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I'm one that once I find something that works, I get a bunch of them. I've now installed 7 of these and absolutely love them! Have had no problems so far (the longest installation is 8 months now in a garage to control outside lights), and the mechanical mechanism really shuts the power off. I use these to control outside lights and am running all led and cfl lights off them, the lights have no "hum" and when they are off, they are off.
The timer is extremely easy to program. Also when the timer turns on and off there is a satisfying "click". Would not change a thing.
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I had a previous, but identical-looking, model of this ST01 wall switch timer that ran flawlessly for six years before I replaced it with this newer ST01 that, according to Intermatic technical phone support, supposedly has a more reliable motor and now works better with compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs. When the timer automatically switches on or off, and when you manually turn the timer on/off, the internal relay switch makes a satisfying robust clicking "thunk" sound.
Installation of this wall switch timer is not that hard and the included "Easy-Set Guide" sheet shows how to wire this using a 3-way switch or single pole switch configuration. For a single pole switch setup, connect the timer's black and blue wires to the wall's two wires, cap the red wire so it is not connected, and connect the green wire to a ground or grounding screw. This is the simplest and quickest installation; you just need two wires and a ground. For a 3-way switch setup, connect the timer's black wire to the common/shunt wire, connect the other two wires to the timer's blue and red wires, connect the green wire to a ground or grounding screw, and rewire the "common" terminal of your existing remote switch according to the diagrams on the installation instructions. But if you are not comfortable with safely working with electrical wiring (e.g. always turn off the power at the circuit breaker), you may want to hire an electrician to install this for you. Also, when using this wall switch timer to replace an existing light switch, dimmer, or timer, you may need to also replace the light switch plate. If you hire an electrician, that person may or may not have a perfectly matching light switch wall plate, so you may need to shop around or take this ST01 switch to the hardware store and match the dimensions to the size and matching color of wall switch plate that you need. This is especially important if your light switch wall plate houses more than one light switch in it. During installation, you may also realize that your switch box is either too shallow or too crowded, so you may need an extender to have more depth. Intermatic's Web site provides downloadable videos on how to install and program this wall switch timer, and Intermatic has also posted their how-to videos on YouTube.
This wall switch timer is supplied with a long-lasting "CR2" lithium battery that will last at least 2+ years. The battery powers the clock, stores the programmed settings, and also retains the time and settings in case of a power outage. "CR2" batteries are commonly used in digital cameras and they are not expensive to replace every two years. Unless your home frequently has power outages, each new battery should last at least two years before you need to replace it. The timer's previous programming is lost when you replace the battery, so you need to reprogram the timer after installing a new battery. The switch is rated for 15 amps at 120 VAC or 8 amps at 208-227 VAC. Not all brands of programmable wall timers can be properly wired without a neutral wire in the wall box, most other wall timer models require a neutral wire that is not present in older houses, not all wall timers work with CFL bulbs, and not all wall timers work with a low motor load switch such as operating a ceiling/attic/whole-house fan, but this Intermatic ST01 works with all of those setups. Some other timers require a neutral wire to power its clock and programming, whereas this ST01 uses a battery to operate those functions. This is a more flexible design that does not require a neutral wire in your switch box. Some older homes do not have a neutral connection to power the switch; power is fed to the fixture instead of the switch in those setups. And because this ST01's clock is powered by battery, it is not affected by variations in house current voltage that can sometimes cause digital clocks to become inaccurate over time.
The programming of this timer can be set up to be either fairly simple or very complex. You can program up to 40 "event" settings per week, where an event constitutes either turning on or turning off the lights. An "event" is not a paired on-off cycle. So a maximum of 40 event settings basically means that you can program up to 20 on-off pairs per week, set to whatever times and/or days that you prefer. For each "on" or "off" event, you can either set the time to a specific time or an "astronomic" time that is based on North/Central/South zone of the U.S., Daylight Saving Time, and Dawn/Dusk settings that you configure during initial setup of the timer. When setting an on/off event to be based on your area's Dawn/Dusk time, this timer can automatically adjust for the changing times of sunrise and sunset throughout the year, which is quite nifty and clever. For each on/off time setting, where specific on/off time settings can be mixed with astronomic on/off time settings, you can also specify whether the setting should be applied to all days, weekdays only, weekends only, or just one specific day of the week. With such flexibility of programming, setting up a complex series of up to 40 timer events can have the potential problem of creating timing conflicts that clash with each other, creating unexpected sequences where the lights remain on when you expected them to turn off, or where the lights do not turn on when you expected them to. So if you want to set up more complex timer event sequences, it may help to first sequentially list all of the desired on/off time settings from Sunday through Saturday on paper first before proceeding to press the timer's buttons and program each event.
After you have set and saved all of the on/off time settings, you can run the timer either in "AUTO" mode, which uses the timer settings that were programmed, "RANDom" mode, which varies your on/off time settings by +/20 minutes, or "MANual" mode, which basically makes the timer switch work like a manually-operated light switch with no timer-controlled on/off switching.
Because I wanted frequent variations in daily on/off times, more than what can be achieved just by setting one on/off pair of events for weekdays and one on/off pair of events for weekends, I set up 14 events on my previous ST01 wall switch timer, in a sequence like:
Sunday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #1)
Sunday-On: 8:30PM (Event #2)
Monday-Off: 5:00AM (Event #3)
Monday-On: 6:30PM (Event #4)
Tuesday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #5)
Tuesday-On: 8:00PM (Event #6)
...
Saturday-Off: 6:00AM (Event #13)
Saturday-On: 8:00PM (Event #14)
When combined with running the timer in random mode, which randomly varies the settings by +/20 minutes, throughout the week, this turns my outdoor lights on at night as early as 6:10PM and as late as 8:50PM and turns off the outdoor lights as early as 4:10AM and as late as 6:20AM. So to my neighbors (and, knock on wood, to any potential burglars trying to case/watch my house), my outdoor lights do not look like they are being switched by a predictable time-controlled timer (or photoelectric light sensor timer) and they look more like someone inside the house is manually turning the lights on/off. Two or three times during the span of a year, I would shift around the on/off times to add some variations.
When my original ST01 timer no longer worked and I replaced it with a later ST01 timer model, I used a similar 14-event setting as described above. But I noticed that on some, but not all, Sunday mornings, my outdoor lights remained lit even though the timer should have turned them off. At first, I thought that I had conflicting timer settings. But that was not the case. I then replaced the internal CR2 lithium battery to see if that would fix the glitch. The problem persisted, always randomly happening on some Sunday mornings with the lights still remaining lit from the night before. Phone calls to Intermatic technical support also offered no extra help. So, finally, on a trial-and-error basis, wondering if my timer settings perhaps sometimes "dangled" in the "on" state due to my 14th event setting being the Saturday-On event, I tried adding a 15th event that, like the first event setting, was another Sunday-Off setting:
Sunday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #1)
Sunday-On: 8:30PM (Event #2)
Monday-Off: 5:00AM (Event #3)
Monday-On: 6:30PM (Event #4)
Tuesday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #5)
Tuesday-On: 8:00PM (Event #6)
...
Saturday-Off: 6:00AM (Event #13)
Saturday-On: 8:00PM (Event #14)
Sunday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #15)
Adding the redundant 15th event, which is identical to the Sunday-Off event #1, actually fixed my problem, and I now no longer have some Sundays where my outdoor lights remain lit. I mention this just in case you have programmed your ST01 timer in a similar way, with individual on/off events for each day. If you are experiencing unexpected on/off timer behavior, verify that you have not programmed events which conflict with each other. And if you still cannot resolve a timer event that refuses to turn off or refuses to turn on, try adding another redundant on/off event to see if that fixes the issue, which was what worked for me. I later modified "Event #15" to be an all-inclusive catch-all, so my programming looked like:
Sunday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #1)
Sunday-On: 8:30PM (Event #2)
Monday-Off: 5:00AM (Event #3)
Monday-On: 6:30PM (Event #4)
Tuesday-Off: 4:30AM (Event #5)
Tuesday-On: 8:00PM (Event #6)
...
Saturday-Off: 6:00AM (Event #13)
Saturday-On: 8:00PM (Event #14)
ALL-Off: 7:00AM (Event #15)
With each of my individual morning turn-off times being no later 6:30AM, setting "Event #15" to "ALL-Off" at "7:00AM" means to turn off the lights at 7:00AM for all days of the week. The earlier individual morning turn-off times activate before this "ALL-Off" is reached at 7:00AM, but since it was annoying to discover that the outdoor lights had been left running all day, I just used this redundant "Off" event as a back-up, and I no longer have problems with the outdoor lights being left on during the day.
Like any programmable timer that is very flexible with its mix-and-match options, this may not be easy and intuitive to use for everyone. But if you carefully read the included instructions, it is not that difficult to update the programming after you familiarize yourself with the sequence of buttons that need to be pressed. Programming this timer to always turn on at a specific time (e.g. 7:00PM) and turn off at a specific time (e.g 7:00AM) for all days of the week is the easiest schedule to set up. You just need to program two events in this case:
ALL-On: 7:00PM (Event #1)
ALL-Off: 7:00AM (Event #2)
If you make the schedule more complex, you also have to be more careful with the programming.
As with the previous older model of ST01 wall timer that I had, the LCD display that is used to both display the clock and program the timer is about the size of a small LCD wristwatch. But unlike an LCD wristwatch, there is no backlight button option to improve the contrast and clarity of this display in dim surroundings. This timer's LCD display must be viewed with adequate lighting to view the display at night. If the area where you are installing this wall switch timer is often dim, you may need to turn on other lights or maybe even use a flashlight to clearly see the LCD display. I have previously pointed a flashlight at the LCD display to make adjustments at night. A backlighting button option would have been a useful feature on this timer, but since I only look at the LCD display when making adjustments to the timer (which I only modify once every four or six months), this lack of display contrast/clarity does not bother me.
This wall switch timer comes with a 1-year warranty. I really wish that Intermatic would back this timer with a 2-year or 3-year warranty for better assurance, but so far, both with my previous ST01 wall timer and this current one, the timer has worked well for 5+ years, needing only one replacement of the CR2 lithium battery.
If you like how this wall switch timer works after using it, Intermatic also manufacturers a similar plug-in timer, the Intermatic DT620 Heavy Duty Indoor Digital Plug-In Timer, White, that plugs into a three-prong outlet and can turn on/off two separate devices plugged into the plug-in timer. The DT620 uses similar circuitry and is programmed in a similar way like this ST01 wall switch timer, with similar Auto/Random/Manual operation, and either explicit time or astronomic/dawn/dusk programming for each of its events. The DT620 Plug-In Timer mainly differs from this ST01 wall switch timer in that it can be programmed for up to 28 events, compared to this ST01's 40 maximum events. With my outdoor lights controlled by this ST01, I plug lamps into two of the DT620 plug-in timers inside the house to turn some indoor lights on and off in unpredictable patterns, with one DT620 downstairs and a second DT620 upstairs running on a different schedule.
In the 'Comments' section of this review, I list the YouTube videos that Intermatic has posted to show how to install and program this wall switch timer.
Best Deals for Intermatic ST01 Self Adjusting Wall Switch Timer, White
Unit works as advertised, programs like a 1980's VCR. What I didn't realize at time of order is that the switch is 100% battery operated. Yep, the switch will work when it's not even in the wall (of course it won't be able to control the load). Wanted one that used the neutral connection for power and the battery to keep the time. Battery is a special lithium instead of a common AA.Honest reviews on Intermatic ST01 Self Adjusting Wall Switch Timer, White
This timer operates easily as advertised. The U-Tube videos on installation and setting by Intermatic make the 3-way installation simple. Highly recommended.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Intermatic ST01 Self Adjusting Wall Switch Timer, White
I installed this switch about 7-years ago to control a fountain pump. I recently replaced it with a Honeywell RPLS740B, which is about the same price on Amazon.1. If your switch location does NOT have a neutral wire (white wire), this type of switch is your only option as it has a battery to keep the clock moving.
2. Batteries lasted about 2-years for me. I guess ordering online is fine, but I seem to recall they are about $8 at Home Depot or Walgreens and not all places carry them.
3. Volatile RAM. When the battery is removed, the memory is cleared.
4. Programming is unnecessarily difficult for non-sunset/sunrise schedules. Easy if you want a standard on-at-dusk/off-at-dawn program. But for me, to turn on a fountain at 8AM and off at 8:30PM (for example), it's very difficult to program.
5. Partial failure after 1-1/2 years. It would turn-on but not turn-off. Stayed like that for years.
6. All switches of this type are physically large and take-up a lot of room in a box (especially if you add-in wire nuts, etc). If you have a shallow, single-gang box, this is not fitting into it. Even some of the older metal boxes that are somewhat shallow are difficult.
Bottom line if you have a neutral wire in your box, I would go with the Honeywell RPLS740B. Same price, has an indicator light that tells you when its on, is much easier to program, and does not require a relatively expensive and difficult to source battery that zaps the memory when you replace it.
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