Summer Infant Deluxe Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen, Blue
by Summer Infant, Inc.
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Summer Infant Deluxe Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen, Blue
Customer Review: Excellent choice! We love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
I spent 2 to 3 hours reading reviews of baby monitors on Amazon before we bought this one. It became clear that a video monitor is the only way to go. This one had the best reviews, no doubt about it. We are very glad we made this purchase. We could not be happier. From what I read, there are defintiely some junky video baby monitors out there selling for just as much money as this one, so be careful!
My wife runs on a treadmill in the basement in the morning, trying to get this done before our baby wakes up. The baby's room is on the second floor. The picture and sound comes through great.
A sound monitor tells you that you need to check on the baby. The video allows you to check without running up the stairs or getting out of bed. This lets my wife finish her workout or stay in bed and get some much needed rest. Also, if our baby wakes up and gets a little fussy, but is likely to go back to sleep on her own, my wife can check on her without going into the room which would really wake her up and have my wife up with her for another hour or more.
The sound on this is incredible. It picks me up in the driveway as I am leaving in the morning. The picture is not high definition, but it is plenty serviceable and much better than what I have read of reviews of other similar products. The night vision is wonderful. It does go to black and white, but it looks like there is a bright light shining on her when there are no lights on in the room.
We rank this very high on the list of essential big-ticket baby items: crib, car seat and this baby monitor.
To sum up: buy a video monitor, not just an audio monitor, and buy this one.
Customer Review: Still working great after 2 1/2 years
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought this before my daughter was born. The picture is amazing (although if you don't have a spotlight on her you're not going to see anything near the vibrant color... but, really, is vibrant color why you're buying this) I could see my baby's chest rise and fall. But better than anything is the amazing quality of sound you get coupled with the picture.
This has saved me sooo many times from running upstairs or it made me have to go upstairs because I can hear even the faintest variation of her breathing pattern and I don't even have the volume up all the way and the camera is at least 5ft-6ft away from her. The other nice touch is that the infrared camera is green (not red). At first annoying, but my daughter doesn't even notice it and it doesn't hinder her sleep.
I have two handhelds of the same exact product and bought an additional camera and handheld and camera (Summer) that were NOT the same model and they integrated seamlessly. Also very easy to pack up and set up anytime she spends the night with someone/somewhere else.
Over the past 6 months the sound began to "tick" a bit (annoying when you're trying to sleep) but it didn't do that on all handhelds so we just switched them out. Lastly, all are now plugged in. You get much clearer reception both voice and picture quality. Now that I'm out of the newborn stage I don't feel I need to "see" her all the time as long as I can hear her.
I did a lot of research before purchasing and hands down this is the best monitor out there including other less expensive Summer monitors (friend has one and has had to return hers 3-4 times).
Customer Review: Instructions and some video features suck!
Summary: 3 Stars
Works well except when it is disconnected from the wall plug the video stays on only 3 minutes then goes blank and you have to tap the button on top to turn it back on.
There was nothing in the instructions about this, and it didn't show or even address the button on top. I discovered it and its use accidentally when the screen went blank when I tried to carry it with me and I started pushing and things to get a response.
Instructions say not to leave it plugged in all the time as it wears down the battery. However, when I wrote to the company to complain about it turning off, I was sent an email telling me that it goes off to save the battery!
Doesn't really work well for us, as my father wanted to take the monitor with him in his walker around their apartment (my 102 year old mother has alzheimer's and she has to be watched at all times). They want to conyinue to live in their apartment but only have help twice a day during mealtimes, so he is responsible the rest of the day and night.
Having to punch the top every 3 minutes is a real hassle for him if he is doing a task or wants to set it on the counter when he takes it to the kitchen or bathroom (he is 99 and on continuous oxygen).
The picture is OK and the size of the screen is OK. The camera slides easily when touched which takes the view off my mother's bed, and there is no way to secure it, so we used scotch tape to fasten it to the top of the dresser.
For $175.00 it is not worth the money because of these problems. I expected something with better features and especially better instructions.
Customer Review: Not worth the money at all!
Summary: 1 Stars
I had always used a traditional monitor with my older two children, but when I had our third, my mother bought this for us. She got the camera and monitor system, as well as an extra camera so I can watch both the baby's room and my older two children, who share a room. From the start, I was highly disappointed. First of all, this is toted as a color monitor, but if you use two cameras, only one of them comes through in color. Also, the image quality is very poor and constantly interrupted by static. The monitor itself would only work for about 1 or two hours unplugged, when it says on the box it works for much longer on the battery, so I would have to move the cord around to keep it plugged in. As if this weren't bad enough, wfter about one month of use, the video picture stopped working entirely unless it was plugged in. I could not believe that after spending about $250 on this system, it only worked for one month. When I called customer service, I was initially told that the problem could be because we were using two cameras. I found this to be ridiculous since this is marketed as being able to monitor two rooms at once, and they have no problem charging $80 for an extra camera. Eventually, I had to ship back the defective units, during which time I did not have a monitor for any of my children, including our infant, and I was sent another unit. This one does work while unplugged, but the video quality is still extremely poor, riddled with static if anyone moves in the room, and only one camera comes through as color. I wish I had saved my parents $250 and just stuck with the regular monitor!Customer Review: "Color" Monitor
Summary: 4 Stars
Love it, with hesitations. The monitor is never really in color, because it's never full daylight in the rooms with the cameras when I'm monitoring my kids (naptime, and night-time). So, it really probably isn't worth it to get the "color" screen, as it's always in night vision mode if the shades are drawn. Even in dawn light, it's still not in color. Second, the brightness mode isn't really that helpful. There's not enough definition between the intensity levels for it to make much of a difference on the screen. Would be nice if they could do a better job with that, as my older monitor by Summer has several knobs to play with to adjust the screen brightness. Also, I have 2 cameras (had one before this purchase for my older Summer monitor), so I use both A and B channels to monitor rooms for both my kids. It's not so bad at naptime to flip back and forth between the channels to see how they're doing, but it's totally useless at night to try to switch between the 2 cameras. You would never know what the second kid is doing unless you manually switch between the channels, and who's awake enough to do that very often? So, I ended up using my other old monitor to watch Channel A at night, and use the new monitor to watch Channel B. Lastly, it's kind of a nice feature to have the camera automatically shut off. But, if you want it on all night, it will stay on, as long as you have it plugged in. I've had a little problem with static with one of the cameras, but the other one is fine. I generally just have to move the unit to the right or left a little bit for it to work better.