Hi,
Has anyone else here had trouble with any of the LaCrosse UltrAtomic
clocks?
I personally purchased one new around early 2017 it worked well until
early this summer. At that point it suffered a mechanical failure where
the minute hand would just swing around the 6 'o clock mark.
Occasionally the gears would hit, and the hand would swing to and fro a
bit. (Yes, we did replace batteries as a test). So, we ordered another
one, and replaced it.
When I pulled the clock down from the wall, there was a lot of white
'plastic' dust everywhere between the glass and clock face. Looks like
these are prone to wearing out quickly. Unfortunately the wife threw out
the dead one without me knowing, so no serous diagnostic surgery was
performed.
Then the clock we bought for work had the second hand quit. We tried a
set of batteries in this one also, which did not help. (Eco mode was
off). This one died a month out of warranty.
I took that one home and did some digging. It appears the ID of the
pinion with the magnets (Part of stepper motor mechanism) is wearing.
It's brown plastic part, and there is a lot of brown plastic dust on the
fixed pin it rides on.
In an effort to rejuvenate that clock, some cleaning was done, and small
bit of light oil was applied to the pinion shaft. (I did note, that one
of the other pinion/wheel shafts came from the factory with a bit of
oil). The second hand did start to move again after this cleaning and
lubrication.
I've played with the supply voltage on that clock, and as long as
everything is above 3.0V it seems to operate correctly. Below that it
will sporadically miss steps, and eventually do it's automatic setting
routine. (Maybe drag from the oil applied, or drag from wear, etc...)
Just curious if anyone else has noticed issues with these.
Thanks,
Dan
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