Swan Vintage Teasmade - Rapid Boil with Clock and Alarm, Featuring a Clock Light with Dimmer, 600 ml, 780-850 W, Ceramic Teapot Included, White, STM201N

Everything is just slightly awful about this product. They couldn't have made it any cheaper than it already is. They even duplicated the two knobs on the top, and put a sticker over the one that is meant for the brightness. The little pot came with a slightly broken lid that must've broken long before transport. The pot also is designed so terribly that some tea is always leaking down along the pot instead of ending inside my mug. When it for some reason decides a few hours after setting it that the button for automatic tea wasn't pressed good enough(?) it decides to just do nothing - not even ring the alarm, even if that one is set additionally as well; so, don't trust it as an alarm clock. So it's not a good alarm clock. It also isn't really a good tea maker. It is merely a trash novelty.

Well. Being British, we were excited that the teasmade arrived today. It would be our first US teasmade. We had one in the UK and liked it a lot. Anyway, I inboxed it not long after we received it. First I noticed no cable tie. Normally new things come with a cable tie in the lead, right? Next I noticed the sticker on top was mucky. Then I saw the scratches top left (see picture), then I unpacked the teapot and saw dried on tea... as a regular tea drinker I know what tea looks like on a pot if it dries. And then I looked into the water boiler, and it really did look used! Hey, if the description said refurbished, good but not brand new, then I would be ok with this. But reselling goods on without saying they are not new is out of order. Hopefully the replacement will be a nice new, clean, in damaged unit. And I see I might be waiting a while for it which is more disappointing. And I need to go make a return which is inconvenient. I might ask them to pick it up. Not my fault they shipped unsatisfactory goods. My parents had one of these teasmades. Twice in fact... the first lasted 20 or more years but died eventually... the second one amazon replaced when it started making tea whenever it wanted to instead of at the set time. New technology is not a match for the old stuff sometimes! I will update this review when we get the replacement and assuming it is good and works. EDIT: The update I promised... The new one looks new. Everything about it was new compared to the prior effort. So the good... Tea has brewed on time every morning. I cannot tell you how happy I am. I take water into the bedroom at night, a mug with a splash of milk ready (I put cling/shrink wrap over it, but I may get a small milk bottle for the fridge in the theater room next door ... such a hard life!) It’s amazing to have a great cuppa to wake up to. Takes me back to being 9 years old and waiting for Dad or Mum to appear with it, for me, my brother and sister, sitting as we did, at the top of the stairs in the morning. The difficulty... I am not sending it back, but there’s a flaw in the design. The tea pot and its holder, and the button (to detect that the pot is in place) are misaligned. To know it will work in the morning I “pack” the space on the pot holder with a folded up piece of card. Then the pot presses against the button and the unit knows it can start a boil and fill the pot at the time it is set to do so. Unfortunately, without my manual paper folding modification, this would have to go back. Poor quality. But, my mod works, and I get my “teasmade” in a morning!! It’s worked every day with the folded piece of card. The folded card might be needed if you get one (see the other reviews where it says “make sure” the pot is seated correctly)

I have had teasmades for the last 50 years to enjoy a morning cuppa in bed. Previous models (initially Goblin teasmade in 1972) lasted 17 years. My most recent teasmade before this purchase was a Swan compact teasmade, probably 15 years old, that still functions but recently started to tick so noisily that we decided to replace it. A few weeks ago, I took delivery of my first Swan Vintage teasmade. There was such poor quality control on this item. The hour and minute hands were not in synchrony such that when the minute hand was on 12, the hour hand was pointing to about 25 minutes to the full hour. The alarm was difficult to set, probably due to the lack of synchrony of the clock fingers. The teasmade made tea & the alarm went off on the first morning but almost an hour later than we wanted it. We adjusted the alarm setting and the next day, when the clock reached this time, the red light for tea & alarm function went out, the alarm only light stayed on & the teasmade did nothing - no tea nor alarm wake up. I contacted Swan & the lady in customer service informed me I must set the teasmade up just after 7pm the previous night if I wanted it to sound the alarm and make the tea at 6.50 am. the following morning as the teasmade works on a 12 hour cycle. In 50 years of successfully using a teasmade, I have usually set it around 11pm going to bed but instead I followed her instructions. I put water in the chamber, teabag in the pot, pot firmly positioned on its stand against the sensor and both switches pressed to the "set" position with red lights illuminated. Just 50 minutes later, the teasmade made the tea at almost 8pm the same evening so the advice I got from Swan was rubbish!! I contacted Amazon & returned this defective teasmade I had for less than a week & took delivery of a replacement one on 3rd August. Once again, the hour and minute fingers on the clock were not fully synchronised (have Swan abandoned all quality control for these China manufactured products?) but this time they were only 12 minutes out rather than 25 minutes. We made the required adjustments in setting the alarm for 6.30 am wanting it to go off at 6.50 am & this proved right. I set the teasmade at 11pm going to bed and at 6.50 am the next morning, we were woken with the alarm & a cup of tea. This worked perfectly for 3 days. Then on the 4th morning, when it reached 6.50 am, the red light for "alarm and tea" went out, the teasmade neither made any tea nor did the alarm go off, despite the second red light for alarm only still being pressed to the "set" position & illuminated. I pressed the combined tea and alarm switch down to the "tea now" position & it made tea so at least we had a drink but no alarm wake up. This has happened each day for the past three days, so now we are returning a second defective Swan vintage teasmade to Amazon for a refund and no longer wish to own such a poor quality item. To say we are bitterly disappointed is an understatement, especially given that in over 50 years we have only ever purchased 3 or 4 teasmade and always had a functioning product to wake us in the morning with a nice cup of tea. We have decided to revert back to our 15 years old noisy Swan Compact teasmade which at least sounds the alarm at the right time & makes a cup of tea, even though the very loud tick (which it only recently started to do) keeps us awake. We will buy ear plugs & enjoy a working teasmade. Would I recommend this product - definitely not. If you want to have this product as a non-functioning ornament at the side of the bed, then maybe purchase it on that understanding. Or if you are happy to have a product that might only work for a couple of days, then this is ideal for you.

My first one, the clock didn't work. I loved it SO much that I almost kept it anyway but that was a lot of money for me so I bit the bullet and sent it back for a replacement. The replacement process was fast and easy and I was super happy to have my new one in just days. I guess I should have kept the one with the bad clock. . . this new one was HORRIBLE!!! The test run spewed boiling water into everything EXCEPT the pot! It flooded the interior of the clock, filled it up with boiling water which killed the clock entirely. I went to wipe it off and the clock lens fell out with a big melted spot on the edge. The clock face is paper so of course that was saturated to the level of the water that accumulated in it. I was literally in TEARS and had burned myself in three spots trying to figure out what was happening before everything in the area got drenched. I want this product SO BAD so was rather gutted over this disaster! Well, I decided third try would be a charm, packed it up, contacted AMAZON and wow. . . I guess if you get a second defective product it's somehow your own fault or something because they made it a lot harder. They wouldn't replace it again, I have to return it and WAIT for a refund and REORDER and start the wait all over again. More tears as the rep was rather short and "rude" sounding (though it's hard to judge in chat of course but she didn't converse well and try to work it out nicely with me like the first one I had did). I know this is a dumb thing to get so upset about but this is a large amount of money for me for something sort of frivolous and I was treated like it was my fault that the second one was even worse than the first. Yes, I STILL want one, they can't all be bad. . . can they?! Also, I was uncomfortable with the return process this time as when I have returned something before, and the last clock, the rep sent me an email to print with a barcode and claim number to put inside the return package in case it got lost or damaged on the way back. This rep acted like she had NO IDEA what I was talking about and didn't issue that to me. I don't understand it but she chose to "hang up" rather than clarify so. . .

It will not work in Canada since it is 220-240 volts. I know that Swan makes teasmade with 110-120 volts. I consider Amazon at fault for advertising this on a Canadian website. Roy Oakey