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

Gift

I must say that I have been extremely pleased with this baby monitor. I purchased this when I had a second child and needed to be able to hear the noises coming from both rooms (the children are on the second floor while we are on the first so a monitor is an absolute must). I originally ordered a Sony monitor which was identical to the one we had for our oldest. When I set it up the whole thing didnt work, so I went back to the drawing board to hunt up a new one. Here are my pros and cons for this monitor: Pros: I love that this is digital. My other monitor was not and its quite a bit noisier, not what I want in the middle of the night. The VTech monitor is very quiet so all I hear are the noises the baby makes and a light white noise sound in the background. The range of the monitor is better than our old one, so I can have it right on my night stand instead of just outside my bedroom door like the old one was. Its really quite easy to use, fairly self explanatory. The walkie talkie feature is handy to have, as a couple times I needed to communicate with my husband to bring something up for me in the middle of the night. As the baby gets older I anticipate using this to communicate with him. I loved the price. These ended up being cheaper than the Sony that I originally bought and I like them so much more. Cons: The only thing I can really think of as a con is the fact that sometimes the signal is randomly disrupted and the parent receiver will start beeping. Sometimes it keeps on beeping until I turn it off and turn it back on. Not so bad in the middle of the day, not so fun in the middle of the night. But Im sure this happens with all of the monitors. If you are looking for a monitor that wont break the bank and works quietly and efficiently, this is the one for you.

Todo bueno

I have two of these in jack and jill rooms (rooms side by side with bathroom in between) and they do not interfere with each other. I have not used the nightlight feature so I cant comment on that. The units are quiet (no static) but they pick up every little sound the kids make, I can hear my baby moving around in her crib and breathing. The range is ok, after about 150 yards outside it starts to beep to let you know it is getting out of range but I can still hear my daughter at that range you just also hear an annoying beeping as well. The two way communication is really nice especially for my older child. The parent side has a backup battery which is nice and it beeps when it is getting low. The child side does not have a backup battery which I dont like. However, if for some reason it gets unplugged or power goes out you will know right away because the unit will become unlinked immediately and start to beep. I have had these unlink for some unknown reason a couple of times in the middle of the night but if you turn them off and then back on they will usually link again just fine. Bottom line I would recommend these just know that baby unit does not have backup battery. I think they are nice and quiet and pick up babys sounds great and the two way communication is extra nice. These have been dropped numerous times (on pavement), played with by the kids, and generally treated pretty rough but continue to work fine and look fine. When I first bought it I had the parent unit hooked on my jeans and forgot about it and went down slide with my older child and clip broke off. I gorilla glued it back and it has worked like new since.

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.

Awesome

We’ve been using these monitors since our child was born four years ago… we only just now needed to buy a replacement bc the parent unit sound would go in and out (regardless of being plugged in or not, or fully charged). Great monitors! Works well and has longevity.

Works great! I sleep upstairs and now I can hear my Mother is she calls for me. She is 101 years old!! I call it my Mommamonitor! :)

I ordered this because I wanted a baby monitor. I didnt want anything wifi enabled (because my cable company isnt the best and weve been known to just lose internet service in the middle of the night). I wanted something slightly better than the baby monitors they had when I was growing up and I had a baby brother sleeping down the hall (I.e. No cordless phone interference). These days companies seem to have worked out that whole everything wireless is on the same frequency debacle so I figured this should be no sweat. This unit set up quickly and is pretty darn sensitive. When my daughter sucks her thumb, it gets picked up on the monitor. I was nearly scared off of this item by some of the negative reviews. Once I established that it worked, I decided to run a few experiments with the sensitivity using the bathroom fan. In a quiet room, the thing is awesome. When you turn down the sensitivity to accommodate say, a white noise machine/air purifier/fan/air conditioner, it begins to show some weakness. Why? Because the sensitivity is based upon volume. If the baby crying doesnt exceed the new threshold youve set, the monitor wont pick up the sound. If the room is heavy on white noise, then you have two choices: a constant flow of white noise on the monitors parent unit or turn down the sensitivity so that only the louder cries will be heard. This isnt a limitation on the unit. It isnt able to distinguish between air conditioner and baby noises. It picks up sound over a certain decibel level. That isnt a flaw. Thats that slight improvement over the units from 20 years ago I was hoping for. If you are running lots of white noise in the room, you may need to switch to video monitors. Or you may just have to deal with the monitor blasting white noise into your room in hopes of picking up every whine and whimper. But if thats your situation, it isnt really the monitors fault for not adapting to your environment (it would be like hanging up a flat screen TV crooked and then writing a negative review for the TV saying the picture is slanted). Its a good monitor. Clear sound and very responsive to baby noises. It may not completely change the way you parent, but they never made that claim.

This monitor system works very well.