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

My wife and I bought this to replace the $10 craigslist monitor we got a couple of months ago. Our biggest complaint about THAT monitor was it was an analog signal and super prone to interference and awful bouts of beeping. We finally sucked it up and purchased this unit a month ago and have been moderately happy. This units signal is crystal clear and the strength is enough to go through all the walls of the house so the wife and I can sit out on the back deck while baby sleeps. The parent units nightlight is Ok, albeit kinda gimmicky. However its simple to setup, just plug it in and turn it on. Good to go. My main gripe is the receiver unit. My complaint is two fold. 1) Battery life on this unit sucks and charge times are ponderously slow. Forgot to plug it in after you went to bed? Enjoy being tethered to the charger the next night. Only charged it for an hour? Enjoy that 1 bar out of 3 of battery life that might get you thirty minutes (what Im doing right now.) The battery life is atrocious, plain and simple. Want to page the receiver unit from the parent unit? Pray that the battery is charged (it wasnt the one time we needed it). 2) Background volume of the monitor. I think this is more me than the monitor as our old monitor could be heard from the other room and more specifically the wave sound machine we have to help baby sleep. I always used that sound as the fail-deadly switch, meaning that if I heard the waves stop it meant either the monitor was dead or that there was an issue in the bedroom. Vigilance is my middle name. The VTech I think filters out alot of background noise as a feature however, its just disconcerting to me. Take it for what it is. In all fairness though, you will definitely hear baby if baby wakes up, the mic is especially tuned to those little wails. So, if you can stomach abysmmal battery life, this monitor is cheap and easy to use. Overall, Id recommend it as long as youre OK with being tethered to a charge cord.

We originally registered for a video monitor for our nursery and got it, but once the baby came, we realized it was really inconvenient not to have a monitor in our bedroom since he was sleeping in there in his bassinet. We also found ourselves needing a monitor when we went to our families lake house and wanted to sit on the patio after putting him to bed in our bedroom. These monitors are fantastic. The baby monitor has to be plugged in, but the parent monitor does not. It has chargeable batteries. My mom had an older model from vtech and the parent monitor has to be plugged in too. We love that the parent monitor is able to be charged and portable. It creates so much more flexibility. I find myself putting my ear to the monitor to make sure it is still working even though it is linked, but every time Im linked and realize what a great feature it is, they dont make the background noice like a sleep machine loud on the parent monitor, it only reacts when a loud noice happens like the baby moves or cries out which makes trying to hold a conversation so much easier. I would highly recommend these monitors. IT has been key while our 4 month old continues to sleep in our room and any trip they are the first thing we pack into the diaper bag. Hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

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 feel like a lot of the new baby monitors they’ve come out with now days are amazing…. but also enabling all your new parental fears. Don’t you want to watch your baby to know they’re safe? Don’t you want to know their O2 levels so you can ensure they’re breathing? Don’t you want thermal detection to see if it’s the right temp in their crib? Don’t you want the ability to check on them while you’re at work? Etc etc etc. I understand the fear. And the desire to feel comforted and that your baby is safe. But I also don’t want to obsess and perpetually freak myself out based on readings from the monitors. It’s always tough! Keeping track of another app is too much for me. I needed a simple but reliable monitor to use and this is it. It’s speaker/hearing sensitivity levels are variant enough to give options. The talk button is quiet and super nice when I need to communicate with my hubby. The shape and size are great. My only 2 complaints are that 1) the baby unit needs to be plugged in to work, while the parent unit can be unplugged—it would’ve been nice if they were both wireless. And 2) it would’ve been nice to have a talk button on the baby unit as well as the parent unit. Still, I’d highly recommend.

Loved these baby monitors Work great

We use this for travel! I feel kinda like the parent unit is almost always dead and needs to be plugged in. Maybe that is user error because we don’t use it constantly so the batter dies when it isn’t in use? That is frustrating to be honest since it takes a while to charge up when it’s dead. BUT when I have the foresight to plug it in as soon as we get somewhere a couple hours before we need it… it’s great! A classic.

I bought this product to monitor my newborn in another room when he is sleeping. I use it in conjunction with a baby monitor and it gives me the piece of mind that I can check on my baby at any time. I had an issue with the first one I received and amazon was able to give me a full replacement. The replacement has worked flawlessly. I live in a 3000sq foot house and it seems to connect pretty well throughout the house. It will give you a warning beep if it loses connection at any time. Simply have one monitor close to the baby and keep the other one next to you. It is as simple as that. As long as it shows linked it will transmit any sounds your baby makes. It also has a noise cancellation so that it doesnt transmit the while noise machine that I have running in the background. You can change the sensitivity levels from a range of 1-5. This keeps you from being alarmed at every pin drop but allows you to hear the important cries of the baby. If you feel the need to speak to your baby, you can simply click on the side the talk. It also has a night light feature that lights the handle. Unfortunately, I have not seen a need for this. If I wanted a night light, I would buy a night light. Volume is controlled from 1-5 and also has a light feature to show level of sounds even if you have the volume turned all the way down. The battery seems to least 12 hours of normal usage. Some have mentioned that they would like to use this as a intercom. I think it would be much easier just to have a two way radio than this for an intercom device. So until your baby can yell out his window to tell you his diaper is wet or he is hungry, I recommend this product for the use as a baby audio monitor. Even more so, I recommend buying it from amazon as they provide the added customer support when needed.

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.

Sound is awesome. Volume gets pretty loud. And I like that I can talk to my kiddo, even though we don’t currently really use that feature.

This monitor system works very well.