Handy Switch
Posted by admin on 24 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Household Gadgets
I saw this on a television informercial as I’m sure many of you did. I have been using the Clapper for close to 20 years now, and I love it — but — there are several things I didn’t like about it. On occasion, in the middle of the night, my bedroom lamp would go on, making me wonder what type of noise set it off! Vaccuuming would make the living room look like a light show. And, at times, clapping twice would not shut it off or turn it on, and the continual clapping can be annoying.
In comes this nifty gadget, the Handy Switch. You don’t need to clap to activate it, you simply flip the switch. I immediately went to the living room to test it out. You plug the base unit into your wall socket. It’s a small unit with a light that comes on when in use. You plug your appliance into the base unit. The light switch portion has 2 small batteries inside and is actually a two-piece unit. The wall part can be attached to the wall with screws (provided) or you can use double-stick tape (provided) to attach it. The actual light switch unit can be removed from the wall part and snaps in and out easily.
There are 2 different styles — a rocker switch and a flip switch — and to use it, you simply flip the switch or rock it!
For my living room I actually placed it on the outside wall leading into the living room and I also placed one on the inside wall leading into the living room. The unit on the inside wall activates a lamp at the very far side of the room, and the outside wall will activate the lamp unit at the front of the living room.
I love it!
I no longer have to clap when walking into the room and it’s so easy to turn it on, by simply flipping the switch. I no longer walk into a dark room and, also, no longer walk in and see the light on due to noises I can’t explain.
I then put one in my bedroom, attached to my night table. It did take me a week or so to get used to it, as for 20 years I’d go to sleep and clap twice. But now I am very used to it and love it. Getting up in the middle of the night is easier with a quick push of the rocker switch. No more lights coming on unannounced, too.
I did find one thing, though. When you turn on the light and the bulb goes dead (don’t you hate that pop?) the unit is then rendered useless. I guess the bulb going dead does something, almost like it zaps something inside and kills it. I changed batteries and it didn’t work. I used a brand-new unit and it worked fine. This has happened with 2 units so far. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not, but it’s happened to me twice.
The price was around $15 and I feel it’s well worth the price. Apparently there are a lot of other uses including leaving a lamp on in your house and then keeping the activation unit in your car, so when you drive up you can turn on a light in the house.
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