Logitech Harmony remotes

It's your choice. The One's battery lasts about 1 day, so either drop it in the cradle every day or plug in your 700 once every few weeks, or change batteries in your 600/650 every month. Keep in mind the One is missing the 4 colored buttons but has 15 devices, whereas the 700/650/600 has 6, 8, or 5 devices depending on the software and model. Personally, I think a refurb 650 is the best value (~$40). You can use rechargeable AA's in it if you like. The One is long overdue for an update in styling, hard buttons and efficiency, IMO.

My personal preference is URC or JP1 due to better value, build quality, and functionality, but that's just me. Harmony is great in terms of ease of use and ease of programming, but not capable of much advanced functionality. And the buttons will typically start to fail within a few years. They aren't built to last. But most people don't seem to mind. They are by far the most popular.

Harmony remotes are truly not built to last for the long haul.

I started out with a budget model that I picked up at Sam's Club years ago, just to simplify things for the family.

I got hooked on the functionality of the remote, but changing batteries every couple of weeks got old. After a couple of years, the buttons started to fail and I upgraded to the 880 model, which has a rechargable battery.

The battery charging cradle Logitech used for my model was pretty bad. You had to charge the battery every night and getting the remote to actually charge on the cradle is more art than science.

As time goes by, the contact points on both the remote and cradle wear and accumulate junk that makes it even more of a challenge.

You can't beat the functionality of the Harmony remotes. The Harmony database has had every new component I've added over the years, and it is simple to both operate and program.

The price you pay is basically for the database of components. The actual physical quality of the remote, battery, and charging mechanism is far below the price you are asked to pay. Many of the remotes that come with components seem to be built as well, but are severely limited in functionality.

The only trick in picking a model is to make sure the one you get will handle the number of components in your system. After that, it's really just a question of whether you want to recharge, or change batteries. If you have a setup where your components don't have a line of site with the remote, you'll need one of the upper end models that handles sending codes thru walls.

My experience with the 880 has been mostly positive. It's been in constant use for about 3 years and I've never had to change the battery. It holds a good charge for about a week and then I just pop it into it's cradle for an overnight charge and we're good to go for another week or so. Never had any difficulty in getting it to charge. The buttons are starting to wear a bit but after 3 years of trouble-free use, I can't complain. I use the 880 to control 4 devices: tv, blu-ray player, AppleTV2, and receiver (tv is OTA so there's no cable/sat box).

I found a solution to charging problem on my 880 cradle. What happens is the gold plating wears off and electrical contact fails. Cleaning does not help. What I did was to disassemble the cradle then coat the contacts with flux then carefully put a dallop (drop) of resin core solder on the contacts. It was a little tedious as the solder had to be shaped to easily move through the holes of the cradle top when reassembled, but the solder protrusion was slightly higher than the original gold plating but made good electrical contact with the remote. It has worked like a charm for over a year now.

What about the Harmony 900?? I'm thinking of the RF capability and comparing it to the acoustic research arrx18g. Anyone? Thanks

The AR is pretty much impossible to find these days, so the 900 is your only option. If you find an AR, please post back. I could use a few more myself.