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| Packaged Ikea ORDNING Timer |
x1 - Ikea ORDNING Timer: US$ 5.99 (CA$ 12.99)
Video
Overview of Ikea ORDNING Timer
Assembly
Only had to take the plastic shrink-wrap off. The instructions were taped to the timer which was disappointing because the tape left some residue on the stainless steel. Since I wasn't eating or licking the ORDNING timer, I didn't try that hard to get all of the adhesive off. My guess is that they taped the instructions to the timer so that they'd stay in place while being shrink-wrapped. For CA$ 12.99, a cardboard box would have been nice -- I wouldn't care as much at US$ 5.99 but here we are.
Stability
Huh?
Expandability / Customizability
There are other ORDNING series products one could buy.
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| Ikea ORDNING Timer |
How was it?
The timer I got didn't appear to require batteries. It would only allow me to turn it in one direction from zero, and I followed the instructions to set it to the exact time I wanted the ORDNING to count down from. Picking it up and moving it around while not turned on produced a faint bell-like sound, probably from the hammer hitting the alarm inside. Winding it up or turning it on produced a tick-tock sound like that of an analog clock. Upon reaching about zero, the timer would ring a bell like an analog alarm clock for 4-5 seconds. The maximum countdown appeared to be about 60 minutes -- I didn't bother checking if the timer was perfectly accurate (i.e. 30 minutes was actually 30 minutes) but it looked like it was in the ballpark.
I was not extremely impressed for the first few hours I spent playing with it. The first reason was because the glue residue from the tape didn't completely come off. Then it was because the instructions were confusing to me: the diagram in them looked like it was telling me to do exactly what the instructions were warning me not to do in text. I did both, nothing appears to be broken. And finally, while testing the timer's limits (i.e. letting it countdown from 40+ minutes), the ORDNING just stopped suddenly 20-30 minutes into the countdown -- I followed the procedure to wind it up.
A few hours later, I was slightly impressed. The timer did appear to start working, even when I set it to count down from 40+ minutes. The only real use I planned for it was to help me remember to turn the stove off after 15 minutes when boiling water. Anything beyond 20 minutes would have been adequate for me.
The exterior shell looked nice from a distance. Upon closer inspection and from feel when winding, it seemed like the top and bottom halves of the steel shell were rubbing against each other on one side. Not a big deal but that doesn't scream of great craftsmanship. It might also explain why the timer just stopped -- too much drag on mechanism?
I found the alarm to be on the very loud side. Using an old, never personally verified or calibrated SPL meter, the alarm hit over 70 dB at 3' away and over 90 dB within a few inches (all C-weighting, fast response) -- values not scientific or guaranteed. Note to self, don't put it against the ears.
Conclusion
Not bad, more of a novelty item for me since wind-up analog clocks are more rare nowadays. This was on the more expensive side at CA$ 12.99 -- for comparison's sake, the STAM digital timer from Ikea was only CA 2.50 when I checked. I'm not sure I'd trust it in an emergency or for anything important though -- it's just stopped in the middle of a countdown more than once.
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