Leviton Vizia+ 24-Hour Programmable Timer
5
5
1
1
High-quality timer with lots of features
This is an excellent timer. I have been through 3 different brands of timers over the past few years, and this is by far the best one, especially for this price. Some of its best features are:
- It can automatically turn the attached device on or off at sunrise and sunset times, which is great for outdoor lights. This is programmed into the device by inputting your latitude and longitude. After you put that in, it adjusts the on/off times automatically from then on, so you never have to re-program it again! You can also input offset times, so that it turns the device on or off a certain amount of time either before or after sunrise and sunset.
- It works with CFLs (unlike one of my previous timers).
- It works with virtually any load, including motors, heaters, etc.
- It can be set up in a 3-way configuration with another regular wall switch.
- It's reliable, unlike one of the other timers that I bought from another big-box store and used for a few months (but am not allowed to mention by name in this review, unfortunately): that timer turned my light on an off at totally random times, and sometimes kept my outdoor light on all day. I bought two timers of this model, and both did this, and thus both were returned.
- It has a large, backlit screen that graphically shows which times of day the device will be on or off. This is also a great way of visually seeing when sunrise and sunset will be (if the device is set to turn on and off at sunrise and sunset).
- It has many programmable on/off times and programming modes: up to 50 (yep, 50!) on/off pairs can be programmed in, and these can be set to occur every day of the week, on specific days, or a totally custom method of programming can be set up. I don't know how anyone could possibly find a use for 50 on/off pairs, but the option is there nevertheless!
So, overall this is a great timer, with features that many other timers at this price range do not have (such as the sunrise/sunset auto feature). The only issue I found with this timer is that programming it is fairly difficult and not very intuitive, but since most people will only ever program it once (if using the sunrise/sunset feature), this isn't much of an issue.
This is definitely a timer that I would recommend!
October 16, 2011
