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

***Update!! After 20 months of use. This monitor still works! Im impressed for the price. However, we recently moved and now have issues daily with the parent unit becoming unlinked from the baby unit.. even when we are in the next room! If we move it closer, it will link back up. Sometimes it will link again on its own. So thats a bit disappointing. The other issue we have, is the battery of the parent unit does not last. We now plug it in every time our son is awake, and unplug when hes sleeping to use. Doing this keeps it charged enough not to die. However its always at 1 or 2 battery level. Also, we have to keep it on ALL the time. Even if it has a full battery, when we turn it off itll turn back on and display low battery and need to be plugged in. While these issues arent deal breakers, they are annoying. But again, for the price Im impressed with how well its held up. Our toddler loves to play with it, the handle on top of the parent unit is cracked, but the screen works still! Still recommended if youre looking for a quality baby monitor for daily use that wont get too much abuse. *original review: Weve had our monitor for a few weeks now and Im pretty happy with our purchase. For the money, its worth it. We bought it as a supplement to our video monitor (we bought a WiFi one so our long distance family could see our little boy) and only needed something for use while hes napping. It works when the baby unit is upstairs and our parent unit is downstairs and on the patio with us, so the range is perfect. We havent had any issues with the screen dying or it breaking at all. The volume is loud enough for us to hear him when were spending time with loud company. And the sensitivity settings make it so we can hear him when he cries but not listen to his rock and play rocking in the background. My only complaint is the battery dies relatively fast, after using it for a few hours it displays low battery and needs to be charged.

So I’ve had this monitor for a few months now, it’s got great sound but that’s not to say you can leave it in another room and expect to hear it very well. You can adjust the sensitivity for how much sound you want it to pick up. I have mine set to the highest sensitivity so if I leave my fan running in the room my baby is in, I can hear the fan but I also can hear baby just as much. You can talk through the parent monitor and the sound comes out of the baby monitor so you can talk to your baby if they are into that. Baby monitor does need to be plugged in in order for it to turn on but the cord is long enough so it shouldn’t be a problem. I do recommend that as soon as you start setting it up, first thing you want to do is turn off the parent advisory speech it gives the parent monitor every time it gets powered on. I didn’t mind it during the day but when I’d go to work at 6am and turn it on for my mom, I would try lowering it down when it came to that part but it was quiet during that time which made the speech it gave still be loud. It took me a good few days to turn off the speech, the instructions are a little confusing on how to turn it off but I figured it out somehow. Overall it’s a good baby monitor for the price and it’s both have been dropped on the floor multiple times and they still work without problems. They are very durable.

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.

Church nursery workers wanted to be able to hear the sermon. Instead of wireless speakers (bad reviews) or running wires (not really feasible) these work great. These are placed approximately 90 ft apart and the sound is amazing.

Not overly happy

Perfect to help me know if my older Mom needs help at night or simply falls.

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.

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.

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.

I dont need to be in the area to here what happening. I use the monitor as a security device in my garage, its about 300 feet away.