In my pole barn I Had a 12" clock that ran on a AA battery and it worked great for several years with just replaced batteries annually. The it started losing time, 5 - 10 mins in about a 2 month time span. Bought a new clock, it loses 5-10 mins every couple of months. Tried a 3rd clock, same thing.
But if put any of the 3 clocks someplace else they work just fine.
Nothing has changed in contents in area where they lose time.
I'm baffled.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination
Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind
You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas
You’ve just crossed over into
The Twilight Zone

Interesting! The only thing that pops into my mind is something magnetic nearby...yet you say nothing has changed.

Probably a mouse ran up the clock and slowed it down. "Hickory, dickery, dock, the mouse ran up the clock..."

Thinking thermodynamics may have come in to play.

Are they located in a climate controlled area of of your barn?

Would a good Michigan winter have dragged the gears down a bit? Not really.

But I'm sure the batteries wouldn't be happy if the temperatures went below freezing.

60hz may provide the solution you are looking for.

quote:

In my pole barn I Had a 12' clock that ran on a AA battery

A twelve foot clock that runs on a single AA is in itself very impressive, no matter how accurate!

Opps
Fixed that.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Interesting! The only thing that pops into my mind is something magnetic nearby...yet you say nothing has changed.

Yep. Any wiring or electrical components added nearby?

Use a magnetic compass to see if there is, and what may generating, that field.

Wow, Localized Time Dilation. I assume your barn isn't travelling at near the speed of light, so it must be gravitational. Do things in your barn feel suddenly heavier?

Do you by chance have your Delorean parked underneath it. The flux capacitor will definitely effect your clock.

Magnetic fields, extreme temperature differences between night and day, humidity changes will affect accuracy.

New chinesium clock movements have no environmental compensation.

I would also look very carefully at the mounting apparatus in the slow location. If the clock is not hanging plumb, or with tension against the housing, it may be affecting the mechanism by causing a strain or increase in friction on a particular moving part.

Replace with a digital clock. Problem solved. …Or is it?

Mechanical analog or digital?
If it's a clock with hands, maybe moisture increasing drag inside and slowing things down?


At work I had a digital clock on my desk that didn't keep accurate time. It lost 5 minutes or so a month. I did't think that was possible.

While one wouldn't think something that runs on a simple AA battery could be affected by electronic interference, you might try:

Look on Google Maps satellite view for the following things within a half-mile or so of your pole barn that are either newly-installed, newly-removed, or moved---

Wind turbines

Locator outer markers for aircraft (within a couple miles of a small airport that has them)

Large distribution centers (like Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc) that have a lot of electronic equipment running their inventory/sorting functions via wi-fi.


A friend is a patrol supervisor at my former agency and his station has an Amazon DC in its area. When it opened, all of the computerized stuff that controls receiving, sorting, routing, and inventory was installed and runs via wi-fi. Their electronics were intermittently interfering with our agency's MDCs and sometimes the radios. It took a couple of months for Amazon and their tech people to fix the problem.

It is an analog electric clock(s).
Semi-rural environment. 2.5 acre lot and some farmers fields.
Nothing new built around me in the last 4 years.
No new wiring in the pole barn.
I did put a new battery charger on the shelf near the clock but I think this all started before that.

I might have to try a digital clock and see if it is affected.

Several different kinds of mechanisms are out there but there are going to be huge variations in the quality of the mechanism itself and they are all sensitive to the power supply. Unless you have a string magnet nearby I don't see it as the cause. If it’s a battery, age and temperature could be an issue.

If you have a plug in power supply, see if that makes any difference.

Was the mechanism made by Rolex?

Could the nail it hangs on have been magnetized before it got pounded in? Or by pounding it in?

Perhaps the time dilation is caused by a difference in gravitational potential between the two clocks?

Or just get an atomic clock like this...

La Crosse Technology WT-3129S 12 Inch Atomic Analog Wall Clock