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(More customer reviews)I'm sure you understand that the way these things work is that the RF10, 20 or 30 remote sends an RF signal that is picked up by the PowerBlaster. It blasts out a very strong, very wide beam of IR that can bounce around and operate your IR-controllable equipment. It also has these little plug in flashers that you can tape to your equipment.
You might be scared off by the one reviewer who said he taped the little plug-in flashers onto his equipment items' IR windows. Of course, if you do that, the remote that came with your equipment will be blocked. The good news is that I've been using PowerBlasters for years and never had to do that. In all but one case, I could just put a PowerBlaster BESIDE the equipment, and it would generate enough IR to bounce off virtually anything in front of the equipment and do its job. I've had it bouncing off glass, a curtain, a door, and even a wall that's 14 feet across a room. Talk about ease of installation! All you do is plug these things in and they start working.
I'm not saying a single PowerBlaster is going to completely flood a large room or bounce IR around corners or whatever. It will normally work within a closet or cabinet or enclosed part of an entertainment center or with one bounce off a wall without a problem.
I've had situations in which these things were too good. I've got a home theater upstairs and a regular flat-panel in the den, and both are set up with URC RF remotes. My bride was turning on and programing the cable DVR box downstairs, and the PowerBlaster upstairs was doing the same to the box upstairs. For awhile, I couldn't figure out why All My Children kept showing up on recorded shows upstairs! My solution to this was to plug the two PowerBlasters upstairs into a switched outlet on the receiver. That way, they would be out of commission until I turned on the receiver, which I normally do manually anyway. Now the recorded Soaps stay downstairs where they belong. I'm happy to say that the IR will not go through curtains. If it did, I'd have another conflict like that one.
I should explain why I needed two PowerBlasters for the upstairs theater. I have one on the equipment rack behind the curtain. I have another sitting under the screen facing back toward the projector. The projector has a box that moves a lens back and forth in front of the projector. The box is only controllable by an IR remote. The sensor in the box is recessed, so I needed to get IR from the front of the room. This was the one time that a wall bounce wouldn't do the job. I tried bouncing off the screen in front of the projector, and it didn't work. I have to say however that the little box in question is pretty insensitive, even to its own remote.
So there it is. I'm a great believer in the URC system. I've got much more expensive remotes that I don't use, because The URCs are so reliable.
I have four remotes and four blasters in play right now, and I'm about to expand again. I'm going to use them to control the theater lighting, which is already set up with z-wave technology. No, these particular URC devices aren't z-wave compatible, but I can buy an IR remote for my Lutron z-wave system, use it to teach a URC RF-30, and let the PowerBlaster take it to the Lutron IR sensor.
I can't imagine that you'll be disappointed with the PowerBlasters. They are a solid capability at an outstanding price.
Click Here to see more reviews about: URC MRF100B PowerBlaster For Use w/ MasterControl RF Series Remotes
PowerBlaster is the RF power base used with all MasterControl RF remotes. Picks up RF signals through walls, doors, floors - indoors and outdoors. Hide your components in the entertainment center or a cabinet. Use your remote outdoors on the patio, deck or porch. Up to 100'.
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