well with incandescant and compact flourescent lights.Customer Review: easy set-up works as described
Summary: 5 Stars
This product is as described works fine with an easy set-up instructions not even needed..Customer Review: So Far, So Good
Summary: 4 Stars
After going through three Intermatic SS8Cs in three years, I gave up on them and bought one of these. It's only been in a month so I can't speak to its long term reliability, but so far it's been working better than the SS8C. It's quieter - no mechanical switching (I guess it must be all electronic), it offers all the same programming options as the SS8C, plus it looks a bit sleeker on the wall. Not only that, it's cheaper than the SS8C by about $14. I did take off one star, though, because it's not DST 2007 compatible. I had to turn off its built-in DST feature and now I'll just manually spring forward and fall back.
Regarding compact fluorescent bulbs, last night we bought eight 40 watt-equivalent "n:vision" brand soft white compact fluorescent bulbs (9 watts, 550 lumens, green and white package) from Home Depot and installed them this morning. I was concerned they might not work since the packaging says the EJ500C is not compatible with compact fluorescent bulbs, but happily they do work absolutely fine! I took down eight 60 watt bulbs and am now saving 408 watts of electricity. The only thing I can think that might not make the EJ500C work with compact fluorescent bulbs is that it supposedly requires a load of at least 40 watts, so possibly too few compact fluorescent bulbs might not be enough of a power draw. For me, though, I'm happy to be saving electricity and hopefully I've got a porch light timer that will stay working more than one year.
UPDATE: After nearly three years, this still working fine, no problems like the old SS8C.
Customer Review: No problems at all
Summary: 4 Stars
It did the job for me very well. I used it to control our front lights. Easy to install. It took me half hour to install the timer which isn't bad considering you need to take out the existing switches and go up and down the basement steps to switch off/on the electric supply to the room. The instructions were fairly straight-forward. I spent more time also in aligning the timer with the panel opening as it was a challenge to stuff the hard wires from the building back into the socket as there wasn't enough space left by the switch housing. Seven different program settings with DST recognition is great, though I am not sure if it recognizes the change in DST from this year on.
I like the variable timer part which gives outsiders the impression that someone is inside - it does this by randomly switching on or off the switch by +- 20 minutes. Sits nicely on the wall switch plate.
As mentioned in the instructions, this timer can't be used with compact florescent lights. So beware! The timer being fairly compact, the buttons to setup the timings is small and so are the readings. But you should be doing this only once in several years, so not a big pain for me. The panel does light up when you are setting up the time.
For the price, it is a great value. Now, I am buying two more of these.
Customer Review: Indoor Digital Switch Timer
Summary: 4 Stars
At my house I needed a few outdoor receptacles to be controlled by programmed timers to turn ON and OFF my outdoor lighting at certain times.
The Intermatic EJ500C timer was easy to mount in the existing wall boxes and replace the ON-OFF switches. The outlet box is covered by a Decora type wall plate. The timer programming is easy to do and it contain 6 different daily switching programs. The load switching is done by a mechanical ON-OFF limit switch activated by an small internal motor. The problem with this timer was that the internal plastic gear system was going out of allignament very easily and the switching was not done anymore. I have had to open and reallign a few of these timers. They have worked for a while then stopped again. I believe this switch is being discontinued now.
The new wall timer is Intermatic Model ST01C. This time the internal switching is done by an internal relay and until now I did not experience any problems. This timer also has 6 programming times, it can be used in 2-way and 3-way wiring installation, etc.
It is quite costly ($25-35) but it does the job. I do recommend it to anybody familiar with a little bit of device programming.