YourMinder Alarm Clock

I purchased this for my husband, Bobby, who had dementia and all sorts of medical problems. He passed away in April of this year, but this was such a blessing to us and to him while he was alive. A multiple stroke victim, various cancers survivor, age 76, dysphagia, completely blocked carotid arteries, serious balance/gait inbalance, just all around confusion and difficulty understanding simple instructions. I work and couldn't be with him during the day, and my brother stayed with him during the day while I was at work, but my brother had much difficulty with being confused about what medications to take at which times, especially since they changed often, even multiple times a month. Bobby was taking between 25-30 different medications, not including over the counter or vitamins/supplements at any given time and had several home health aides coming by at different times weekly (Physical therapist, nurse's aide, LPN, speech therapist, wound care nurse). After much difficulty and having to call home multiple times a day to make sure his medication was administered correctly and pill reminders, etc. I found this and IT WAS A GOD SEND! Truly! I purchased the MedCenter pill 31 day organizer that goes with it and they together are especially wonderful. Now on to the unique clock features... The clock has 4 buttons on top, which are clearly labeled and color coded for ease of readability. A confused elderly person can remember to hit the yellow button, for instance, to light up the display, or the red button to turn off the alarm. One button tells the time and date, "The time is, 10:30 AM on Friday, June 20th" for example. We found this to be especially wonderful. Bobby would forget what day it was several times a day, and so he knew he could just tap this clock, which was right beside him, any time he wanted to find out the day, date or time. It also told the next time a pill was due, "Your next reminder will be 1 PM," for example. On the back there is a recording button and 6 different slots that you can record about 30 seconds of a message, "Good morning, Honey. It's time to take your morning dose in the morning pill section. I hope you have a great day. I love you!" If I had extra slots, for example we only needed 4 pill reminders, then I would leave little thoughtful messages for him on the other 2 slots, like "God loves you!" or "Hope your day is going good! I love you and will see you tonight!" or "Don't forget to pray." or "I left you some brownies in the kitchen." or "don't forget to drink your Ensure." or "Guess what, Honey? I LOVE you!!!" or whatever. That way, he sort of felt like I was nearby all during the day and it was a comfort to him. You can also choose an alarm tone instead of personal message for any or all of the alarms, and the alarm goes off for about a whole minute, then repeats every few minutes again until they turn it off. So if it goes off while he's in the restroom, he doesn't miss it, but the other people in the house don't have to listen to my sappy love messages until he gets out. It runs on electricity and has a battery backup, so no worries that it will lose power. Now that he is gone, I still use the alarm for various other times I need a personal message alarm. For example, I am a chronic late sleeper and snooze my alarm until the very last second and then I get up and have to rush just to get to work late. For some reason, in my drowsy state, I start reasoning..."I can shower in one minute, get dressed in 5 minutes, pull my hair up in one minute, put my make up on while stopped in traffic...." you get the drill. I have even accidentally turned my alarm completely off instead of snoozing it, and then I don't wake back up until I'm already late for work. With this, I can program a personal message that snaps me back to reality, like, "Get up, you're going to want time to get ready. Just get up already!" Hearing my own voice of reason helps me to not be lazy and to get on up. Then, I can set a second separate alarm, "Ok, it's 6:30! You're not up yet! Get your lazy tail out of the bed!" I know it sounds crazy to some, but I'm sure some of you can relate either with yourself or a teenager, or whatever. I can also set an alarm for one of my housemates (who are home all day), "Don't forget to walk the dog." or "Please put the roast on to cook," or "don't forget to water the plants," or "Don't forget to mow the lawn before it rains." Think of all the many alarms you could set for yourself or someone in your home. You could set it in the living room with the message, "Don't forget to lock up the house and turn off everything," for a teen that might be coming in late. It's going to go off every so often so it will catch them at some point when they get home. They might see a note, but they will hear this annoyingly until they do it. One last comment. The clock is just the right size. Not huge or heavy, but chunky enough to be easy to grasp and hold on to, and big enough so that the readout is nice and large. Love this alarm, and it's light enough and sized right to travel with.

I needed something to help my parents remember to their meds. When the day gets busy... or you're just tired, it's easy to forget. The Medcenter 73202 does a great job, albeit a bit annoying because the message repeats a number of times until you turn it off (I don't think this is a selectable feature). Probably that's really the purpose, I guess... annoy someone until they take their pills. ;-) With the Medcenter, you can easily set up to six alarms per day. I set a 10am alarm so that my parents take their pills, with another reminder at 10:30am to ensure they've actually take their meds. The process repeats at 10pm and 10:30pm, respectively for the evening doses. You can use the Medcenter with the four-week pill box from the same company. Although it seems like a nifty combo and I bought it for them, we haven't used it yet. Although the name implies a medical use, this clock really could be used for a variety of purposes. For anyone who needs a custom alarm clock with your own voice message alarm/reminder... this is it. This clock also gives voice time, when you press the green button. You don't even need it for medicines! The only slight negative besides the "annoying factor" is that the sound quality could be better, but I decided to give it five stars anyway because this clock could save a life!

The clock I received was defective: it could not be programmed to have separate personalized voice alarms for different alarm times. I asked others to try to set it up as well to be sure it wasn't due to simple user error. This was our second try with a MedCenter clock. Our first was with a less expensive model without personalized voice alarms; it arrived with a dead display. Also, this alarm clock does not function well as a clock - the time is difficult to see day or night. We are looking for alternatives. A quality clock with personalized voice features would be helpful in keeping a loved one who is losing memory on track and independent. The personalized voice is important for two reasons: first, you can create a meaningful reminder (e.g., "time to leave for lunch" or "time to take your meds"), and second, for those with hearing problems, some alarm frequencies simply cannot be heard. A voice covers many frequencies and commands attention.

So, the clock itself is good, assuming it works. I had to return the first one they sent, because the display was broken. It also didn’t come with directions. That being said, returning it was super easy and free. Also, it was easy to enough to figure out, even without directions. The second one came in very quickly. It had corroded batteries, and the battery slot no longer works because of it. It does work fine once I plugged it in, so since we were not going to be using batteries anyway, that is fine. The volume is loud, which is good, and words are easy to understand. It is also really easy to set up date and time, and to set alarms. I haven’t tried recording an alarm yet, so I don’t know about the recording quality. We do like how many alarm options it has! And the display is clear and big, so it is easy for my mom to read. I only took of stars because I received two defective products, but I think that is just because these have clearly been in storage awhile (it is pre-set to Jan. 1, 2014).

I bought this alarm because my husband takes a variety of pills 5 times per day. He has some memory loss and mild cognitive impairment. I'm his caregiver, but I've always been forgetful and not the type to stick to a schedule, so we set our cell phone alarms to go off at the times he needed to take a pill. But after about a year, we started to just turn the annoying alarm off, then forget to get the pills. . . luckily missing any of his pills is not life threatening. So, I thought this recordable alarm might help and it does. I record a message: "don't turn off this alarm until the pills are taken". It's easy to record up to 6 short messages. It's loud enough that placed in a central location we can hear it from all our downstairs rooms. Another plus is that it's easier to turn off than a cell phone alarm . . . his cognitive issues made it almost impossible for him to remember how to turn off his cell phone alarm. The only negative so far is that unlike a cell phone alarm, it's not easy to take with you when you are out and about. And when we traveled by airplane I wanted to take it with us, but I didn't want the alarm to go off while we were on the airplane or accidentally (it would be easy when traveling for one of the buttons to get depressed and when you push the red or green button you get a very loud message, not the ones I record). Since you can't deactivate the buttons I had to take the batteries out and when we got to our destination I had to program the times for the alarm all over, and that process is not simple nor quick. Which reminds me, the other annoying thing about this alarm is that the "factory recorded" messages cannot be "erased" or recorded over and they come on after my personal message and are really loud and rather annoying. BUT it's worth it if you want to be sure you take any med's you tend to forget.

This has a loud message you don't ask for and there is no way to turn it off. For me, it ruins the product. And that is a shame because other than that the product is unique, fun and effective. I was very excited about the recordability of this alarm clock and the number of different alarms. Perfect for making my daughter laugh and for keeping track of the many different times i need to take medications. The buttons on the clock for setting the time, alarm time and for recording messages, are a bit clumsy, xddand it's a bit tricky to get them to stop where you need them to, but it is definitely possible to set everything, and the clock works well and plays the things you have recorded well. My 8 year old daughter loves hearing messages recorded just for her and recording messages for me. The only problem, and it is huge and a deal breaker for me, is that when you press the button to acknowledge the alarm and turn it off, the alarm clock says a LOUD, long, drawn out, mechanical voice message about the next alarm. Example - "the next alarm will be at ... Five ... Fifteen ... P.. M.. Thursday... October... Twenty third." I can't find any way to turn this message off. It is loud and jarring and longggggg. We'll be using the alarm clock and I'll have my daughters sweet little voice telling me it's time to take my medicine or the alarm will play the soft silly little song i recorded that lets my daughter know its time to go snuggle up in bed and go to sleep. Which ever alarm recording played, will have worked great. The one for me makes me happy. The one for my daughter makes her feel all calm and happy and ready for bed. And then when we press the button to acknowledge the alarm and turn it off, the jarring message we didn't ask for comes yelling out of the alarm clock and goes on and on for 10-15 seconds, telling you more information about the next alarm then you could possibly need. It is loud enough and long enough to bother and sometimes wake up people in a different room. The loud, long, added message is a deal breaker for me, but if it isn't something that would be overly bothersome to you, then this alarm clock is a good purchase and has a lot of things to recommend it.

Yes, it's loud... It's a REMINDER! This alarm has been a lifesaver for my teenager with Aspergers Syndrome. He was constantly forgetting his pills and it was up to me to remember for him. We tried everything. Bribery, cell phone messages and alarms, nagging. This is a great tool for real people who need "non-mom" reminders for their medication. It is indeed loud w/o a volume control, but I think that's great. You can hear it through your house and if you're older or hard of hearing, no problem. It's very simple to use and the battery lasts and lasts. Pair this with a pill box appropriate for your needs and it's all you'll need for medication maintenance. It also doesn't only have to be for medication. If you're forgetful, or have special needs you can pre-record any message required. Maybe a job interview reminder? Time to leave for that big date? Good also for vision impaired (big buttons differently shaped) or people who can't read (color coded buttons.) I can't recommend this product highly enough. Great invention! Great price!

This alarm clock does everything it promises and more. It is easy to use and intuitive to set; I barely needed to refer to the instructions to set up and record the six alarms. The display is nice and large. It could be a little easier to see because of low contrast (black on grey) but because the displays lights up on demand, that isn't much of a drawback. It has a number of great features: across the top are big, color-coded buttons that tell you the time and date or when the next alarm is scheduled, light the display, or turn off the alarm. The instructions for the various functions on the back of the clock are very easy to understand, but the lettering is very small which could be a problem for some people, though it didn't matter to me. A great bonus is the choice of running it either on battery or the power cord. The one and only feature that could be improved is the volume of the alarm messages; there is no volume control, and I personally found it a bit too loud for comfort when it was next to me. However, it was easily fixed by taping a piece of paper over the speaker to muffle it a little. So, in spite of this one issue, I felt in merited this five stars because it is outstanding in every other way.