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 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.

We have had this monitor for three years. Three years of continuous use. We leave the parent unit plugged in all day by our bed, unplugging for a few hours every night to take to the living room so we can listen if the kiddos need us. We ran conduit up the wall to cover the cord, and have the room unit hanging up out of the way. The kids can hear us well when we talk to them through the monitor, and know they can call for us if they need to. Saves a lot of trips back and forth at bedtime. It’s been a solid little monitor, never an issue, and would definitely buy it again if needed (knocking on wood right now, just in case I jinxed myself). Highly recommend!

We bought this when we moved into a place with two levels. We only need to use it for a couple of hours a day/night when baby is asleep and were awake and upstairs. The battery life is good, weve only needed to charge it a few times, despite having it over a month now. Everything works as expected. The distance it stays connected has been impressive (Ive walked outside with the parent monitor without an issue). The baby unit does need to stay plugged in in order for it to work.

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.

This monitor replaced an older 49mhz analog baby monitor that we have had since our three year old was born. We still like to keep a monitor in his room just in case he wakes up before us or calls out in the night, which is rare. The old monitor was picking up interference quite a bit and was beginning to have problems, so it was time for an upgrade. This unit uses encrypted digital technology on the 1.9 GHz spectrum. Theoretically this should give increased range and eliminate any possibility of casual eavesdropping. Compared to the old monitor which had a single on/volume knob, this one is much more high tech. With that, however, comes a lot more settings that you have to (or get to) fiddle with. In addition to dedicated volume and power buttons, there are also menu and select buttons with which you can navigate an on screen menu of settings. This unit has a sensitivity setting, which is what Id call a digital squelch, a term from my old ham radio days. It lets you have complete silence until the signal breaks a certain threshold. Only then do you hear it over the speaker. This is disabled at its most sensitive setting. You can set a vibrating or audio alert to go off if the squelch is triggered. There is even a way to remotely trigger the nightlight LED on the base and a button to talk back to the child. This lets the unit function as a simple 2-way intercom, which is helpful for us in certain situations. There is no doubt that this is a full-featured baby monitor, or that it gives you a lot of value for your money. Each of these features works as advertised, and once you get it set up like you want it the menu and its settings arent that much of an issue. Even with the squelch on its second highest setting my bedside table has gotten a whole lot quieter thanks to its digital technology. However, I do wish that the transmitter unit had a battery backup that would allow for operation in a power outage or for easy placement during nap time. I also wish that the monitor had a back-lit screen or LED that let you know it was on. As it stands now, I have to turn on my bedside lamp to look for the word LINKED on the screen to make sure its on. My only caution here is that it may be a little bit much for a parent looking for a basic, reliable digital unit without all these literal bells and whistles. We have another digital unit made by Graco for our younger baby, and all it has is an on switch, volume buttons, and a physical vibrate switch. Theres no screen at all to fiddle with, and it has proven to be a reliable tool. If you are a technophile and want a value-priced device with intercom features, however, this unit hits the sweet spot. In my opinion, its silence and intercom more than overcome its minor shortcomings.

The Vox (mic gain) on the highest setting is very sensitive, so I use the next to highest setting for mic gain. The night light is a nice feature. The sound quality of the monitor unit is good, but not hi fidelity. I dont use vibrating alert and I have not had to use the backup battery, so I cant rate those features. Works very well to monitor a room on the main floor when my room is on the 2nd floor.

I like this monitor, but the connection range does not come close to 1,000ft. End to end, my apartment is about 150 feet and the units don’t connect if I put them the farthest distance from each other. I’d say the range is more like 100 feet.

Obviously since I bought an audio-only baby monitor, Im not looking for anything too fancy. This monitor definitely works for what we need. Ive actually been impressed at how well it modulates the sound so that if we have white noise running it fades to the background, but we can still clearly hear when baby makes noise. The battery life on the parent unit isnt fantastic, so we do have to charge it a lot even though we dont use it a whole ton. My other big complaint is that if you move the baby unit (in our case, baby sometimes sleeps in a nursery and sometimes in our room), the next time you turn on the parent unit it makes a LOUD safety announcement. Not great if you forget and turn it on within 15 feet of the baby you just spent a long time rocking to sleep.

When we moved our baby girl to her crib in her room, we, of course, needed some sort of monitor. Since we didnt receive the fancy, expensive video monitor at our baby shower that we had registered for, we had to come out-of-pocket for one and had to settle for a more basic, less expensive monitor. Im so glad that someone didnt waste $200 on a monitor with all the bells and whistles! This monitor does everything we need it to. It has good range - in my one-story house Ive never been too far away for it to get signal. The volume is nice and loud at the highest setting and wakes us up when she cries. Theres also a setting for a vibration alert, and it works, but I have yet to use it practically. The nightlight casts a soft amber glow. I love the feature where you can communicate with the Baby unit. There have been many times when my spouse or I have talked back and forth when one of us needed something. We like this monitor so much that, when my mother needed one at her house for when shes caring for our daughter, I recommended this one to her. The only cons I can think of with this unit are minor. 1) I wish the battery on the Parent unit lasted longer. When we have someone babysitting at our house, the Parent unit is always off of the charger (which is in our bedroom) so the sitter can use it in the living room. The charge on it wont last a full day. 2) When you turn off the Baby unit (like when Im at my mothers and feeding my daughter or sleeping in the bedroom and dont wish to have the Parent unit listening in) the Parent unit emits a loud beep every 30 seconds or so. I can understand the practicality of this feature (in case the Baby unit accidentally comes unplugged), but it still bugs me. Overall, I think this is a very good monitor and I would recommend it to anyone!