VTech DM221 Audio Baby Monitor with up to 1,000 ft of Range, Vibrating Sound-Alert, Talk Back Intercom & Night Light Loop, White/Silver

Easy to setup and operate. Excellent product

The baby monitor allows me to head my child for almost a block away. It has great sound quality but the second unit has to be charged everyday.

So I’ve had this monitor for a few months now, it’s got great sound but that’s not to say you can leave it in another room and expect to hear it very well. You can adjust the sensitivity for how much sound you want it to pick up. I have mine set to the highest sensitivity so if I leave my fan running in the room my baby is in, I can hear the fan but I also can hear baby just as much. You can talk through the parent monitor and the sound comes out of the baby monitor so you can talk to your baby if they are into that. Baby monitor does need to be plugged in in order for it to turn on but the cord is long enough so it shouldn’t be a problem. I do recommend that as soon as you start setting it up, first thing you want to do is turn off the parent advisory speech it gives the parent monitor every time it gets powered on. I didn’t mind it during the day but when I’d go to work at 6am and turn it on for my mom, I would try lowering it down when it came to that part but it was quiet during that time which made the speech it gave still be loud. It took me a good few days to turn off the speech, the instructions are a little confusing on how to turn it off but I figured it out somehow. Overall it’s a good baby monitor for the price and it’s both have been dropped on the floor multiple times and they still work without problems. They are very durable.

This is the perfect monitor that I needed for my Mom. She lives with me now, and I am her care giver. A monitor with a camera would be out of the question. She is 85 yrs old, and has fallen 4 times since living with me. The last time she fell she was screaming for help a couple of hours before I heard her. I bought her a Ive fallen and cant get up device, but she takes it off at night. We also use walkie talkies during the day, but if it is out of reach when she falls, that dont work. One time when she fell, my Hero Dog came and got me right away, but the dog prefers to be outside most of the time, so I cant count on that. Ive never used it while unplugged, so I cant say how good it is on battery power. I really like the push to talk button on my end, my Mom can talk to me without the need to push a button, and I can hear whats going on in her room at night. The sound quality is not superb, but it is loud enough to wake me if she has a problem. One reviewer said he uses this device to monitor his goats, so we call it the goat monitor.

I have been using this for over 5 years to monitor my child, who is prone to seizures, but gets an aura or warning before they escalate. It has literally been a life saver. The only issue I have had is with the charging cord. Over time, they are prone to fray near the plugs. Anyone who recalls the old chargeable calculators back in the day might remember this issue. If you move your receiver often, your cord will eventually fray. Its not an if, its a when. In order to hopefully prevent this on my new unit, I purchased a set of Cable Protector Spiral Phone Charge Cable Savers for $5.99 here on Amazon. As you see from the pic, the fit seems nice and it should prevent the cord from bending near the plug. Hopefully these work. Also in the spirit of keeping your unit for multiple kids/grand kids, the batteries are replaceable and are the same as in portable land-line phones, naturally also available on Amazon.

It was what she asked for

I have two monitors set up in my elderly mothers bedroom and den. The sound quality is fine if I test it with another family member. But my mom, being 97 years old has a hard time hearing what I am saying when talking to her through the monitor. I think this is just the nature of the beast (so to speak). Elderly mom vs younger people in the family being able to hear and speak with no problems

I use the VTech DM221 to monitor a 93-year-old with mobility and hearing disabilities, although he is generally still surprisingly agile and moves about the house between bedroom and bathroom. Using two sets of DM221 I can monitor both locations simultaneously and track him continuously when he moves about with hearing acuity approaching that of the cat which follows him around. The price point for these sets makes this a feasible approach. However, under the current technology configuration, monitors from different sets cannot be linked to the same parent unit unfortunately. Why? Having two parent units side by side presents no major problems however and, given the sensitivity of the monitors over a wide range, ensures continuous tracking within and between various locations. I found no issues at all with the range of transmission so I can take a parent unit with me into the yard or basement of the house without losing sound quality or sensitivity. The quality of the reception within the wide parameters claimed by the manufacturer is extremely good. You can literally hear a pin drop at any location/room and it is so sensitive that it sometimes picks up extraneous sounds from the adjacent street. At times Ive heard that darn cat purring at a particular location when the animal must be at least 1.5-2.5 metres from the monitor. A persons normal breathing can easily be heard with monitor placed a minimum of 1m from the source. If these sounds become too much, just turn down the sensitivity on the monitor or the volume on the parent unit. VOX sensitivity level can be adjusted across 5 settings. Having a monitor that does not require the person being monitored to press buttons or even to speak (all sounds, normal and unusual, can be heard clearly) is a great comfort since a sudden stroke or accident may leave the monitored person unable to communicate verbally. With this monitor, allowing that you are attentive and able to interpret sudden and unusual changes in behaviour and patterns of sound, you will not miss a thing. I would have preferred to buy a 2-unit monitor set with a single parent unit to facilitate this configuration but only a 2-parent/single monitor set is available. Why? I normally cannot be in two places at once (although that feat is quite often necessary) and if I need to I can simply move the parent unit to a second location, with or without AC power connected. I can use the parent unit without AC on battery power which is sufficient to last at least overnight without AC power. (The monitor is permanently connected to power so no battery issues there. The parent unit should be connected to AC power most of the time to make sure the battery pack is fully charged and ready for mobile use). There must be different battery packs for different models to the DM221 or otherwise comments about lack of battery life on Amazon are just wrong. Australian customers must buy separate AC power plug adapters which are very cheaply and quickly available on Amazon AU. The units are compact, light-weight, durable plastic (although I wouldnt try a drop from a height) with fairly simple menu controls and the possibility to monitor sounds visually as well as aurally by observing LED sensors on the parent unit which register the strength of the source. The parent unit can be used to talk to the monitored person and, in my case, even if the deaf nonagenarian cannot determine exactly what is being said he does register the fact that you are there and attentive. The sound quality is so good that occasionally he understands simple messages such as breakfast/dinner coming and that is totally amazing given the quality of his remaining hearing capacity. There might be monitors on the market which could resolve a couple of the issues Ive presented for my needs/configuration, but this product serves my purposes extremely well, most especially in terms of sensitivity to sounds on the monitor side and sound reception quality on the parent unit side. If your needs are similar, just buy it. It works perfectly well under Australian conditions.

I use this caring for my elderly mother. Very comforting especially at night.

We have been very impressed with this monitor set. We replaced a hand me down Sony unit that was just triggering falsely too many times in the middle of the night. PROS - Small - Parent device has a battery - battery lasts for days (seriously...like 3 or 4 before we finally plugged it back in. it may have 5 or 6...just never pushed it) - good voice quality - two-way voice feature (can have a non-yelling discussion with spouse while upstairs in nursery) - belt clip on parent device - good range (I can walk around the outside of the entire house without losing connection) - visual noise/voice indicator - vibrate noise/voice indicator CONS - the volume just isnt quite loud enough on 5 (our old Sony was just as loud if not louder than the baby was when crying) - loses connectivity every once in a while for no reason The volume is loud enough to easily hear at night when the parent unit is in the same room as you. But if you walk out of the room and leave it behind, you may not hear it. Think about getting up in the morning to make breakfast...if the Microwave is on, you wont hear it. We ended up leaving our older Sony unit in the kitchen for that reason. We dont have to carry around a monitor constantly. Every once in a while, the parent unit will lose the connection to the child unit. Our master and nursery are on opposite ends of the house on different floors so we figured it may be just too much material for the signal to go through sometimes. However even when it drops link, I took the parent unit back into the nursery and it kept beeping at me for another 60 seconds. It doesnt appear to be a range issue, but more than likely just one of the units freaking out for a short-period. It doesnt do it enough to return the device, just enough to annoy me enough to note it in the review.