We don't have a baby, but I ordered this anyway. I keep the main unit downstairs in my husband's mancave and the listening part upstairs in the living room where I am exiled to watch my reality shows about hoarders and obese people. I can pick it up and shout at my husband ("Are the cats down there with you?) and he hears me and I can hear him answer. Saves me from having to walk down the stairs to his lair and talk to him in person. I can also hear if he has the TV on or is snoring down there. So it's been very useful and works fine like that.
The primary function of this monitor, (which is of course to let you hear inside baby's room), works pretty well. Audio comes through clear with excellent detail. I can easily hear the clock ticking in my daughter's room and her occasional movement in her crib. Although I will say that the range is grossly exaggerated by the manufacturer (2000 ft). We live in a two story house with a finished basement, and the range is sufficient for our indoor use. But outdoor use proved less than reliable as we found we were out of range when positioned at the end of our backyard deck which is less than 200 feet away from the baby's room.
Though not essential, the soft orange light and lullaby music were nice touches. I don't know if they help her fall asleep, but the lullabies do seem to preoccupy her and create a calm, gentle atmosphere, which I think is all you can expect. Being able to start the lullabies remotely is nice. It has saved us from having to get out of bed a few times.
The room thermometer was a great feature for us. Like most multi level houses, our upstairs tends to be hotter than the downstairs. So although the house thermostat may be set at 70, the upstairs rooms can get much warmer, particularly if a bedroom door is closed (which it is when our daughter sleeps). So being able to see the temperature in her room is of great value to us. Others with different style homes may find it less useful though.
Misses:
I find the intercom to be a rather useless feature. Knowing my daughter as I do, if she awakens and/or is crying, it takes more than my voice over an intercom to calm her. When she wakes up, she wants contact. That's just how babies are.
The feeding timer is just silly. Babies eat on their own schedules and they develop their schedules naturally, as they should. Even if the manufacturer only intends this timer to "get you started" in establishing a schedule, then by definition it's a feature of very short lived usefulness. I mean really, who is going to forget to feed their baby anyway? Trust me new parents, baby will let you know when he/she is hungry.
The built-in LED flashlight is a nice concept, but is poorly executed. As another reviewer stated, when you take the parent unit into the baby's room and get anywhere near the baby's unit noisy static ensues, thus defeating the whole purpose of being able to go in without turning on the lights. What good is a flashlight if the baby is awakened by static noise?
In summary, this monitor is a bit of a mixed bag. Does it monitor well? Yes. Can you get monitors that perform that function just as well for less money? Absolutely. So you really have to decide if the extra features such as the lullabies, night light and thermostat are worth the extra money over other more traditional monitors.As other reviews have stated, the LED indicator lights are bright. Not just bright, but light up the entire room bright. It looks like the police have invaded your bedroom. My husband had to tape over the lights for the next few nights until we order a different monitor and can return this one. It's ridiculously bright.
In addition, the sound clarity is not that great. Very crackly. So as a background, I am a mom of 3, this is my bazillionth monitor it seems..
I have had 2 of the simple graco sights and sounds monitors
I have had an annyoning overpriced sound only monitor whose brand name escapes me right now(reviewed here already)
This levana monitor
and my trusty Summer Infant video monitor.
The pros:
Decent range. 2000 feet? Uh, no..we got maybe 50 feet from the house and it went out of range. Not that I am looking to wander 2000 feet from my sleeping child, anyway.
Secure signal. That is cool if you are in a busy area. Honestly, I am not too worried that my local possum, deer or bear will care to snoop in on my conversations!
Temp sensor. Hey that is pretty neat! But I don't keep windows open, nor do I allow my baby's door to be closed so it is a bit of a ho-hum staring at 70 degrees all the time...
Intercom. Yeah that sounds nice in theory. But I have yet to hear of that, or some automatic nightlight or even a couple tunes calming down a needy infant. Maybe my kids were not programmed for that? LOL!
The cons:
The biggest one here is the price for this gadget. The frills, or the fluff as I call it, just don't seem worth the price. A parent armed with a simple 1/5 the price Graco monitor can hear baby just as well and hightail it to baby's room just the same as one with all these timers, buttons and nonesense. Or, if you are just bent on spending money on a monitor and WANT something different then check out the portable video monitors. Those are really nice and I would gladly pay double for them vs. this monitor at this price.
Let's face it. Most times baby cries there is something wrong. I am hungry, wet, lonely, feverish, bored, gassy or in pain. Or sometimes just having a little dream and am talking in my sleep. Most of the time you are going to have to hop on over there to see what is amiss. Of course, at the supposed 2000 feet away I guess you better practice sprinting! A lullabye does not replace the arms of a loving parent no matter how hard you try. So my opinion is go Graco cheapie or go with the video monitor so then you can see if baby is just dreaming. Honestly I went through 2 kids with my little graco monitors and finally upgraded with the 3rd to the Summer Infant video monitor and am thrilled beyond belief since I can use it to keep tabs on my little herd as they learn to play nice with each other.
In the end, you will not be unhappy if you buy this monitor. But IMHO you can spend your money more wisely.
And ETA please, in light of recent sad news on the baby safety frontregardless of your purchase please remember to keep all baby monitor cords OUT OF THE BABY'S reach! :(I purchased the monitor through Amazon and was very pleased with how quickly it arrived. I have 5 kids so I've had quite a few (audio) baby monitors over the years and the clarity of the Levana is among the best. It seems manufacturers are trying to push people into buying the expensive video monitors because the audio-only monitors generally have awful quality, even among manufacturers who sell both audio-only and video monitors.
Anyways, I purchased this monitor to use in my sons' bedroom 2, 5, & 5 year old boys sharing 1 room means that it is common for loud crashes, yelling, and overall craziness. Here's how the monitor sums up:
Pros -
1. Pretty clear audio. I have yet to have this monitor get staticky or offer feedback even when side-by-side with the baby unit or near the parent unit of my Sony baby monitor I use in my baby's room (which is horrible; Sony babyCall monitor has static if it's too close to you, too far away, if our furnace is firing up, and near the Levana monitor....)
2. The two-way talk feature is great for talking to your kids. I don't see this calming down an infant, but it's great for yelling at rambunctious older kids and reminding them you are the eyes and ears in the sky.
3. The Light, flashlight, and Lullaby features: I didn't think I'd really be using any other feature on the monitor aside from the monitor itself and the two-way, but I was surprised when one of the boys woke up with bad dreams how the light and the lullaby comforted him to sleep. I have used the flashlight to check on them before going to bed myself, and never has either the parent or baby unit made a beep despite being very close to each other.
Cons -
1. The indicator lights are BRIGHT. If you are epileptic, these could invoke a seizure. It isn't really noticeable in the evenings when you are up and about, but when you go to bed in a darkened room forget it. We taped over them with masking tape and it did nothing to dim them. I now use duct tape and they are still visible but less so.
2. Re-chargeable battery pack only in the parent unit. Kudos to Levana trying to be a little earth-friendly, but if you aren't around a power outlet to recharge the battery pack you're screwed. It would be nice if you could use either/or batteries in a pinch.
3. 8 hours on 1 charge??? Yeah, okay... this could just be my unit, but I get 3, maybe 4 hours of the unit just being on and it dies. My Sony also has re-chargeable batteries but it easily lasts throughout the day unplugged. If the audio on that one wasn't so bad it'd be great. Anyways, Levana's 8 hour claim is exaggerated in my experience.
4. Temperature reading is inaccurate. We keep our house on the cooler side but the temperature gauge constantly reads a good 8-10 degrees warmer than it actually is. Not a big deal for us since it wasn't a selling point I was interested in, but for those counting on it you may want to look elsewhere.
5. Customer service leaves much to be desired. I emailed customer service regarding the battery life and said I had a newly purchased unit (less than a month) but had serious issues with battery life and thought it might be faulty. I asked if I could get a replacement battery pack or a secondary parent charging unit so I'm not running around plugging and unplugging the single one I have from room to room. I received a auto-response saying I'd get a response in 1 business day.
Almost a WEEK later I received the actual reply: "Thank you for sending us an e-mail about this problem. A second charging base can be purchased through our support department for $20.00 for the unit and $10.00 shipping. If you would like to purchase this base, please call us at 1-866-946-7828 monday Friday 8:15am 5pm." That's it. REALLY?!? $30 for a charging base? That's more than half the price of the entire system! Also, no mention about sending me a replacement battery pack or addressing my issues with it at all, basically they seem to only be interested in making more money off you and have zero interest in actually helping you. After spending nearly $60 on the item you would think they could be a little more accomodating to their valued customers.
Bottom line: Good monitor for older children, some nice features, bad battery life, and useless customer service. If everything works it's great! But if you have any problems you're out of luck with Levana, unless you pay for their support.
Edit: I replied to Levana and called them out for my complaints mentioned above, demanded a replacement battery pack as my unit was 2 weeks old and under warranty. This time I received a more timely response. The customer service agent apologized and used the excuse that they were training new CS agents and so sometimes their inexperience shows through yet both emails were sent from the same agent so that excuse is bull. Anyways, he tried to troubleshoot the battery issue and then offered to send me a replacement pack (with my proof of purchase). I emailed a copy of my amazon invoice and another battery pack is on its way to me. I just hope I don't have any further issues.
Edit 5.14.12: I continued to use the original battery pack until it wouldn't hold a charge anymore wouldn't charge at all OR turn on About 2 months after purchase...sad. The new battery is no better than the old battery. I have the unit on the charger all day long (off), then remove from the charger and turn it on when the kids go to bed. Somewhere between 1.5 2 hours later the unit is already beeping LOW BATTERY. You would think I was serenading my kids through the intercom for the last hour or something...but no...just sitting on my coffee table turned on is enough to burn through the battery. Because of this I'm taking away a star. Too bad, because this monitor has a lot of potential.
Edit 7.21.12: This baby monitor is a POS. It woke me up at 4am beeping the low battery warning despite currently sitting on the charger for the last 4+ hours. I thought maybe it somehow got jostled and the metal contacts weren't touching, so I removed and reinserted it on the base. It stopped beeping and the screen indicated it was charging. I rolled over to go back to sleep. 5-10 minutes later, I noticed in the darkness of my bedroom that something was blinking on the walls. Rolled back over, and power light was blinking. The unit turned itself off without any warning. If I wasn't awake, I'd have no idea it was off and just assume my kids were blissfully sleeping b/c the monitor was silent. I played around with the battery and charger for almost an hour, could not get it to turn back on. Base charging light would come on, but parent unit wasn't registering the charge. Extremely pissed, I emailed Levana at 5am. I received a response later that day that they were sending me ANOTHER battery. 3rd battery in 6 months for this unit those who are keeping track.
I received the battery yesterday (Fri), and immediately installed it in the device and put it on the charger. Despite charging un-disrupted 30+ hours later, SURPRISE! The unit still doesn't turn on. Levana support is only available M-F, so I'm SOL for the rest of the weekend.
I am fine saying that overall it's a good product and I probably just got a dud, however Levana support is AWFUL. They'll keep firing off battery packs until my 1 year warranty has expired before they'll ever actually replace my unit. In which case I will just resell them on eBay or something because this is ridiculous.
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