Safety of Using Vintage Alarm Clocks

[Retro Spectator]

I decided to use the General Electric (probably 1960s) alarm clock as my alarm clock. Is it safe to do so if you don't notice any apparent frays?

The clock.

 

[MisterCairo]

Probably, but have you checked the innards as well as any electrical cord?

On the off chance you have an electronics repair shop (I know, I know, they are as common as sealing wax distributors nowadays), I'd have it checked out.

Or do you know someone into electronics generally?

 

[Retro Spectator]

Probably, but have you checked the innards as well as any electrical cord?

On the off chance you have an electronics repair shop (I know, I know, they are as common as sealing wax distributors nowadays), I'd have it checked out.

Or do you know someone into electronics generally?

Nope haven't checked the innards. It seems to work fine, as does the alarm.

Unfortunately I don't know of any electronics repair shops or people into electronics.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As long as the cord isn't brittle, you should be fine. I have electric clocks twice as old in daily use with no problems. Check the cord especially at the point where it enters the clock casing -- that's the point where the most wear will occur, and you don't want any cracking or splitting of the cord covering there.

The interior of an electric clock is pretty simple. There are gears, same as a spring-wound clock, but there's also a thing called a "rotor" which is simply a sealed electric motor. These either work or they don't. The alarm is usually a simple electromagnetic buzzer that, again, either works or it doesn't. There's little else inside that can go bad -- no tubes or capacitors or resistors -- so the risk of using such a clock is pretty low. Unless you forget to set the alarm before you go to bed.

 

[scotrace]

Once the motor goes, that's pretty much it for keeping things original. They stopped making such clocks decades ago and the parts are gone. At that point, it's off to the clock man to have a modern battery movement fitted.

I've been trying to get my grandparents' mahogany cathedral shaped clock to run for years. It stopped about 15 years ago. Replacing the cord did no good, oiling, etc. Nothing. I had given up, until this past Saturday. The house has been getting a deep cleaning and rearranging. On a whim, I plugged it in and tried the starting lever, and off it went for a good 8 hours. It runs in spurts now.
At the same time, another weight driven wall clock which wasn't running for years started up with an accidental bump, same room as the other one.
I took their running as a sign that my life is about to move forward again, after a long period of being stuck at the roadside.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Old stock" rotors for Telechron clocks are usuall available from online sellers, as are motors for the popular wall-sized electric advertising clocks of the 1940s and 1950s -- I successfully re-motored the wall clock from our gas station a few years back without having to go the battery route.

There are also techniques on line for re-oiling siezed-up Telechron rotors and thus getting them back into working condition, but I've never tried these and can't guarantee them.

 

[Retro Spectator]

Thanks for the replies! The cord is slightly brittle. Not super brittle. In fact, the "brittleness" might be from all the dirt caked on the cord. I can't see any visible damage where the cord enters the clock.