The First Years: Clear and Near 2.4 GHz Monitor

by The First Years

Product Features

• Range up to 1,500 feet, move around and stay connected with your baby
• Supersensitive sound, hear even the quietest sounds
• Parent unit pager, no more searching for lost receivers
• Belt clip on back makes unit easy to wear
• Offers 2 channels to maximize clarity

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.8 x 10 x 11 inches ; 1.7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• ASIN: B0000E3BTH
• UPC: 071463039692
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,350 in Baby (See Top 100 in Baby)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)

Product Description

Utilizing the highest radio technology frequency available, the Clear and Near 2.4 GHz Monitor offers superior reception for listening in on your baby. Virtually free of static, the GHz transmissions are also less likely to be picked up by neighboring phones or receivers. Includes 3 "AA" rechargeable batteries.

Features:

• Range up to 1,500 feet lets you move around and stay connected with your baby
• Super-sensitive sound allows you hear even the quietest sounds
• Ultimate privacy and clarity assures no interference from 900 MHZ phones
• Parent unit pager means no more searching for lost receivers
• Belt clip on back makes the unit easy to wear
• Offers two channels to maximize clarity

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

345 of 351 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We've FINALLY found our monitor!!!, February 26, 2004

By 

L. Klepzig (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The First Years: Clear and Near 2.4 GHz Monitor (Baby Product)

Our search for a baby monitor resulted in several weeks of buying and returning over $300 worth of models. At last, however, we tried The First Years Clear and Near 2.4GHz monitor. I think we have a winner!

We were surprised because things went so smoothly with the purchase of our first monitor, a Safety First Crystal Clear 49MHz model, three years ago. We bought two sets on clearance for $10 each, and they work flawlessly!

During our search this time, we quickly discovered that other 49MHz models caused a lot of interference with our first monitor set, even when set to different channels. We were able to get marginally acceptable results after moving the units from outlet to outlet within our house, but the static was still loud enough to be bothersome, and we worried that we wouldn't hear the baby over it.

We then tried several 900MHz monitors. Many of these claim better reception than 49MHz models, but really it seems to be dependent on the nature of other electronic equipment in your home and neighborhood. For example, we had pretty good results with the Sony Baby Call 27 channel 900MHz model during the daytime, but during the evening when more of our neighbors were home using more electronics (such as cordless phones), we had so much interference as to make this model completely useless--even after cycling through the 27 available channels. Other 900MHz models had similar results.

Also, we found several 900MHz models that use "background noise cancellation" in order to conserve batteries. This was a feature that we absolutely hated. There were times that these would mistake our daughter's cries as "background noise" and not transmit, or stop transmitting after a few seconds. We don't want a cheap piece of electronics deciding what we should or shouldn't hear in our child's room!

When we finally saw this monitor on Amazon.com, I was immediately struck by the complimentary reviews. Also, although more and more cordless phones are appearing on the market that use the 2.4GHz band, we felt certain that we'd have less interference since this is the newer technology. We've had it for a few days now, and here's my review of its capabilities and features:

CLARITY: I find that it has excellent clarity. In fact, if I really turn up the volume, I can hear my daughter's breathing just like with our other monitor. We've not experienced any static or interference since using it.

VOLUME: I really like the range of volume on the Clear and Near. We tend to keep it at about the midpoint, and can hear very well. Several monitors that we tried didn't seem to have as much range, so even when turned up to the max volume, they were barely loud enough.

LIGHTS: This monitor has the lights that allow you to see when noises are sensed in the child's room. We didn't look for this feature when buying our first monitor because I'd heard it eats up a lot of batteries. But I find that it's very helpful in getting my attention if we happen to be watching TV.

SENSITIVITY: This monitor seems to pick up everything, which gives me great peace of mind! My only fault is that it even picks up such subtle noises as furnace duct airflow. We don't hear it at our current volume setting, but it does result in the monitor almost constantly registering a one-light noise level, so this will use up the batteries more quickly.

BATTERIES: Kudos to the First Years, not only for providing the rechargeable battery capability for the parent unit, but for using standard AAA NiMH batteries!!! Every other monitor we tried either wasn't rechargeable, or used a proprietary battery pack. The problem with that is that when the battery pack eventually stops holding a charge, you can't get replacements. With using AAA NiMH, I can easily purchase a set any time I need them. I can even use a separate charger to keep a second set of batteries at the ready if I need to use it without the AC adaptor for an extended period (the owner's manual says it should run 5 hours on the batteries, but I haven't used it in battery mode for more than 2 consecutive hours yet). Lastly, in a real pinch I can even use regular old alkaline AAA batteries in the unit (remembering to make sure not to plug in the AC adaptor/recharger until those batteries have been removed, since trying to recharge nonrechargeable batteries could damage the unit and void the warranty).

RECEIVERS: Unfortunately it's only available with a single parent unit. We prefer having two receivers so that we can keep one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen area. Having the rechargeable unit that we carry with us is an acceptable workaround, but I would have preferred the option of having a second receiver.

CHANNELS: This model only offers two channels. If down the road we encounter static or interference problems as more and more 2.4GHz equipment is in use, it would be nice to have more channels to try.

NO EXTRAS: This model doesn't offer any "extras" such as light shows for the baby, temperature monitoring, intercom, background noise cancellation, etc. We don't need those anyway.

RANGE: The packaging claims up to 1500 ft. range. While we haven't tested that, it's nice to know that we can run out to the mailbox and not lose the signal.

PRICE: It's more than we wanted to spend on a baby monitor, but for a good night's sleep knowing that we'll hear our baby when she needs us, it's worth it!

In summary, if you're looking for a good, solid monitor and find that monitors using the 49MHz and 900MHz technologies have too much static/interference, this may be the set for you.

87 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By far, best monitor out there!, January 28, 2004

By 

"misspriss1971" (WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First Years: Clear and Near 2.4 GHz Monitor (Baby Product)

I bought this monitor in the summer of 2003 for my youngest daughter. I had another monitor from The First Years, but as soon as you stepped outside, it was out of range and there was nothing but static. This was a problem, because my oldest daughter always wanted to go outside to swim, etc., while her sister was napping and we couldn't. So, I found this monitor that was supposed to have an enormous range and it has been wonderful! Our yard is 400 feet long and we live in a 2 story house. We can take the receiver all the way to the back of the yard and the reception is still crystal clear. I love it! Worth every penney! (Actually, I spent more than this at another store.) I HIGHLY recommend it!

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best monitor on market today!, March 6, 2004

By 

Lisa Ann Kauffman "Busy Mom" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Years: Clear and Near 2.4 GHz Monitor (Baby Product)

I love this monitor! We originally bought the Graco Listen and Talk which worked well except on weekends. The only thing we could figure out was that Dulles Airport re-directed air traffic on weekends and we picked up a lot of interference. The Safety First monitor was almost flawless. The unit does pick up the slightest baby sounds, so beware not to have the volume too loud on the parent unit. There was some interference which was caused by our 2.4Ghz Panasonic expandable phone answering machine (model KX-TG2730). This interence resulted in a popping sound coming from the parent unit every second. At night, we just unplugged the answer machine which resulted in crystal clear reception from the monitor. While no company has created a perfect baby monitor, this one sure came close.