Digi 1st TC-895 Dual Tally Counter

I think this is a first-rate tally counter. It's ergonomic--it fits nicely in my hand, has anti-slip ridges so it's easy to hold, and the buttons have just the right amount of pressure to avoid accidental presses but not tire out your fingers (unless maybe you are counting many hundreds of occurrences during an event). It's made of plastic but not cheap, thin plastic. It's easy to use--press any button to wake, press the big black button to increment the main counter (upper row of numbers) and the button under it to increment the secondary counter (lower row of numbers). Reset by pressing the right hand-button and the main button to reset the main counter and the right-hand button and lower button to reset the secondary counter. There is an auto-off after two hours but you can also turn the device off manually with a long press of the lower button. There is a beep, which sounds nice, to confirm a successful press and it can be silenced by a long prss on the main button. If you mistakenly increase the tally you can change mode to decrement the tally. The display is easiy visibly in bright light and dim ligh (but not in total darkness). It takes a cheap and easy to find LR44 battery that lasts a really long time because the 7-segment LCD display doesn't draw much power. There is a lanyard so that you can hang the counter on your neck when not in use rather than putting it in a pocket.It costs more than most mechanical or cheap electronic counters but I think the few extra dollars of cost is justified by the quality of the construction and design though, if you need a large number of counters, cost might become more of a factor. I think it's the best tally counter of its type on the market. An alternative for occasional use is the free tally counters on your phone (but you need to have your phone turned on and a phone might not be as ergonomic) and, for commercial use for things like counting visitors, the TallyFi counter, which has WiFi connectivity and analytics but costs hundreds of dollars per year.Unless you absolutely need two separate counters in one device (a typical use is to separately track male and female entrants to a facility), you might want to consider the Digi 1st TC-890 single-tally counter. The numbers are larger and it's a little easier to operate because you don't have to change mode to decrement the count after an accidental press.I now have two of the 890s and one of these 895s. I've had one of the 890s for over three years and have had no problems with it even though I use it daily (though for fairly small counts). It would be cool if they came in different colors but that would add to the cost. Overall, I think this is a great product.

Excellent product.

My review of the product (which I like a lot) follows, but I deducted one star because of one particular setback with this device. When the battery dies, it sometimes produces a shrill, high-pitched whine, that you can hear non-stop in whatever room you're in. It happened to me, and I had packed up the device for the year because my outdoor sporting events had already ended. I had no idea where it was coming from, and it took me hours to find the thing at the bottom of a box, shrieking its head off. This is NOT a reason to avoid the product. I like it a lot. Just take heed to this warning and remember where you put it if you start hearing the noise! So you don't have to go through what I did. And then change the battery.Now, the product itself. First off, the positives. It does what it's supposed to do extremely well, the display is clear and easy to read, and the buttons are easy enough to figure out and manipulate after a few seconds of fiddling around with it. It fits snugly in the palm of your hand, and isn't cumbersome, or too small where it rolls around in there. The composition is surprisingly sturdy for how cheap the price is. I had this thing for over a year and dropped it dozens of times (I drop things), and it never stopped functioning.I will add that the last time I dropped it, I actually broke it, but that was a really bad spill, and I won't hold my error against the company. I ordered a new one and I'm being more careful.The negatives: The more esoteric functions, like muting, and turning the device off, are pretty counterintuitive (hold down this, and while holding, press that, etc.), and the instructions are written in so small of a typeface that they might as well be on the head of a pin. I eventually figured all that stuff out, but then in a few months I forget and have to figure all of it out and it's really annoying. I'd pay the extra $5 or whatever for production costs to put in a mute button and an on-off switch.In closing, this is a very well-made and useful little device, for a very low price. I recommend it to anyone, but make sure you don't pack it up for the season and forget where it is, or you might go crazy trying to find where the shrieking is coming from.

I use this when doing counts for work.Pretty easy to use.

Way to complicated for kids to figure out

Works as advertised. Can't get wet

This device is easy to use for what I needed it to do and it was accurate and dependable.In Colorado, High School baseball is required to report the total number of pitches each pitcher throws. In our district I am one of staff that counts pitches for both sides. With the duo counters I can move through a game with ease and confidence. I highly recommend this product for any counting of anything. To the manufactures ether beef up your little speaker for the beep or get rid of it all together, this part is useless.

I bought the mechanical counter previously. It’s junk. These digital counters work 1000 times better. Are easy to use. You can count two different things if you need too.