3 of 4 of Our Sangean Radios Have Button Malfunctions

Our Sangean radios are good performers for FM reception and speaker sound. They are reasonably priced. For user-friendly radios to use throughout the house, the kind that my wife and daughters enjoy using, Sangean is the best bet. 

However, for me a general use Sangean is not my first choice. Because I am an FM reception fanatic, I prefer more of a high-performance radio, the kind that has an SW port, so I can connect a wire antenna to the radio, which usually results in improved FM reception. That's why I have a Grundig G4000A next to my bedside table. But for the rest of my family, it's a Sangean affair. 

However, I should point out a consistent flaw, one that my wife complained about this morning: Three of four of our Sangeans have button problems.

The master bathroom radio, the Sangean PR-D4W, is an excellent value at under $60. However, sometimes when you turn it off, it does not turn off at all. Instead, the radio switches to a nonexistent FM station, like 104.5 or 88.7, resulting in loud static. You have to press off button one or more times to actually have the radio off.

The same problem of the PR-D4 persists in my daughter's Sangean WR-2 radio. 

 

The problem is even worse in the case of the Sangean-made CCRadio-2E because not only do we have the same problem described above, the presets often don't respond until after 3-6 presses. 

 

The only Sangean radio that seems to be trouble-free is the WR-50. We bought it close to 2 years ago for $130. It appears the price is now up to $170. I love the WR-50 but wouldn't be able to use it as a bedside radio for two reasons: One, it has no port for wire antenna. Two, the headphone jack is in the back of the radio. That doesn't make sense. No one wants to stretch an earbud cord around a radio. Headphone jacks should always be in the front or side of a radio. 

Comments

[Gary]

The Sangean radio I use the most is my WR-2 in the kitchen, which I've had for over 11 years. Thankfully, I haven't had any problems with the buttons, and I change stations a lot on this radio.

I have it connected to a small, powered, dual-whip antenna from Radio Shack, and with this setup it gets very good FM reception.

[herculodge]

I wonder if your more arid climate is better for buttons. Here in Torrance, there is quite a bit of moisture in the air.

[Gary]

Could be. Also, being closer to the ocean might not help, with the more corrosive salt water air.

One long-term flaw I've noticed on some of my Sangeans is that the grippy rubber surface on the volume controls is sticky like maple syrup. This happened to my PR-D7 and two PR-D5 models.

Remember all the Eton models with the grippy coating on the whole body of the radio (like the E1, E10, E100 and others)? All of these models ended up with a sticky coating, causing people to figure out how to remove it to get down to the bare plastic.

[herculodge]

Tivoli PAL and other model was a giant rubber mass that melted like glue. It was terrible. Tivoli replaced one of my PAL models and changed the material in later models.

[James Reyome]

I have a PD-D5 I bought in 2011. It's a terrific radio and I've enjoyed it for a long time, but the past several years the power button will sometimes take four or five presses before it responds. I'm still using it, but I'm leery about using the sleep timer because it requires a steady press on the button.

I just bought a CC Radio 2e for use in the front room. I'm hoping it doesn't end up the same way, especially as much as it cost.

[Angelo]

Then there are Panasonic and Sony radios from 1975 that don't have buttons----they have dials----and almost 45 years later, everything works. And they sound wonderful. And they pull in stations like a hawk pulling in a field mouse.

[herculodge]

I hear you. I'd like to get a Panasonic RF-2200 now that my girls are older. Just need to keep deoxit handy for scratchy volume control.

[Dannibal]

My PR-D5 has issues with the presets activating the frequencies of other preset buttons. My CC2 has an issue with the up/down frequently jumping to the next preset, rather than 10KHz.

Frustrating. They still receive very well, but not as well on FM as some others

[Rick Leinen]

On many of the Sangean Radios, you can "reset" the power button to fix the problem. Just unplug it and remove the batteries. Wait a few minutes and then replace batteries and turn on. Many folks say it's like new! Hopefully that will work.

[Herb]

All i read about the CC radio's including the 2E are button problems and to a lesser extent LCD issues .

It's just mind boggling how many people who own these radio's seem to all say after the second year if not sooner the chance that the radio will develop button issues is near 100% .

I wrote to Jay Allan about this and he says it's really not a problem but i'm not buying it.

[Jesse Buys]

I searching this topic because my Sangean 201 am/fm/weather radio just quit responding to the buttons after month of funky button behavior ( stations and band changed when i pressed volume buttons, unpredictable activation of timer circuit, non response to one button press). Then recently the display screen froze on WX chan 2, and no response to any button but the power. Tried the remove batteries/power off move to reset…nothing changed. Tried the hold preset 5 and band button…nothing changed. Had liked it for the years i had it up until now. This looks like a primary circuit failure. Showed up after owning it for about 4 years. Was used in The kitchen mounted on wall under the wall cabinets. House is in boston area.

[Peter Page]

I have run into this problem on both my Sangean H2O radios numerous times. What has worked is replacing the batteries. When the batteries get low enough to cause the buttons to malfunction they still have enough power to get acceptable volume from the speaker.