Doberman Security Jogger Alarm

Category: CE

New starting at $13.25

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Product Description

Jogger Alarm - 115 db alarm with flashing light to help protect joggers includes free MP3 pouch.

Product Details

Customer Reviews

Review by Corine S. Sutherland, 2010-05-29

I agree that this item, though appealing to anyone, not just joggers, has very unhelpful instructions. The "buttons" are confusing, and with no diagram, it really is hit or miss at guessing which pair of screws go to what and what button goes to what. I bought it thinking that it would be a great bright light for night walks. Getting it put together and figuring it out is half the disappointment. When you are working with something that has an alarm, the last thing you want to do is trigger that alarm when all your doing is looking for the button for the light. The button for the light is not obvious, either. It is marked by a sun-like etching on the side of the product. Confusing and not helpful, given that you are supposed to use this product as an aid for your safety that the owner has to struggle how best, quickly, and most efficiently the product is supposed to be used. I did not buy it on Amazon, but found it at Big Lots for $10.00 cheaper, but it's a matter of principle, not price. As for the light, it certainly is not as bright as the photo alludes. Cover your ears for the alarm, though. If it doesn't scare the mugger, it surely will make the owner jump a few feet into the air. I'm sure there are better products with a brighter light and certainly better instructions.

Review by Neil Gunton, 2009-12-01

I purchased this for my wife to use while jogging. It seemed like a good concept - no weapon that could be turned against her, and handy to have right there on the arm. However, when I received the package, several things struck me:

The instructions are very badly written. There are no diagrams to indicate what the different parts are that they are referring to. Now I'm not stupid, I can work things out, but they just say "Undo the screws" to install the battery. There are two different sets of screws. Which ones are for the battery compartment? It's not marked, and no diagram. Luckily I got the right ones, and installed the 9V battery successfully.

Next I was interested in trying out the alarm. The instructions just talk about the "big button". Again, no diagrams or explanation of what or where that is. You might assume, like I did, that this button is the big round white thing that looks like, well, a button, right? Wrong. The button is actually the LED light. I would honestly never have thought of pushing the light itself, but my wife hit it by accident and nearly deafened both of us. It's quite loud inside the house.

Ok, so it's quite loud. But I notice that it's also very simple to turn it off - another unit which I've seen online (and ordered separately) apparently has a trick to turning off the siren - this seems prudent, given that one of the very first things the mugger/rapist might try to do is switch the thing off. With this Doberman, it's a simple matter of just pressing the button again. That seems a little scary to me.

To be charitable: Perhaps they designed it intentionally so that the big white "button" is a decoy to confuse the rapist who's trying to turn it off. If that was intentional then they don't talk about it in the instructions. I get the impression that it's simply part of the speaker system for the alarm. In any case, a single press on the nearby real button is all that's needed to turn it off - so simply by blindly mashing everything in sight, you're likely to find it.

Next, the LED light itself... it's really anything but the "strobe" I was hoping for. Especially using a 9V battery, surely this light could have been quite bright. But in fact what you get is a very, very weak flasher - any bike light is better than this. It's pathetic, really. Maybe visible in the complete darkness, but if it's competing with streetlights, no way.

Next, the size of the thing. I was hoping it would be a little smaller, to be honest. I mean, this is meant for joggers... well, who's going to be using this? I would say, mostly women. And women are usually on the smaller side, physically. This seems like a rather large blob to have on your arm as you're trying to run.

But I've saved the best for last... the instructions specifically say that while the unit is water resistant, it is NOT supposed to be used in the rain. That's right, this is made for joggers (it's part of the name, ferchrissake) but you can't use it in the rain. How pathetic is this?

I'm sorry, I like to give products a chance, but who designed this mess? Instructions with no diagrams or even description of what it is they are talking about. A jogger alarm that can't be used in the rain. A weak, pathetic LED blinky, and an unaccountably large and cumbersome body... not impressed.

Edit: I originally gave this 1 star out of general initial disgust, but my wife tried it out running and said it wasn't too bad. It does work (i.e. there is a loud alarm), it didn't feel too heavy on her arm, and she felt better having something there to press should she get hassled, and so I'm upping it to 3 stars to be fair.