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

This product imagery/wording is purposely misleading to make you believe its 2 wireless units. There isnt a single cord in any of the images but the baby unit requires one to operate.

I bought this to be able to hear my elderly Mother at night as she is getting frail. Exactly two nights after setting it up she had twisted herself in bed and was falling. I heard her struggles through this monitor and helped her reposition thus preventing injury. I can talk with her through the intercom to check on her. This is priceless safety insurance.

Distance was about 40-40 feet. Voice is clear and no buzzing or random noise from either end

I received this product today and have tested it. It seems to be working as advertised. Amazon asked to rate vibration strength and battery life, neither one of which is of any interest to me and I have not tested these features. This item will be used by me exclusively on line current. It works, and I hope it will help me protect my 93-year old mother. But, I wish the receiver could produce enough sound volume to wake me from a sound sleep. Im afraid that is not the case. It will be fine, assuming Im already awake...but, not if Im asleep which was the desire when I bought it.

I dont need to be in the area to here what happening. I use the monitor as a security device in my garage, its about 300 feet away.

Just buy it, you know you will use it. We also have a camera but this helps with sound since the camera isnt the best running all the time.

**Update 1/5/2016** Since my below review we have used this many more times and Im happy to report that this is still a very solid performer. The range is great, baby noise comes through clear, and my previous complaint about the talk button being easy to press hasnt been a big deal. Four stars remain well deserved. **Original Review 4/18/2015** We have a nice Angelcare monitor that we use at home but wanted something simple we could take with us when traveling to our parents and friends houses. The VTech fit the bill budget wise and after one 5 day trip we have been really happy. Other reviews have done a great job saying what this unit does well so I wont waste time here reiterating those opinions as I agree with them. Couple of cons that I wanted to mention just to keep in mind before you buy, but note I would still buy this product again knowing this so I do like the product a lot. - Battery life on the wireless unit is not great. You will have to charge during awake time at least once during the day if not more. - No battery on the unit that is in the nursery. Minor concern for me since we are used to power outages which would render this useless. How many times is that going to happen though? Not a huge deal. - Biggest complaint is the talk button on the side of the parent unit is extremely easy to press when grabbing the unit. If you wear this on your belt or pocket then when you grab it you will almost certainly press the talk button which will send whatever noise is going on around you straight to the unit by your sleeping baby. Not ideal. Again, Im rating this as 4 stars so obviously I am happy with the unit. For the price, I think youd be hard pressed to find a better option and considering our needs it is near perfect. It is really compact and fits in a pair of shoes easily for simple packing.

Awesome

I think this is a wonderful monitor. There are 2 things I would change if possible, but overall this is the best audio monitor Ive used - and Ive tried 6 different models. 1. This monitor is sound-activated. It only transmits when a sound louder than the ambient background noise is picked up. You can change the sensitivity level, and the highest sensitivity level is very sensitive, but I would still love the option to just have an open channel. Id like to be able to hear my little one breathing (the old monitor this Vtech replaced allowed that). 2. Every time you hit a button, the unit beeps. Even when changing the volume level. I would prefer the option to turn off the key beeps. I like to change the volume or sensitivity in the middle of the night to just check in on the baby, and the beeping of the buttons could wake your parter/spouse if they are a light sleeper. Other than these 2 minor wants, this is a great audio monitor. It is the only one of the 6 models I tried that did not have any interference/buzz/hum/static in our house. Our old monitor started losing its signal constantly and buzzing when we got a new wireless router. We got this Vtech to replace it. We just had a second child, and I was concerned that getting a second Vtech monitor would be a problem - the monitor links automatically and you cant change channels at will. I worried that the two units would cross-link or interfere with each other - no such problems. The two parent units connect to the correct baby units without any issues or interference. We just put name stickers on each of the parent units to tell them apart. And they worked this perfectly right out of the box. I also love the talkback feature. If I am busy with the baby and my toddler wakes up & calls for me, I can use the talkback feature to tell him Ill be there in a minute or to tell him he can come find me in the living room. That is great for slightly older kids.

Love this monitor! We always run white noise in our nursery and were looking for a monitor that would filter out that background noise better than the video monitor we have. This one does that quite well. There is a little static in the background because of our white noise machine but it is relatively quiet. It picks up our babys noises from the background without issue and amplifies them so its easy to hear him. I havent tried the feature where it alerts when there is a sound. I just keep the monitor on whenever my baby is asleep and turn it to the volume level I want so I can always hear whats going on. Range is good. Battery is quite good. I only charge it at night. Highly recommend!!