TN311 Heavy-Duty 24-Hour Indoor Mechanical Plug-in Timer - Efficient Control, Customizable Scheduling - Timer for Lighting, Fans & Small Appliances

These are, as far as I know, the only timers that have designated "on" trippers and designated "off" trippers. I plug my crock pot or other device into this when I want it to turn itself off if I forget to do so. So, I just install only one of the "off" trippers. I place no other tripper on the wheel. I use the manual switch on the timer to power up the crock pot and set the "off" tripper at some time when I want it to turn off. Then, if I am going to be really late coming home, I know it will shut off before a dry crock pot starts blazing. And, because I only installed an "off" tripper, it will never start up the crock pot again on its own. Other timers that have trippers have trippers that are all the same. If I used one of those, then the timer would turn off but it would also start up the crock pot the next day when that tripper was encountered in the next 24 hour cycle. I like to slow cook meats over 12 or more hours and I put it out in the garage so it doesn't stink up the house. (Lots of spices, chilis, and onions slow cooking over many hours can impregnate your drapes, carpets, and woodwork with aromas that won't go away for days and days...so I put it in the garage.) I could certainly envision a day when I set the food to cook, but I would get called away on a late night job, It would be just like me to come home tired, go to bed, and forget entirely about the food cooking in the garage. In good weather, I'll park my car outside. It could be days and days before I remember the food in the crock pot out in the garage. With this Intermatic timer, no problem. Fire department didn't have to come. It shut off the crock pot and won't start it up again, and again, and again like other timers would do. These timers will work with inductive, resistive, magnetic fluorescent, and electronic fluorescent, including twistie bulbs. It's got a 15 amp 3 prong outlet. Motor turns the wheel. Simple. Reliable. I like it. The operative logic of such a simple device is bullet proof. What if the power goes out? It starts up again when power is restored. But, oh, you say, your food will be rotten if it's off more than a half hour? No problem, Just look at the wheel when you retrieve your food. You set the wheel for the correct time when you started cooking. If the time is off more than whatever period you think is unsafe to eat? You will know.

I got this because I have a wall mounted swamp cooler that cannot be programmed to turn on or off. (I first heard about this device from reviewers that owned food dehydrating machines that did not come with an automatic off option, and they would remedy it by plugging in dehydrator into a timer and set it to turn off after set hours). This is simple, yet useful. The timer on the dial is not accurate to the "T" but it's close enough and good enough. I got tired of coming out to the living room in the middle of the night, shivering, because the swamp cooler would get our house too cold by 2am, but it's just too hot here in the evening (bedtime) to shut it off, and this was the solution for me. I only need one set of red and green for now; have it go off at 1am-ish and come back on at 9:30-ish in the morning.. (Not to mention there's the on and off switch on top in case I just want to shut it down) but during the winter when I am not using the swamp cooler I may use this for some other appliance.. not sure what yet. As of writing this review I had this unit for 3 months and it's been working without failure. Also, I like that it directs the plug to the side to the right (as you can see in the pic) so that it would make whatever plug fit behind furniture or tight spaces. If there's only thing that makes me question it, is when it goes from off to on, I see a contained, but visible static spark sort of inside the dial up on top. I'm not sure if that's just normal or a hazard since I'm not an electrician. I will post that question on the review page and see what others say.

These are very reliable timers. I’ve used them for 5 years with no problems.

This timer "feels like" it's probably well made and will last - but who knows. Has a 3-prong plug so you can use it with things bigger than a lamp. One negative is that it doesn't *seem* to have anywhere to store the little red and green plastic thingies that turn it on and off (assuming you don't want to use all 6 it comes with, but don't want to lose them either). Maybe I'm just missing that, and is the reason I give it a 4 rather than 5 rating. As is the nature of this sort of mechanical-based design, if the power goes out, the time is off and you have to manually adjust it. The manual on-off override is easily accessible, and it's easy enough to set on-off times with the little plastic things. Probably not small-kid safe if it was in a wall socket within their reach - I'd think they could easily pull those out if it was in a wall socket within their reach, and the brightly-colored plastic bits look like kid-magnets to me. Update May 2025 this timer still works fine, but I only use it 5-6 weeks per year.

A great product easy to set the time for whatever you want to turn on and off if you are away or for a Christmas tree, it’s been a terrific product

Fast shipping, exactly as described - many thanks!

Turns light on at preset times. Not digital, but easy to use. Highly recommended.

Usando este aparato me da la tranquilidad y confianza cuando dejo programadas tareas de algún aparato en el hogar, como las luces de navidad al programar el inicio y fin del paso de la corriente eléctrica, es durable y resistente, no presenta sobrecalentamiento u otras cosas, lo recomiendo ampliamente por su fácil uso en el hogar. Gracias =D

Muy bueno

Absolutely easy to use. Suits my purpose exactly.

I have been using these Intermatic timers with the clips for my Christmas lights for 20 years & they work great. They're simple to program & last forever. Sadly it's hard to coordinate with other timers containing strings of Christmas lights since the set times will each be different. Half my house goes on at one time & the other half a few minutes later.