Wall switch goes on a diet!

For the past few years, our “AutoChron” wireless wall switch timer, has been a big success in the US market. For those of you that own the product you know how easy it is to install (takes less than a minute) and the ease of programming it.

Because it is battery operated, once you set the various times you want for your specific needs, you never have to worry about resetting it because of power outages. We’ve had many customers tell us that their batteries have lasted over 4 years without needing to replace them. It comes with a “low battery” warning light to remind you it is time to change them.

Here’s one of those trivia tidbits; 70% of US households have the standard “toggle” or “flip wall switch” in their homes or apartments and when we developed and patented the AutoChron, it was designed to work on only the toggle switch.

Over the past few years, we have had many customers calling and asking when are you going to come out with a wall switch timer that also works on the “rocker” or “décor” type of wall switch timers? We realized that we were missing at least 30% of the US market as well as a large segment of the Canadian market. For some reason, the Canadians actually have about 50% of their homes using the rocker panel type of wall switches. Who knew?

We also talked to a number of satisfied Autochron customers and asked them what improvements we should make in our next generation of products. The most common request was to put the timer on a diet so you can install them right next to each other on those multiple switch plates. This way you can control different switches at different times, which would just improve the security and functionality of what is controlled by each switch.

Well, we’ve been able to accomplish this after a lot of trial and error. In fact, we are so excited about our new design that we also decided to change the brand name to “SwitchGenie”. We think this name better describes the product because with just one, very slender unit, you can easily change out the back plate of the controller to fit on either a toggle or rocker wall switch!

Even better, we were able to retain the internal computer chip that is so easy to program and the motor mechanism and house inside a much thinner housing that can fit right next to each other on any multiple switch plate (either toggle and/or rocker). Yep, even if you have a 5 switch master plate, you can easily install 5 different SwitchGenies to control each switch.

Skinnier is better in this case. Knowing the success we’ve had with the internal motor and computer chip, we’ve also decided to offer a 5-year warranty against defects on workmanship and materials on the new SwitchGenie when it comes to market. No one else has offered this kind of warranty on a small, battery operated appliance that retails for under $30.00.

Look for the new SwitchGenie to be available in early 2015. We are just in the process of producing our first production and will be going through an extensive testing cycle.

We’ll have pictures of the new SwitchGenie soon.