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

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

This product works great for us! We use it to monitor our labrador at night. She lightly barks when she needs to go outside for the restroom. We bought this because we all know dogs eat stuff that can upset their stomach and we had a couple of accidents on the floor and so we decided to purchase this product. Last night at 1:30 AM I heard her on the monitor and immediately ran downstairs to let her out. She ran for her potty spot outside immediately and had an awful bowel experience that thankfully was not on the floor in the house. This product paid for itself right there and I know had we not had the monitor there would’ve been poop all over the floor. We also use it for when we take care of our grand children who are sleeping. This was an excellent purchase for us and worth $39 easily.!

UPDATED below Original post: If you dont feel the need for all the bells-and-whistles associated with a video camera monitor (and NO judgment there, we have a paranoid parent breathing mat monitor as well!), I highly HIGHLY recommend this monitor. Specifically, we purchased it for our toddler when our second child came around. This thing is crystal clear, has a fantastic range of options, and is relatively low maintenance. Pros: - the vibrate function - so cool! Lets you know someone is making noise by vibrating. (Might have turned that feature on a few nights while I was up with the newborn, just so my husband could have a slightly more visceral understanding of being awakened, but I digress). - the night light - its really a nice mellow yellow glow and turns off automatically after a few minutes PLUS you can turn the kid unit night light on remotely, which is amazing if theyve lost their water cup somewhere in the bed and need to find it. - the walkie-talkie function is great. Our toddler responds really well if we tell him we have to brush our teeth quickly before getting him up in the morning. Sometimes at night if he wakes up, all he needs to know is that someone loves him and hell go right back to bed with minimal intervention. Cons: - the mute feature does not automatically shut off, meaning that when we mute for a minute late at night, we have to remember in our sleep-deprived fog to un-mute or else we miss some of his noises (is that a con? jury still out...) - battery life - it charges great, but definitely cant run for more than a day without a charge. Not terrible, but not the best on the market. Seriously, if you want an audio monitor, hands down this is my favorite! UPDATE: After using this for a year with our toddler, we purchased another for our infant. I cant tell you how much we love this monitor. I also got one for my parents and in-laws homes. Theyre still holding up great! We recently discovered that the nightlight features is helpful for our toddler too.

Bought this monitor a few months ago. Its great for several reasons: Sound sensitivity: we are first-time parents and like many parenting noobs, purchased an expensive video monitor. Turns out, the main feature we care about is filtering out all of our daughters tiny noises through the night (while still hearing her cries). The video monitor had no such sound filtering - but thankfully, this does. This audio monitor does exactly what we want. I have the sound sensitivity set to the lowest level so I dont hear her weird grunting or loud breathing. Just the cries. I never wake up to non-crying. I have it on volume 3. I tried the vibrate mode but it was too intense and loud for me. Further, Id read in the comments that it filters out the white noise and doesnt alert you to that; that has been true for us, too. The monitor doesnt alert us to the sound of the white noise machine. Good battery. It hasnt died on any night yet. You cant beat the price for the features and reliability. Also, fun hack: baby is now sleeping better so I really only want the monitor on after like 1 am. She occasionally cries in the 9 pm to 11 pm window for a minute or two but goes back to sleep. This is SUPER annoying to wake up to. So I plugged the monitor power cord into our old school christmas tree lights timer. When the monitor is connected to power, it turns on, so I schedule the timer to turn on at 1 am. It connects power, and the monitor turns on. No more early night cries waking me up, only the later night cries that may actually require intervention. Dont know of many babies who do this, but hopefully this helps someone. Its been a lifesaver for us.

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.

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.

Loved these baby monitors Work great

Good

This product imagery/wording is purposely misleading to make you believe its 2 wireless units. There isnt a single cord in any of the images but the baby unit requires one to operate.

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.