What baby monitor do you use, love or hate.

Kurrant

So I was given a baby monitor and I hate it. It's a Motorola digital baby monitor (MBP20) with the base and hand held unit. It isn't in color which it says it is. The wifi cuts out and when that happens I need to turn it off and on to get the sound working again. The base unit can't be wall mounted like it should be because it slowly droops and needs to be readjusted all the time. The picture quality is terrible anyways! You can't see if baby is awake, asleep, turning purple from lack of air, or slowly transforming into an alien! You would have no clue what's going on in that bassinet! It's rediculous! It doesn't have an option that leaves the sound on all the time. It's activated based on level of noise... And that baby needs to be screaming her head off to get it to go off so I am constantly clicking it back on to hear what's going on. the battery on the hand unit needs to be charged 3+ times a day so I now leave it plugged in all the damn time. Oh yea and I know I said this but the connection drops!   This is ONE ROOM away from where Lucy is sleeping... It's not like I'm across the house or outside gardening. It just drops for no reason!   


Now now that I have sufficiently ranted about this garbage item i was wondering what monitors other people have and if it's great or horrible? We are going to get a new one but want to be sure it's good. We certainly need one before we move her into her own room.  DH wants to just get a Bluetooth web cam and hook it up to our phones but I'm not sold on this idea.   

proudparent2b

I'm pretty happy with my Angel brand monitoring system through test runs. However, it's sound only- no monitor feature.

hellogoodbye2

Hated the BRU brand monitor
Love the VTech monitor

araecasey

We started with the angel care ac1200: hate. For the same reasons you mentioned. If our WiFi was choppy, the monitor wouldn't work. And it streams to our phones, which streaming all night long drains a phone battery even if it's plugged in. Not safe in the least. 

Now we use summer infant, color screen, wide view, multiple camera compatible, non WiFi. The only thing I wish it had now that DD's a toddler is a talk back feature. The days she keeps herself awake playing in her crib or she puts off sleep asking for a drink a million times, I wish I had that talk back feature so I don't have to haul my super pregnant butt up and down the stairs every time to go tell her to give it up and go to sleep. 

Kurrant

@araecasey Soooo I didn't know any came with talk back feature! That would be handy in the future! 

TXmamatobe

We have the summer infant wide view with multiple cameras as well and we love it! Easy to mount, we've never had a reception problem and clear color picture during the day with "night vision" at night. Love it. 

Eta: the model we have does have a talk back feature 

lalala2004

@kurrant we have a Motorola, too, though I'm not sure what model. Ours works perfect: Maybe you got a lemon? I'd try contacting Motorola and maybe they can send you a new one. Ours does have the talk back feature, so I guess we have a different one.

We were wary about any monitors that worked on wifi. As nice as it is to use your phone, there have been instances of people hacking into them and looking at them and talking through them! So creepy! Also, if your wifi goes out for any amount of time, then you don't have a monitor. Just something to think about.

Bltbear82

We've had three different Motorola monitors, our latest one is the 854 model and my favorite. It has a wide screen, really great night vision, talk back etc. but the main issue we've had with all of them is the terrible battery life. It seems to be a really common issue with the Motorola monitors. It's not a huge issue for me with our toddler because I just plug it in and leave the monitor charging with the sound all the way up, but I remember when he was a baby I was constantly checking the monitor and draining the battery so that wasn't an option. I haven't started researching a new monitor yet because our current one works really well aside from the battery.  

Does anyone have any experience using two cameras in separate rooms but using the same monitor handset? 

TXmamatobe

We have two separate cameras in different rooms with one handset using the summer infant wide view. You can choose for one camera to display continuously or you can choose an automatic cycle between rooms. 

araecasey

@Bltbear82 Yep! Our monitor does a 3 second cycle between cameras. It can have up to 4 cameras.

araecasey

This is what we have: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Digital-Color-Monitor/dp/B00I3K1D00/ref=pd_bxgy_75_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0S7AA1MMS47WDZC40VAE

This is what I wish we'd gotten: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHRH07U

camillaandcarson

Motorola. Love it because it can cover the newborn bassinet and also the toddler in the toddler bedroom at the same time. I like how it tells the temp too. 

sillyfox

We have a Motorola also. I love it! It is in color when there is light in baby's room, but the night vision is more like black & white - is that what you mean by it isn't in color? Ours can pan & zoom, has better battery life than the last Motorola we had (but I still leave it on the charger all day/night except when I first put DD down at night and want to spy on her, then I take it with me when I go to bed and just charge it on the nightstand). It has talkback but now that DD is almost 2 I'm trying to save that to put fear in her if she tries to climb out of her crib or something, although I use it occationally if DH is in there with her and I just want to relay a quick message ("Please use some butt rash cream!" or "Her medicine is on the bookshelf" etc lol)

I agree, maybe you got a lemon! Especially since it is so new, I would try exchanging it or at least calling Motorola!

Here's the one I have:

https://www.target.com/p/motorola-mbp38s-2-digital-video-baby-monitor-with-two-cameras/-/A-49134356?registryId=c34wW5TpgYwCAxnr8vwYIg&regTitle=Sara's&regMode=REGST&rType=R&itemLineNum=125&reqQty=1&regPurQty=1&regPage=RMI&preSelFlag=1&cr=true

Bltbear82

Thanks @araecasey!