Controlling the Remote Controls

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

Controlling the Remote Controls

It seems like every appliance I buy lately has a remote control. Anticipating complaints I usually just hide them. If people want to adjust the air conditioner, fans, electric heaters, etc. they can get up and go there.

 

Unfortunately that won’t work with the new TV. If there’s any way to use it without the remote I can’t figure it out.

 

So the last guests managed to lose it, hide it, destroy it or steal it. It’s probably in the house somewhere, but the subsequent guest did a thorough search and couldn’t find it.

 

For us, it means an unplanned and unnecessary 1-hr + drive to Walmart to buy a $10 replacement.

 

 I bought a spare because I expect it to happen again.

 

 I have stayed in hotels where they demanded a deposit for the remote control, which you received and returned to the desk clerk. I don’t really feel like doing that.

 

 The question is, “What do you do about the remote controls?”

 

In our condo in Panama I mounted a holder on the wall for the A/C remote, and it has never gotten lost. That wouldn’t work well for the TV remote though.

6 Replies 6
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

Nothing. We just hope they will not be broken or lost.

 

I am tempted to decorate our ABB in retro style when appliances were sturdy and simple with just 1 or 2 buttons  🙂

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

 

Apparently you’re not the only one. I see quite a few new appliances that are designed to appeal to people who are sick of electronic gadgets that do all sorts of things you really don’t want done.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Brian2036  You know how an alarm goes off if someone walks out of a store with something that hasn't been scanned and paid for? Maybe if you developed a home version of something like that, that went off anytime a guest walked out the door with something that had an unnoticable little sticker on it, you could have a thriving business marketing it to hosts 🙂

 

You should look for a vintage 1950's TV. On and off, and choice of 3 channels and that's it. And you have to get up off your a** to work it.

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

@Sarah977 

 

We first had a TV when I was 15. We got only one channel so there was no need for a remote control, even if such a thing had been invented.

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

That’s a viable idea about the security tags.

 

 The tags are cheap but the detectors are not.

 

If someone could come up with a device that pings your smart phone when your valuables walk out the door you would have a winner.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Brian2036  My dad was a mechanical engineer and loved gadgetry. We had the first TV on the block back in about 1954. 

 

He hated the commercials, though, and basically created the first TV remote- a simple in-line on/off clicker, so he could turn off the sound of the commercials from his armchair.

 

Too bad he didn't expand on that and actually create a full-on remote and patent it- I'd be a trust fund baby.