Customer Reviews

Graco Digital iMonitor Baby Monitor

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have been through several monitors and I will say this one is the closest to perfect. I'll start with the positives first. It has a recharging base and rechargable batteries, which is supper nice. The batteries only last about 4 hours when fully charged, enough for a nap, but that was perfect enough for me. The channels are extremely clear, the best I have ever heard. Very little, if any, interference. Now the the negatives. The thing peeps everytime it losses the signal. That is good if you are awake but when you are sleeping (which is hard to do with a baby), the peeping wakes you up! Who thought of that! I would prefer and option to turn that peep off at night. Everyone knows how much sleep you get with a baby and the monitor cuts into that time too. For that reason alone, I gave the monitor an average mark. Typically, it does re-establish the signal and you don't have to do anything (except wake up, hear the peep and try and go back to sleep). While the monitor picks up clear sounds, it doesn't pick them up very loudly. You really need to crack the monitor up which is fine until the baby screams and it is really super loud. The Safety First monitor I had before handled the sound load a little better. Overall, if you are buying a monitor, this one is the best available. I have been through 6 of them b/c I am picky.

To understand why I hate this monitor, you have to understand how digital works. With digital, the signal quality is perfectly clear until the signal reaches a certain level of weakness, at which point you receive no signal at all. Unfortunately, the signal often gets too weak at a distance of only 25 feet. We sleep in the room adjacent to our baby's room, and the signal still cuts out an average of once every hour, lasting for several minutes at a time. When the signal is insufficient, the receiver beeps loudly and repeatedly. So, we are awakened about once an hour to an angry baby monitor. As new parents, we are already sleep-deprived, and we feel like this monitor hurts more than it helps.

Also, after six months, the life of the battery after being fully charged has dropped to less than two minutes before it dies. Thus, we cannot move this receiver from room to room without transporting the charging station and plugging it in wherever we go. It might as well have no battery at all.

My advice: get an analog (non-digital) baby monitor with a reputation for good batteries. Your signal will be slightly fuzzier, but you won't experience the signal "total shut-down" that we have experienced with this monitor.

I think this monitor is wonderful. I rarely write reviews about anything, but I am very happy with this product. It is very clear and has none of the hissing/crackling that the non-digital monitors did. I read the first review that is posted and I think you can correct the problem with the monitor beeping when the charge is low. If you leave the charger in your bedroom, the monitor can be on and re-charge overnight. This charges it enough for during the day when you want to take it with you around the house. I am able to set the volume very low at night and still hear plenty. The lights are a little bright, but not a major consideration when the sound is so clear.

This is our first baby monitor, so I can't compare it against others, but we love it. It is very quiet (when the baby is asleep). There is very little static or interference. We haven't ever picked up any other conversation. I haven't been able to figure out what frequency is broadcasts at. The box and the instructions never say. As some others have mentioned, the LED (lights) indicators are nice. If I'm in the shower I can watch the monitor and see if the baby is making noise even if I can't hear it. Also, we have no problem with reception anywhere in the house. Our house is 2500 sq. ft one story just for comparison.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: DOT NOT TURN ON SYSTEM BEFORE READING THIS.
You have to open up the parent receivers and plug in the battery pack before usage, then Charge the system for 16 hours. DO NOT TURN SYSTEM ON WHILE CHARGING FOR THIS FIRST TIME!!!

I did a lot of research on monitors and found this one to have pretty good feedback on several parents' websites. With most items, there are pros and cons... see below:

Pros:
-You will not pick-up any feedback from the neighbors. This is a significant improvement from monitors in the past. ABSOLUTLY NO INTERFERENCE!
-Great reception. You will have no problems picking up your child with this. I can take it outside and work in the yard, with confidence that I will know when my baby needs me.
-Interchangeable AC power cords make it easy to move the system around to different rooms in the house.
-Lightweight and compact system.
-Transmitter has a batteries area in the transmitter unit, so if you do have power outages the transmitter will continue to work.

Cons:
-The biggest issue is battery life. HORRIBLE BATTERY LIFE, TYPICALLY ONLY 3-4 HOURS at a time! The battery drain on this system is almost a deal breaker in my husband's opinion. This system comes with the options of 1 or 2 docking stations, I HIGHLY RECOMMED the one with two stations because the system is constantly running low on batteries and and can recharge while the parents portion is on the dock. Or the second receiver can be used while the other is charging on the dock.
-With any power interruption the child's unit shuts off. The parents unit beeps and flashes red to inform you of the issue, but it can be irritating at 2:00 A.M. to have to get up to turn it back on. Graco really needs to find a way to have the system stay on at all times that it is plugged in.
-Belt clip does not work well with normal amount of movement. The system is better left unattached to belt, unless you want to be constantly picking it up from the ground.
-A bit expensive.

A little of both... Pros/Cons:

-Sound: Pro: Great sound, very clear. In fact I can often hear dogs barking outside with this monitor. Con: Picks up on every little sound because it is so sensitive. For the light sleepers, on the softest level still can be very loud.
-Loud, every 5 seconds, parents warning: Pro: Beeping will let you know that system is not functioning correctly so you can fix the system. This was nice for us one day when the baby's system had fallen and came unplugged. If the system had not beeped, we would not have known. Con: Annoying beeping while searching for signal... a startling fact in the middle of the night.

*Overall the system does what it should, but there a few area's that could be improved. I gave it 3 1/2 stars but rounded it up.*

When fully charged, the battery in the parent unit only lasts 15 minutes. Unfortunately, I have to move the base around for the parent unit in order to use it. It would be better if the parent unit took AA batteries, then at least I could replace them!

We bought this monitor for our 3rd baby. It is probably our 4th monitor and has been the worst one to date. It went out of range often, drained batteries fast, and then just cut out and missed the baby crying several times. I found myself still checking on our baby because I couldn't trust the monitor to function properly, so I finally bought a new one.

This monitor is a great idea. It's really nice to be able to take it anywhere without having to plug it in. There are, however, a few problems which make this monitor a real pain. For one, once the monitor goes out of range (which happens at about 75 feet) it doesn't just come in fuzzy, it doesn't come in at all. It beeps until you get it back in range, which defeats the whole purpose of being able to take it with you into the yard etc...
The second problem is that we have had our monitor for 1 year and the battery is already pretty much worthless. No matter how long it has charged on its base, it loses a charge after about an hour. I guess we would need to invest in a new battery, but we'll probably just get a different monitor. I would hope they come out with an enhanced version of this monitor, but for now...not worth the price.

We are very pleased with this monitor. We had purchased a different monitor with our first child which was sound/voice activated. The voice activation was a problem with an infant because it was easy to miss his sounds. We ended up purchasing a cheap monitor without the voice activation to avoid this problem however, we did have to switch channels occasionally to avoid picking up the conversations of our neighbors. We are thrilled to have a digital monitor that picks up every sound that our infant makes, none of the neighbors conversations and does not allow the neighbors to eavesdrop on our household. The parent unit also is easy to carry around the house. I would highly recommend this product.

This monitor is a PAIN to say the least. This is our 2nd time buying Baby Monitors. We chose this one based on the great Consumer Product Reviews it recived. The testing facilities must not be very unrealistic because this monitor works terribly!!! It's digital which we thought would be clearer and have longer range than our older analog model. Boy were we ever wrong!!! This thing beeps ALL THE TIME!!! The signal just goes out for no apparent reason. Don't get me wrong when it works it is very clear but the problem is getting to maintain a good digital signal. We have tried EVERYTHING and nothing stops this thing from beeping. We don't have a ton of electronics and wiring in our home. It's very frustrating to hear it at all hours of the night.

My advice it to go with ANALOG and leave the digital behind. I am doing it as we speak.