Secure Coverage Digital Monitor – 2 Parent Units - Babyphone Discounters

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Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) –

  

Summary: This monitor, redesigned in 2010, is a solid basic monitor with two receivers and has clear sound quality. We have had four monitors with our three kids. Here are six pieces of advice I would give after buying this fourth monitor.

(1) Baby monitors, which are on every night and for naps during the day for years, tend to wear out so it is worth keeping your receipt in case it breaks. With the continual use, it is perhaps understandable that they wear out faster than phones and other electronics.
(2) The documentation on this unit says “copyright Graco 2010″ and all of the Amazon reviews are from 2011. This suggests to me that this was redesigned in 2010 so that those who review this unit and say things like, “We had this unit years ago and it broke” are probably talking about an earlier version of the product. Here’s hoping it has been improved. It seems solid so far.
(3) This is a basic audio monitor with two receivers. It is simple. You set up the transmitter near the baby and then you have two receivers with which to hear the baby. We put one receiver in the kitchen and one in the parents’ bedroom but of course you can put them anywhere and move them around wherever. The receivers also light up and vibrate to notify you the baby is awake but in my experience parents rarely rely on these features. Most all the products have at least the lighting feature.
(4) A basic audio monitor is probably all you need but I would probably get a video monitor today if we were having our first baby because as a new parent you want to see what the child is doing in the crib. Back in 2005 when we had our first baby, video monitors were more expensive and rare.
(5) In addition to this Graco model, Sony, Fisher-Price, The First Years, and Safety 1st have similar audio monitors with two receivers for a similar price on Amazon. (Motorola, Philips Avent, Angelcare and Levana all have basic monitors that come with a single receiver on Amazon).
(6) From my perusing of the reviews, all of the monitors receive mixed reviews–half very good and half very bad. The manufacturers acknowledge that phones, cell phones, radios, televisions, microwaves, wireless networks, and neighbor’s electronics can interfere with the monitors. We have all these sources of potential interference and none of our monitors have had problems with interference. If the monitor you get has interference problems, I would send it back and try a different manufacturer and see if you have better luck. It seems to me from the reviews that all of the products sometimes have these types of problems. I would try to judge the products based on other issues besides interference since the reviews seem to be so contradictory on this issue.

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Bought this when my daughter was 2 months old. Was so easy to set up and I absolutely love that you can plug it in to an outlet because I am horrible at remembering to charge things. If you do unplug it it will stay charged for 8 hours+, just make sure you charge it correctly when you first purchase it. The clarity is amazing. I can hear her over the noise maker in her bedroom when she is wiggling around. She is 6 months old now and I’ve decided to get a monitor with a video screen because I wake her up every time I check on her, but other than that if you do not prefer a screen I highly recommend this product.

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Sue Ellen Sherblom (ARNOLD, MD United States) –

  

I’m sure the model numbers have changed, but this looks identical to the one we bought through Amazon about 4 years ago. For the last two years it has transmitted from a shed-row barn about 225′ from our block house. Throughout the night, we hear every snuffle and glug-glug as clearly as if we were in the barn ourselves. Although the transmitter is protected from the rain and snow, it is subject to the same oppressive humidity levels as anything else above the wet low-end of the property just behind it. The horses require that no climate-control devices be used, so the base unit transmits continuously from an unheated/uncooled barn through temperatures ranging from 15 to 100 degrees. In the summer, an air-circulator drowns out most other sounds, but we can still hear the most important ones. The unit beeps a warning when a power flicker requires that it be reset (unplugged and replugged).

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