Which Universal Remote to Use?

Wow - the Harmony 1000 is really that bad huh? Thanks for steering me clear - nice to know that there is an upper limit to getting what you pay for when it comes to remotes.

Just spent a few hours reading reviews of the Harmony remotes on Amazon - looks like the biggest issue with the Harmony 880-890s is an issue with survivability due to "regular" wear and tear. The remotes appear to be fairly delicate. While I don't intend to subject my remote to Underwriter Laboratory testing in my media room, I'm curious as to how big a factor this is for the Harmony owners out there.

Any thoughts?

Maxim,

I have had my 880 for ~5 years, it works flawlessly, my 890 is slightly younger but not by much and again, works perfectly, neither has ever had an issue, and I would highly disagree with the statement that they are 'delicate'.

I have big dogs and had young children (well, 9 and 13 then) and they both survived without a scratch. The one complaint many have is the charging dock for the 880/890 is not the greatest design, some times the remote won't make good contact and it doesn't charge when in the cradle.

I do not find this to be an issue, and in fact, my 890 still runs for weeks without recharging, even with regular use.

Oh, BTW my entire house is tiled, so every time the remote has fallen, it's landed on tile, and both still are hanging in strong.

I guess by now you can see I am hooked on the Harmony remotes, and have been now for seven years (when I got my 690, which BTW is still working perfectly as well, no cradle issues as this one runs on batteries, again which last MONTHS between changes!)

no delicacy issues

I have had several brands and other Harmony's. Everything is right about this remote for me:

Easy, easy, easy to program online

Can't lose your set-up as it is stored online

My wife can run it and I can label buttons she understands

Tilt backlight is fantastic

Strong signal output

Only thing it does not have is RF, but I run the powermid RF x10 system throughout my house. Allows the use of any IF remote anywhere.