Home > Consumer Reviews > Emerson CKD5811 SmartSet Digital Tuning CD-R/RW Stereo Clock Radio with Touchless Snooze Control (Silver)

My old GE AM/FM/cassette clock radio finally died so looked online and in stores for a replacement without much luck. I had only 3 requirements: dual alarm, battery back-up and CD player (I have a Toshiba Gigabeat mp3 player so an ipod dock is useless to me). Most clock radios that met my needs cost $100 or more or were flea market brands that I knew nothing about. Then I found the Emerson Research CKD5811. This thing is damn near perfect! Not only does it have dual alarms, you can set each one for weekdays only, weekends only or everyday. And it also has a nap timer. Not only does it have battery back-up, it has a pre-installed lithium battery for the SmartSet time/date/day of the week functions and a 9 volt battery connection for the radio/buzzer/CD functions. Not only does it have a CD player, it plays CD-R/RWs and it actually sounds pretty good. You won't mistake it for an expensive home audio system, but for a clock radio, it's not bad at all. And on top of all that, it only costs $60 but yet feels like it's well made. So far I have only 2 complaints: the antenna built into the power cord doesn't have the greatest reception and even on the low setting, the LED display is too bright. But overall, the CKD5811 gets 2 thumbs up from me.

I bought this clock radio as a replacement. It works well with many options. The CD capability has good sound. But the antennas for the radio perform poorly and I can get very few clear stations.

Love the convenience of this versatile clock radio; the cd player is very nice when I can't get to sleep. Only complaint I have is the lithium battery included with it has quit working in less than a month - should last 5 years!

This item has poor quality. I bought it about two years. The CD player does not work. The turn on/off button does not work.

Don't buy it for the CD player functionality. The first one I had stopped playing CDs after 2 weeks, I managed to get the store to exchange it, but with the second one the lithium battery died after 2 weeks and the buttons have stopped working at times. As well every few days it won't play a CD again so you have to turn it off, turn it on, then keep pressing stop/play until it decides to start playing.

Unfortunately I bought it from a liquidator so I can't return it, I would if I could. Do yourself a favor and avoid the Emerson CKD5811.



Is it false advertising? The clock does not "set itself" as they claim, it just has a battery backup. The description of the Smartset feature and the light show when you plug it in all imply that it is setting itself, similar to how a some "atomic" clocks do by using a radio signal that has a time signal. It doesn't do that, it just has a battery that keeps the clock running when it is not plugged in.

The description says "Automatic programming to correct year, month, date, day and time", it does not such thing. It was set at the factory and a battery has kept the clock running. When the battery runs down it does not automatically program the date and time, you need to set it like any other clock.

The Smartset feature will change the time by an hour when daylight savings time hits, but beware, if you live somewhere that doesn't use daylight savings it will change when you don't want it to. Also the date for daylight savings recently changed, if that happens again this clock will still change on the old date.



The FM reception is also very poor, it gets very few stations and produces lots of static on the stations it does get. Other radios in the house seem to have no such problem.

Warranty? 90 days and you must pay to ship it to them plus include a check for $9.00 for return shipping and handling. Doesn't seem like a very good warranty to me.

So if you want a clock with dual alarms then go ahead and buy it, but do NOT buy it for the CD or FM radio, warranty or the automatic clock setting, all those features are poor on this unit.