MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
by Midland
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
Customer Review: Be notified when the news stations are notified...
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this unit 6 months ago with the fear of "tornado season" coming. I live in an area where a tornado is likely with almost every storm. In past years, Easter weekend has been ruined by the destruction of houses in the path of a tornado.
We hear the alarm and listen to the weather service warning BEFORE the news stations can announce the warning on t.v.
The WR-300 has been great. The alarm is clearly heard by everyone throughout the house and the display gives a read out of the alert while the alarm is sounding. You can hear the local weather service with the touch of a button or press the AM/FM button and listen to local radio stations of your choice. The use of this radio is very simple. My kids know how to turn off the siren and how to press the weather radio button to listen to the verbal warning from the National Weather Service. The alarm is a great asset to have during night time hours.
The radio can be plugged in for everyday use and then when power is out for whatever reason, the backup batteries take over so that you can hear announcements and further weather warnings.
Many people have complained about the beeping while pressing the buttons. Yes, there is a beep but it is not that annoying. We do not do very much button pushing in the middle of the night and it has not bothered us.
There is a weekly test that can be a little annoying if you are asleep during the day. My husband is military and his schedule changes regularly, sometimes causing him to work mid-shift. When he is sleeping during the daytime hours, the alarm sounding during the weekly test can be disturbing but it is a small price to pay for safety. On the other side, the weekly test is a nice option. Each week we are assured that the radio is working and the alert will come through during an emergency.
This is a great item and wonderful purchase to make for yourself or a loved one. You really can not put a price on safety.
Customer Review: Beeps a lot...But it does what we need
Summary: 4 Stars
I would not use this next to a bed as controlling the unit (for alarm setting) would wake up your partner due to the very loud beeps when you control it. This does not bother me though as we use it downstairs and not as a radio/alarm clock.
We bought this to replace another alert radio we had, which we could not switch off Thunderstorm Warming. On that radio we could only switch of watches and advisories.
With the WR300 you are able to switch of all alerts bar a few very important ones such as Tornado Warning. We switched off everything as we do not want to be woken up in the night, apart from Tornado warnings. We really do not care about winter storm warnings and freezing fog warnings as these tend to be predictable and you can plan for them accordingly with plenty of time. Tornadoes are another matter, where you do want instant warning and this works perfectly well for that.
You can program the thing for up to 8 SAME areas. I initially programmed it for our county and the neighboring counties as we are close to the border of several counties, but in the end I took the other counties off as I was getting too many alerts that were not heading our way.
With all the alerts disabled, the unit will still flash and light up with there is an alert but it will not make the siren sound. The type of sound is programmable - if I recall correctly from memory.
The radio has presets but you can store only three and the sensitivity of the tuner is not very good. However as an alert radio it does want we need.
For our purpose I will give the unit five stars, but for the general review I am marking it four stars because:
- the radio is lousy and it only has three presets
- the inability to disable the beeps is annoying making the alarm function (next to a bed) fairly useless
- there is no time on the display to show when the alert will end.
Customer Review: Nice SAME Technology Weatheradio
Summary: 4 Stars
After having tried just about every SAME technology weatheradio out there, I found the WR-300 to be one of the better ones, and definitely the best of the Midland weatheradios to date.
One of the best features it has is that it allows you to disable the audiable alerts for every watch/warning except life threatening ones like tornado warning, or biological hazard warning, etc. Other brands and models will only allow you to disable the most harmless events. I do not wish to be alerted at 3am because of a severe thunderstorm warning, or tornado watch. With the WR-300, I won't be alerted unless there is actually a tornado warning.
The blue LED backlit LCD display is pretty sharp looking, too! There is a menu feature that allows you to continuously keep the blue backlighting on, although I think it would be too bright in a bedroom at night, especially if the WR-300 is right next to the bed on a nightstand.
Some people have complained about the beeps for every keypress, and I did not find that to bother me. Maybe a softer "click" sound for every keypress would be better. Also, others have reported that their WR-300 leaked audio when the WX is muted. I did not have this problem at all; it worked fine for me.
Things I really liked about the WR-300:
1) Extensive audiable alert disable ability
2) Form factor and relatively small size
3) Blue backlit display
4) 4-AA battery backup (instead of 9v transistor batt)
5) Am/Fm/clock/alarm features
6) Menu flexibility (although not that intuitive)
I gave the WR-300 a 4 instead of 5 star rating because of the following minor issues:
1) No display of event(s) remaining time(s)
2) Menu navigation and master alert disable/enable operation was not intuitive.
3) No visual indication as to whether or not the master audible alert is enabled or disabled.
Customer Review: Won't buy again.
Summary: 1 Stars
Like Davy wrote, May 15, 2010
I bought two of them May, 2008.
One of them is dead now, exactly like his radio. Out of the blue sky, no weather radio, but still working AM/FM-radio.
Folks, you need to read the older reviews! They'll tell you what you might go into after 6, 9 or more months.
Both eat batteries, means poor battery life.
Very poor sound quality. Like the small pocket transistor radios 30/40 years ago. (Rec. ext. speaker)
Display is readable in/from a small range of angles, only.
If you setup time, be warned, you need a magnifier. The AM/PM-symbol is outrageous small.
Reception ... poor, not easy to find a good place.
Warranty information you can read at Midland ...
"5. A flat rate of $45.00 will apply to repairs not covered by warranty or units that are over one year old. ... "
ROFL, they will send you a new one, of course.
Won't buy this radio again.
B.t.w, the weather radio reception went off out of the blue sky!
If you live in an area and you need a lifesaver, this can be very dangerous.
... because it worked until now and you trust it and it goes to hell not telling you when.
Means, if you really really need a "lifesaver radio" ... buy two and place them at diff. locations in your house (rec. upstairs and downstairs).
If one goes out of business, you still have a second one.
And ... buy good ones, I do not recommend this radio.
Read the reviews, my radio isn't the only one which went out for lunch and never came back.
It can save life, your life too.
My advice 4 U ...
I always read the very bad reviews first climbing up to the good ones.
This will help you to figure out the worst faults, defects, flaws ...
Customer Review: One of the best weather radios out there!
Summary: 5 Stars
For the longest time, I never felt the need for a weather radio, but when I moved to MS, I really felt the need for one, with the majority of severe weather and tornadoes occuring during the middle of the night a lot more than other places I have lived. I got this model based on the recommendation of a co-worker who has the same one. I have no complaints whatsoever! My mom had purchased the cheaper model(the $30 model), and it never seemed to work. I personally know it was programmed correctly as I am employed by the NWS and know how to program a weather radio. She returned hers and got a replacement and that one did not work..and I do know that her NWS was sending out the weekly test, warnings, etc. I have also been told by many other people that that model did not work that well either. So, I decided to go with this model, plus I really liked the added feature of being able to disable certain alarms, like the monthly and weekly tests. Those are good things to have alert, but I did not wish to hear them.
I found that this model weather radio was fairly easy to program, and I did not even need to use the manual. That may be different for other people who are not as fluent in weather radio programming or programming technology in general. But the manual is well written to explain it all. I like the ability to turn down the volume of the alert, and that you can view expired alerts. I am usually at work during severe weather, so I do not know whether it goes off or not, but being able to review alerts lets me know that the radio did go off.
I have to agree with those that stressed this is a weather radio first and a radio second. And if I were to recommend a weather radio to anyone, this would be the model I would recommend. I have heard, read, and experienced nothing but good things with this model. It is worth the money since it does save lives.