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

We use this to monitor ailing adult who is housed slight distance away and separated by thick walls. Set up was effortless: the units connected as soon as powered on. Sound quality is very good. Volume and sensitivity is adjustable: I can hear them breathing or set it so louder noise required. While my cell phone will disconnect from the Bluetooth headset at this distance and given the thickness of the walls, these stay connected. This product does everything promised and is perfect for our purposes. If you dont need a visual, its probably perfect for yours as well. Impressed - more so at the very reasonable price.

Todo bueno

This monitor is so good because it alerts you in different ways. From sound, to beeps when the volume is off, vibrate and lights. There is no way that you can miss a sound. Range, sensitivity and clarity are great. You can use it as a Walkie talkie.

Not overly happy

As a sound monitor it is fine, maybe equal to a more expensive model, maybe not. It is more than adequate for my needs, especially at such a great price. Baby monitors in the ToysRUs were twice the cost and looked cheaper. Out of the gate, the rechargeable battery wouldnt recharge, the VTech replaced it overnight with a working model. Very impressive response! The nightlight on the handle of the baby unit does not stay on past about 15 minutes unless you set the auto-lock to yes. The instruction book is long, but important to read well or you will miss important settings info on the menu. I like that you can use the adapter on the parent unit for power if the battery gets low or dies. It only seems to be able to recharge fully when unit if off, not while in use, but with this newer one, the battery is doing fine. Multiple volume settings, vibration alert and sound beep alert when the baby unit has sound activity. What I like is that it picks up noises NEAR the unit and tends NOT to pick up noises farther away, distant, which is a good thing. We have lots of sirens where I live but I do not hear them loudly at all, since they are literally mostly in the distance. Note: I dont use this for baby monitor, but the quality is good for one. I use this for an outdoor kitty who I cannot hear when she is outside and crying to be let in, now I can hear her and get her in before she panics. Plus I can hear my neighbors, UPS deliveries, whatever is out there beyond my sight and indoor hearing. My favorite bonus on this is that I can be inside and listen to all the birdsong from outside. In the mid-fifties (yes, the 1950s!) we used to have an indoor/outdoor monitor to listen to the morning birds while having breakfast in the kitchen. Nice to be enjoying that again. Very clear. No ambient noise indoors, but outdoor has ambient noise from all the outdoor chaos, the wind and traffic.

UPDATE 6/4/13 - Im keeping the Vtech rating at 4 stars. This is due to battery life. I can get about maybe 6-8 hours out of a charge, which is not very much. Im guessing they really cheaped out on the battery. It does beep to alert you when the battery is running low. As long as you remember to plug it in every evening, its not a problem. Otherwise, its a fabulous unit and has been working excellent for our family. Still the best choice of the 3 I reviewed below. UPDATED 3/28/13 Ive owned the below 3 units over the course of the last 2 years. I recommend the VTech for now (Ive only had it a few weeks, but it is by far the winner in performance AND value). For features, I only listed the features that I felt would be important to the average buyer. Some of the units had other features that I didnt list because I didnt think there were critical in my decision making process. Also, it might be important to note that we live in a 2 story house and we have Wi Fi.

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.

Awesome

used nights for my paraplegic husband if needing assistance, works great

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.