Mad question about electric clock

It depends on what's meant by not working the make/model of clock and the battery installed, how long the radio is on for and perhaps a few other things. Difficult Q without any tech details.

LCD ones should last a year or so on a single battery. In what way is it not working ? Mine generally fade out gradually but still show the time.

I tend to put end of life ones in that are no longer fit for supplying high currents but still have decent terminal voltage at low current.

no point, lithium primaries are a lot more money for more capacity. Let them replace the alkaline cell now & then. Tell them be grateful they don't need to wind it every day.

NT

Maybe my posting was not clear enough. There is no radio involved as such. It is a radio controlled clock, receiving 60kHz signal from Anthorn:

Per my other post, it is a mechanical display (with hands). What happens is that it loses the time signal but keeps going showing totally the wrong time.

Is the clock in the best place? I find that radio clocks receiving from Anthorne are quite sensitive to their location, due to poor reception through thick concrete walls, steel sheeting etc. Moving them around from room to room or even within a room can make a big difference. Several of the radio clocks I've had don't reset themselves until midnight, even though the reset button is pressed to activate the 'signal search' function, although a German radio clock from Lidl and receiving from Frankfurt, does reset itself fairly quickly.

Your question was clear enough. Mr whiskey, not so much.

It sounds as though it's located in a reception dead spot or it is aligned to null out the Anthorn signal.

Take it outside and put the battery in. Once it has set itself it should be OK indoors.

"Disappointing" is an extremely vague measure of battery life.

It's not in the ideal place, but it is in the only place given the layout of the open plan office. It is on an outer wall. We probably do have concrete construction and there is a lot of electro-magnetic interference from all the computers. It does not help that we are a long distance from Anthorn and the power is only 17kW. It does generally correct itself through the night, I assume because of improved propagation.

The clocks do work most of the time and I suspect become less reliable as the battery loses power. Maybe we should have spent more than £10 and not gone to Argos!

Scott, if you're not paying for the batteries, get the lithium ones. The capacity is about 3 times as much as the standard alkaline ones. So, they'll last a good deal longer. (I would say they will last 3 times as long, but somebody will leap at me and say the power drain/voltage graph is all wrong for this sort of application.)

Our kitchen clock, without the radio time-keeping, lasts a year or two on one alkaline battery. I guess that's what your colleagues are expecting, but a radio-synced clock is bound to have a bigger power drain.

I do agree with Tabby, though. Changing the battery over is hardly rocket science. Why are you being called in? Do your colleagues call you in to turn the kettle on, or have they mastered that already?

Yes, I did that. I put it in a carrier bag and dangled it out of the window, much to the amusement of the other staff. It's for reasons like this they think I am the only person who can 'service' the clock.

Yes it is but an entirely accurate representation of my assessment in the absence of any available performance data.

It sounds like it if I'm paying but I thought I could be a hero if I could pull a rabbit out of a hat :-)

How accurate do you need the clock to be?

Correct twice a day is not acceptable!

The issue is that the clock is either correct or continues to run but is totally wrong. Totally wrong is not acceptable either!

It's more a bit of fun TBH - a good way to keep in touch and (at this time of year) to get a invite to the Christmas lunch.

Doesn?t everyone just look at their mobile phone these days?

Tim