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Answering Machines Reviews
Updated December 2007
Standalone answering machines are quickly becoming obsolete. About three companies currently manufacture these devices, so the pickings are slim. Even so, many officially discontinued models are still available. More popular these days are cordless phone/answering machine combos, which are covered in our companion report on cordless phones . Consumer Reports magazine last updated its coverage of answering machines in 1999, and most of the included models have since been discontinued. Rather than Consumer Reports, we found opinion websites to be most helpful in lieu of professional reviews. When it comes to answering machines, owner satisfaction hinges primarily on voice quality and ease-of-use. We found the best owner-written reviews at Amazon.com and Epinions, along with some retail sites that also allow owners to leave comments for products -- CircuitCity.com and BestBuy.com. Digital answering machines have completely taken over the market from the older varieties that record on tapes. Digital answering machines are faster and quieter, and they let you bounce from message to message, picking and choosing which messages to keep or discard. You also don't have to worry about finding replacement tapes. While some AT&T answering machines get good reviews, we found mainly
negative comments for the AT&T 1718
(*est. $25)
. Of about 15 contributors
to Amazon.com, not one owner gives it more than a single star. Some owners
report that this model simply stopped working. Others are more specific; one
user notes that he was able to program the day and year, but not the month.
Another reviewer notes that voice quality is garbled. Instead of an LCD displaying
the number of messages, this machine merely blinks (for example, if it blinks
five times, you have five messages), hardly a convenient feature. Lastly, because
the phone cord is hardwired to the machine, you'll need to buy a coupler if
you need the phone cord to be longer than six feet. Other models solve this
issue by simply having an input jack, so that you can use a phone cord of any
length. ConsumerSearch receives a number of inquiries from owners who have lost the manual to their answering machines. The best source we've found is www.InstructionSheets.com. This website has a large archive of owner's manuals available online or links to where you can find them. This is a great resource if you have a perfectly good answering machine but can't quite remember how to program it. ... Continued
Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
The GE is a good choice if you need long recording time and multiple mailboxes. The AT&T 1722 receives good reviews as a budget model. The AT&T 1738 is similar, but costs a bit more. Advertisement
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© 2008. ConsumerSearch, Inc. A service from 
, a part of The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
ConsumerSearch and ConsumerSearch.com are registered trademarks of ConsumerSearch, Inc. Other trademarks or service marks on this site are the property of their respective owners. ConsumerSearch is not sponsored by any source reviewed, and we accept no consideration or payment for including, excluding, or ranking any reviews, products or services in our reports.
* Pricing information is approximate as of the time this report was written and is based on observed market selling prices and/or list prices. Actual selling prices may differ.
