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 ordered this because I wanted a baby monitor. I didnt want anything wifi enabled (because my cable company isnt the best and weve been known to just lose internet service in the middle of the night). I wanted something slightly better than the baby monitors they had when I was growing up and I had a baby brother sleeping down the hall (I.e. No cordless phone interference). These days companies seem to have worked out that whole everything wireless is on the same frequency debacle so I figured this should be no sweat. This unit set up quickly and is pretty darn sensitive. When my daughter sucks her thumb, it gets picked up on the monitor. I was nearly scared off of this item by some of the negative reviews. Once I established that it worked, I decided to run a few experiments with the sensitivity using the bathroom fan. In a quiet room, the thing is awesome. When you turn down the sensitivity to accommodate say, a white noise machine/air purifier/fan/air conditioner, it begins to show some weakness. Why? Because the sensitivity is based upon volume. If the baby crying doesnt exceed the new threshold youve set, the monitor wont pick up the sound. If the room is heavy on white noise, then you have two choices: a constant flow of white noise on the monitors parent unit or turn down the sensitivity so that only the louder cries will be heard. This isnt a limitation on the unit. It isnt able to distinguish between air conditioner and baby noises. It picks up sound over a certain decibel level. That isnt a flaw. Thats that slight improvement over the units from 20 years ago I was hoping for. If you are running lots of white noise in the room, you may need to switch to video monitors. Or you may just have to deal with the monitor blasting white noise into your room in hopes of picking up every whine and whimper. But if thats your situation, it isnt really the monitors fault for not adapting to your environment (it would be like hanging up a flat screen TV crooked and then writing a negative review for the TV saying the picture is slanted). Its a good monitor. Clear sound and very responsive to baby noises. It may not completely change the way you parent, but they never made that claim.

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.

I really like the simplicity of this device. It’s easy to set up and use and does what it promises. The battery life is very poor. I get a few hours out of a newly purchased device.

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.

Everything is great about this monitor except the battery life. You pretty much have to constantly charge it. The other features are great though, I love that you can choose the level of sound that it will start making noise at. The sound is clear even from across the room. The nightlight is nice, but not super bright so it is hard to use it for a diaper change, but still good

Easy to setup and operate. Excellent product

Good

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.

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!

I needed to be able to hear my mom from her room, which is on the other side of the house, if she needed help. Had a different monitor previously, but it had a lot of static. This V-Tech works so well. It has 5 volume settings and I able to hear her movement sounds so I know she’s up and about. She feels more relaxed and confident that I can hear her in the middle of the night now. We also like the talk feature on the base unit, because I can let her know I hear her and am on my way to assist her.