Customer Reviews

Chamberlain Reporter RIFMS2 Wireless Flush-Mount Intercom, Pair

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had two of these and just bought two more. They rock. Perfect sound and clarity across the house. We just moved to a new house and pulled the two we had right out of the wall and filled up the hole with drywall and spackle. No need to unhook wires and all that. Love these. They are great for parents who get sick of going upstairs or across the house to talk to the kids when they are in their rooms with the door closed and music on or what have you. If you want an intercom system, these are perfect. And the batteries haven't died since we got our first set Dec 2006. They supposedly last 3 years or so. Just D batteries.

One con is that when make your first inquiry to talk it blasts to every intercom in the house. When the person you are wanting to talk to responds back from the other intercom, it then becomes a two way conversation, but if you have one in a room where someone is napping, they are going to hear that first inquiry. Hope this makes sense.

Update 6/15/11 - Our house burned down and I looked to replace these and found they are discontinued. Why why why would they do that. The replacements they offer get horrible reviews and can't be cut into the wall. I'm so disappointed. Been searching eBay constantly for used ones. Nothing. Dangit. No idea why they would quit making this wonderful product.

Bought these to put one in the house and one in hubby's workshop on the other side of the yard.

Didn't have to cut into any wallboard to flush mount these intercom sets--we went to the 99-cent store and bought cheap frames whose dimensions fit the backs of these intercom units. If the frame you find is not deep enough for the unit plus the battery pack on the back, buy two 99-cent frames for each unit, then glue the two frames together. Wow! Got a great looking wall-mount intercom that can easily be taken off the wall for battery replacement, to use it temporarily in another location, mount it in another place, etc.

The clarity of voice that comes out of the speakers is great! NO fast-food speakers here--these have very clear, understandable sound transmission. Highly recommend!

The intercom set is specifically for "cutting holes in the wall". That's ok, if it is your intention. However, I was looking for the outside door unit, and I cannot cut a hole into brick. In searching for a quality, clear sounding intercom system, I was willing to pay little more.

The intercom units must be "taught" to each other to form an intercom network. So you need to hold down buttons simultaneously, etc. etc. It may help if you have another person so you can separate the two units while trying to get it to work. There are four channels and if you need another intercom, it is compatible. The sound is clear without interference. It seems to cover the 1000 limit. I tested the sound throughout a huge yard and it works.

Don't get too frustrated with getting this going. Instructions are only as good as whoever wrote them. So you will be challenged. I was seriously about to give up. So I offered the challenge to my husband and promised that if he got it working, he would earn the title "chief tech of the house!" He did it with less frustration than I had and was about to give up too! It works! Rizzo

These work perfectly! Large house (5100 SQ/Ft) and they reach every corner without any static or drop outs! Only challenge was programming. Hints:
Take them all out of wall frames and bring to one room
If you can not get them all to talk, you may have made a mistake and programmed to sep channels (we bought 6 and this is easier to do than you think)
The best thing to do if stuck is to "clear memory" by holding down talk/channel buttons together for 15 secs. You will here a lower tone beep than normal and you will know that the memory is clear
After that pull one of the center batteries out and set aside
Do this for all pieces until all are cleared
Start over using instructions by adding batteries to just 2 of the intercoms - never add batteries to intercoms that you are not programming immediately!
Make sure you hold down talk/channel buttons for at least 5 seconds - not shorter and a little longer is OK
Make sure that after you set one to "learn mode", that you get the other in that mode within 10 secs
Make sure you let them "do thier thing" for at least 20-30 seconds before moving to next intercom to add to network as the instructions do not tell you it takes a few seconds to complete the process
As you hold down the talk/channel buttons to set existing intercoms into learn mode, the others that are already programmed (and are laying nearby) will squeal loudly with feedback - ignore it as it last just 2-3 seconds until the unit you are setting to learn goes into learn mode and you can let go of buttons!
The screws that hold the frame into the wall were VERY hard to get into the nylon/brass bushings in 1 of every 4 screws - I used a pair of pliers to hold the bushing and pre-start the screws before putting frame in wall. If you do not do this you will certainly break the tabs off on the frame when you put torque on screws during install
When cutting the hole in the wall . . . use a cardboard template you can make yourself by laying a 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper on a large piece of thin cardboard - trace around the paper onto the cardboard, cut it out and them measure the reccomdended install hole onto your nice and square template cardboard. Set a small level on top of cardboard during install and use your pencil to trace along bottom of cardboard on wall. Remove level, reposition cardboard on mark you made on wall and trace around entire template
Always make your horizontal cut first . . . that way in case there IS a 2x4 in the way of that 6" cut, you can stop cutting and all you have to fill in is the one slice with wallboard compound. Mounted all of these at light switch height about 50" from floor to base of cutout opening.
Summary: these are awesome, will buy more, tough to program!

First pair arrived DOA (minus one star) and took an hour with tech support before everyone gave up, but the next pair came and I set it up in under a minute.

Here's a hint: the instructions tell you to install each one (which usually means separating them), THEN set it up, but to do that, you have to use both units at nearly the same time, and that would take two people. So instead, to do it all yourself, do it in the REVERSE order. With both units sitting in front of you, press and hold the two big buttons (Talk and Channel) on ONE unit for about 3 seconds - until you've heard the second beep (about 3 seconds after you pressed both buttons - they beep when you press them, but wait a few seconds for the second beep), then let go. Then, within ten seconds, do the exact same thing on the other unit - press and hold both buttons for about 3 seconds or so (until you hear the second beep) and then let go.

That's it, you're done.

To test them, just press and briefly hold the talk button with the units next to one another. You'll hear a very loud noise: the two units are creating feedback if they are working.

Now you can install them in the wall or the door of a cabinet, or you can buy a cheap frame or two for each unit and use that as a desk mount.

UPDATE 3/2009: After 6 months, the second unit broke, with almost no use at all. I'm sorry to say that this product is just too unreliable, and you should not purchase it. I wish I could recommend another.

I bought a pair of these REPORTER Wireless Flush-Mount Intercoms so as to be able to answer the bell outside our large foyer doors without exposing ourselves to strangers and salespeople. I was really very surprised how clear the sound was - no static, hiss or walkie-talkie shreechiness. Very, very cool!

Before I permanently mounted these, I tried an experiment. We own a very large home and I tested these units from our garage to the furthest bedroom about 120 feet away - and with four intervening walls between the units. They worked beautifully, with no dimunition in sound quality or signal strength.

These units are designed to be recessed mostly into drywall in the interior home. However, if one has some basic word-working skills, simple mitered frames can be made for them and then attached to the wall, thus avoiding a permnanent 4.5" x 6.5" hole in the wall you might later regret. That size hole is not easy to repair, believe me, and framing the units also makes them a lot more portable should you later wish to change the location of the intercom[s]. I also chose this method of mounting to avoid cutting a hole through stucco on the exterior wall. Then I fastened the frame with two long molly bolts. This is a protected entryway, so I am not worried about the exterior mount.

A word of caution: The frames must be at least 1 3/4" deep to accommodate these units. I ripped 2 by 4 douglas fir to size and grooved the inside of the frame (saw blaxe width) to accommodate the four mountig hold-down tabs which hold the unit to the mounting plate. Study how this mounting arrangement works before you make that frame. It has to be exactly 4.5" x 6'5" on its inside dimension, and the groove cut about dead middle on the inside of the frame.

I bought 4 units. Once they were set up then have worked very well. In that respect they would rate as a 5 star. However, the setup of these 4 units was very trying, exasperating and frustrating. To make the units communicate with each other you must establish a network by following some ridiculous steps. First, I tried to get 2 units to communicate by following the steps in the manual. It did not work. After trying several times I called customer service at Chamberlain, the current manufacturer. After two extended calls to them, I finally got two units to work. Then I tried to get the other two to work in the network with the same frustrating problems. After two more phone calls to CS, got accidently disconnected. I was ready to send them back, but thru persistence and a great amount of luck I finally got all 4 where they could communicate. The installation in the wall was rather easy and the intercom system is a very professional looking and acting system. Chamberlain needs to come up with a better way to make these units work together. Through written instructions would have helped. Considering the difficulty I had setting things up and the hours spent doing so, I would rate the setup as a 1 star. Once set up, the system would rate 5 stars. I gave it an overall 4 star rating because of the overall performance.

We own two homes and put these in our beach house so we didn't have to yell all the time from the third floor to the ground floor; initially a little tricky to get each unit linked to the other but after a little trial and error they were all up and working in short order. We were so impressed with the clarity and simplicity of these we ordered more to have one in each bedroom too. BUT, simplicity, which has it's advantages, can be TOO simple sometime...

...if you forget to switch back to ALL channels after calling a single station, you may be calling the single station when you meant to page all or a different station. Since there are only four, it can work well for four stations but we have 6 in one house and 12 in another home.

...lack of handsfree response, which IS possible since they make a front door unit (we have that too) would be a significant benefit. When calling someone, THEY must come to the intercom and press the button to respond. Most wired intercoms (considerably more expensive and not wireless) offer this feature - since Chamberlain offers a front door unit that allows handsfree, couldn't they incorporate that technology into this unit?

...design, while simple and neutral, could be a bit more modern looking, perhaps LCD for channels, different colors (at least two or three.) The face plates are ok looking for most homes but lack a hi-tech appearance and almost look a little old fashioned or dated in their appearance, depending on your perspective. Picky, I know, but that is how I see it. In our case not enough of an issue to not buy them - the benefits far outweight the cosmetics.

...outside units should, like the front door unit, be allowed to be excluded from the all call feature; we have one on a patio and another in a storage shed and they blast away during the initial ALL CALL until someone answers and locks in the private conversation - very annoying. If they can exclude the front door unit there should be a way to exclude the (Black) outside units.

...batteries - so far, great - we have been using them in both homes now for over a year and a half and I have yet to replace batteries in any unit. Since we use the units in our primary home every day, that's a very good track record - honestly I thought I would have to replace these every few months. One feature that does kind of potentially concern me - when the batteries do go bad, supposedly they give a warning beep - I can hardly wait for that to start at 3AM in our bedroom. I guess that is the price you pay for wireless and battery operation. Considering the quality, a small sacrafice - not sure I'll say that the morning I am awakened by a "chirp!" but we'll have to see - I guess I could just arbitrarily change the batteries every so often but that seems wasteful.

As I mentioned, we have a dozen of these in our primary home - one in almost every room and we do find them invaluable. But the limited channels (4) pretty much require us to us the "ALL CALL" 99% of the time at our primary home and as a result, you have to disturb people in other rooms that you are not calling at all - the good news is that once the other party you are trying to reach answers, it does lock in the two to a private conversation - that is it's saving grace.

So, owning 18 of these, I think it's safe to say we like them - alot - versus having to buy a $4,000 wired intercom (with CD/Radio and many more features - but...) and have an electrician run the wires through multiples walls. That alone would be another grand or two. So yes, these are simple but they do the job and the clarity is excellent - they can be interconnected with Chamerlains gate openers and driveway alert units, so they have much functionality given their size and costs - a great deal. Watch out though, the prices on the Internet and eBay are all over the place - best price we ever found was about $53/ea (usually sold in pairs) - which is a great deal but I've seen these at nearly double that price too.

Honestly, if Chamberlain were smart, they would make an upgraded "PRO" version of these, with some more features (handsfree would be #1 on my list!) and LCD screen (I know, batteries are the issue but given how little juice LCD uses and the already long battery life, why not?) A flush mount or thinner profile front door unit would be nicer than what is currently offered, one that looks more like it was built-in (as the inside units look.)

All in all, a 4 star product but it could be a 5 PLUS star unit with just a little upgrading / re-engineering and design/cosmetic enhancements. In fact they could run Nutone out of business on theirs unless people just have to have CD/radio playback, a nice feature that batteries simply could not handle.

I had a total of 8 these. We just moved to a new house and installed these throughout the house, and garages. SOund clarity is clear. Its wonderful not to have to yell upstairs. Its so nice to push a button and you can be heard easily. It saves alot of walking :)

These are such a safety item for people are working in their garage alone--workshop or for an older person who is ill, children in their rooms--they can easily let you know they need something.

If you need an intercom system this is the one!!!

I would definitely recomend this product.

We purchased a pair of these wireless intercoms for new house construction based on the positive Amazon customer reviews. As others have said, these intercoms do what they say and work fine... once you get them set up correctly. (I'm an engineer and read the instructions, but it took a few trials with errors before the two units would talk to each other. Just about every reviewer has had this problem too, so Chamberlain needs to do more work here.) If you don't want to mount them in a wall, you can stand them on a topless box, or as one reviewer suggested, you can mount them in cheap picture frames.

We don't have enough time on these units to know if the batteries really last for 5 years. I've had Duracell batteries leak within a year, so I advise making a repeating "To-Do" in your PDA to remind you to change the batteries once a year. (And not using Duracell brand batteries.)

Since I consider myself an expert on ergonomics, let me share what could be better about this unit. The TALK button should be THE largest button on the unit. It isn't.

What is the button you'll press most often on an intercom? Why, the talk button, of course. And naturally, when someone calls you, your hands will be full or your glasses will be off. You want a big fat TALK button that you can hit without missing... maybe with your elbow. But this unit's TALK button is the same size as it's fellow button. Not a good design.

After the talk button, what is the next most frequent button you'll use on an Intercom? Why, the Volume button, of course. But for some bizarre reason, to adjust the volume on this unit you have to press TWO buttons at once, the TALK and CHANNEL. And then you only have a few levels to choose from.

I'm not sure why Chamberlain engineers felt a Channel button was so important. I know they wanted to minimize buttons and moving parts, but this thing needs 4 buttons to be ergonomic. A large TALK button; a dedicated up/down Volume button; and then a Channel button. If they wanted to integrate Channel with, say, Volume down while holding Talk, that would be an okay compromise. As we only have a pair (so far), there's no need for us to ever change channels. I suspect that's true of most of their customers. Even when we buy more, I don't see the need to change channels. It's not like we're going to be having long conversations on the things where you need to go off channel so as to not bug others. If we buy their Outdoor unit for the doorbell, I suppose we might need to go off channel every now and then, but I'd rather have dedicated up/down volume buttons than a dedicated Channel button.