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

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.

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.

I ordered this because I lost the parent unit to my old Vtech baby monitor. The one I had before only had one-way audio, and I ordered this one as a replacement for the talk-back feature because my kids are a little older (2&4), and I can tell them its time to go to sleep when theyre being rambunctious after going to bed. This one also has the rechargeable parent unit, so Im not having to replace the batteries all the time. That is a major plus! The sound quality is great in my opinion, its not fuzzy or anything. My old one did have a bit of a static noise to it, so thats a plus as well. The range is good, reaches all the way across the house with no issues. There are other features on it that I havent really messed around with - the vibration on the parent unit and the night light on the kids unit. I just dont find them necessary for my needs. Its about double the price of the one-way monitor, if I remember correctly, but its completely worth it!

I purchased this monitor a few months ago as a second monitor for my 2 year old. Our other monitor (Sony Babycall) is used for our 11 month old. The Sony is awful but lets stick to the current review. I bought the Vtech based on the reviews and price point. I honestly couldnt be happier with this monitor. Its quiet, like really quiet! The audio quality is very clean with no cracks, pops, or hisses. The range is good. Ive walked all around and outside my house with no issues. I havent had some of the issues others have like the connection issues. Every time I power on the device it links within 5 seconds and never breaks the link. Its durable enough. My two year old likes to play with it at every chance she can and it holds up just fine. I really like the unit for its clarity, no annoying pops, cracks, or hisses. The night light feature on the base is a very nice touch. You can set the device to only activate on noise in the room although this feature seems odd as the devices has no feedback at all when this setting isnt chosen. I dont have a lot of white noise in her bedroom. If you do maybe thats the reason for this feature? If I had to nitpick I would say; 1. Volume is a bit on the low side(even at max volume). Its never prevented me from hearing my little girl so take this with a grain of salt unless you have an extremely loud house or hearing issues. 2. The two way talk feature is a bit wonky. You use this feature like the old style walkie talkies. You press the button then speak so your child can hear you on the other end. Sometimes the button has a mind of its own. It always works but you have to press it with a certain amount of pressure. Again, not really an issue for me because it does work, it just has a bit of an attitude just like my two year old. I didnt purchase this unit for the two way talk so I consider this a freebie feature. These are the only reasons I gave it 4 stars. I cant imagine spending $100+ on another unit would get you that much better a product.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

We use a security camera as our video monitor instead of an actual baby monitor. We cant keep the video feed live all night so we got a sound monitor for our room (if she makes a noise, then we check the video monitor to see if shes actually awake). We originally got the cheapest monitor we could find at Target since we were mainly concerned with the video feed and that was a big mistake. The static was terrible. After a few weeks of our horrible monitor, I went to amazon to find one with good reviews. This was the one with the most positive reviews and I have to say, I agree with them. Compared to our other sound monitor, this one is amazing. No static whatsoever, which makes it way easier to hear when she makes a noise (and way easier to sleep when its on). When ordering, I had the choice of getting 1 or 2 parent units. I opted for 1 because it was cheaper (obviously) and figured I could just take it downstairs with me instead of leaving 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs. I wish I had bought 2 units. The battery life is not that great on the parent unit and it even loses charge when its turned off. When I unplug the unit and take it downstairs, it lasts a few hours no problem. But if I dont plug it back in to charge, I cant use it for her 2nd nap (even if Ive only used it the 1st time for a few minutes and I turn it off immediately after Im done using it). It will say it has a full battery when I turn it off, but when I turn it on a gain it will say low battery and continue to beep until I plug it in. That is annoying to me, but not a deal breaker. Overall, great monitor but not a great battery.