Customer Reviews

Homedics SS-3000 Soundspa Lullaby, White

5 star:		(132)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(38)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

I just got this SoundSpa today for my 8 month old son. He fights falling asleep every night, and tonight I had this on and he fell asleep in 5 minutes. I think the key is having the lights out, but typically he would cry if I turned out the lights. With this, he was so busy watching the images on the ceiling that he didn't notice-- plus I had it on the brightest setting, so it made the room not completely dark. I had it on with "Rock A Bye Baby" playing, and I sat in the rocking chair for 5 minutes and he was out. Then, after I put him in his crib I switched the music to "rain" and turned off the projection, and he is sleeping soundly! The music is wonderful, it sounds better (more clear)than I thought it would. It is very relaxing and soothing. And the rain and ocean sounds will be good, too, because I usually turn on a fan in his room in the morning to block out the noise that my husband makes when he's getting ready for work. Now it's too cold to have the fan on, so the other noises will provide the same effect and my son can sleep in peace. I highly recommend this item... After watching the images and listening to the music, I am actually relaxed and ready to sleep myself! Maybe I'll buy one of these for my bedroom, too! ha ha..

Like others have said, this product is great while it lasts. We've had ours about 2 months and the projector is starting to go. About every other time we turn it on, it doesn't work. If we fidget with it for several minutes (remove the disc, put back in, again and again) it eventually starts again but there is no "magic" trick. We just keep trying the same thing over and over and eventually it works. I am so disappointed as my daughter has loved this for the 2 months we've been using it. I know pretty soon it will stop altogether.

I had bought this product for my daughter when she was 3 months old. It worked great for about a month then the projection quit spinning. It's great for sound but if your looking for something with projection more so than sound I wouldn't invest in this product. If you do decide to invest in this product make sure to fill out the warranty.

We've had this product since our daughter was born - 18 months now. I like it enough to buy another one for my sister's first child.

In the beginning the heartbeat mode of the sound is perfect- it seemed to comfort our daughter. We have yet to use twinkle-twinkle, but 'beach' and 'white noise' are used constantly (it's even playing in the background right now). As a side note, if you listen to the beach carefully you'll hear two seagull calls. You're not insane.

Only in the past 2 months (14 months old) have we started to use the projector. It has had a calming influence on our daughter while she plays in her crib before going to sleep. Unfortunately it also seems to keep her up, and this unit does not offer the ability to dim or turn/off the projector independent of the sound.

The projector is squeaky. The brightness knob has two settings- dim, and slightly less dim. I'll admit at night when there is no sunlight/late evening light coming in it's bright enough... but it's very hard to see when even a mediocre amount of light comes in through the windows.

The volume control knob on ours goes in and out. Sometimes it works, other times (usually in the winter and late late at night) it starts crackling- loudly. Adjusting the position of the knob has permitted us to keep using it.

This unit is VERY sensitive to cell phones- it'll pick up the cell phone tower identifier code (ack-ack-buzzzzzzz)- but it hasn't seemed to wake or disturb anyone.

The plug is a standard two prong. I wish it were flat for easy of securing against the wall.

Overall, this is a good product to have. To recap:

Pros:
A multitude of sounds to choose from- one will work, and perhaps many will work over it's life.
Projector lamp is dim during daylight hours, but more than sufficient at night.
Portable and robust- survives being yanked off the changing table.

Cons:
Weak volume control.
Dim lamp for projection.
Poor EMI shielding. (if you have cell phones)

Update: The projector finally broke. With the little girl crying and saying "Moon Stuck Moon Broke Daddy Fix" I disassembled the entire unit. Turns out that there is no metal-to-metal spacer or bar to hold the two spinning shafts apart. A motor is belted to another reduction gear which is cantilevered into the plastic. This causes the smooth chrome shaft to basically bury /drill itself through the material. I was able to form a small metallic epoxy ball and insert it into the hole then ream it out with the shaft- we're hoping it holds.

All in all still a good unit, but very annoyed at that one cheap spot- the manufacturer reinforced the other side of the shaft but not the thrust side.

Edit: It broke again, and required 2 days of dis-assembly to fix. Finally got it all back together and it started working again. Stupid design, stupid gearing, and all in all a very annoying product. The unit now picks up AM radio stations and any metal acts as an antenna- so nothing but wood can be around the unit. While adjusting the volume I hear various talk-radio shows come in and out. I will not be buying another one.... and consequently am dropping my rating.

We have purchased two of these and both have had issues. the first one worked well for about a month and it was great. The little nightlight portion with the graphics that turn on the ceiling were wonderful - bright enough to help us see in the middle of the night without waking up the kiddo, and he seemed to enjoy watching them - and the sound machine portion had several options from music to nature sounds. We loved it! Then after 4 or 5 weeks, it started making this awful clicking sound when the graphic nightlight element was turning - it got louder and louder until that was all we could hear on the monitor. Because we liked it so much, I ordered another one, thinking this one might have been defective and they weren't very expensive, so replacing it seemed like no big deal. The second one worked great and we were very glad that the noise was gone. then after about 4 weeks, the exact same problem started happening again - loud clicking/thumping noise as the graphic turned. On top of that, this one has started having problems with the volume control knob as well - sometimes it will not turn down and will actually turn UP the volume when you are trying to turn it down, so we end up just turning the whole thing off. I am currently looking for something else that has a nightlight and music/white noise feature to replace this one. Don't bother buying it!

I bought this product almost 2 years ago to get my son to sleep in his own room and it worked! Like a charm! Unfortunately after about 3 weeks the motor stopped working and the picture stopped spinning. My son wouldn't sleep in his room until we got another that worked. So we bought another one....and another one...and another one! We have to keep 2 on hand for when one breaks. I buy them from walmart online since I know I can take it to the store and return it when it breaks. Pretty sad that you have to have a plan to return it KNOWING that the product is going to break. I think the longest we had one last was maybe 5 weeks. They should really fix this product. It's crappy and leaves parents like me with a screaming child. I wish I had never purchased this product because now I have to keep on replacing it.

I emailed the company and they wanted me to send the product to them to fix it and said it would take about 5-6 weeks! Really? I'm guessing these people don't have children.

Anyway, save yourself the time, money and aggravation and DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT! I would give it 0 stars if I could.

We received the Sound Spa from our registry and used it almost immediately after we brought our baby home. I was surprised by its compact size, but that turned out to be a positive because it travels real well. We've taken it on two trips already because it's light and compact. The sounds are nice - there are six total (heartbeat; ocean; rain; twinkle, twinkle; rock-a-bye baby; and cradle song), but I wish there were more white noise options instead of the three "songs/lullabies."

Like others have pointed out, the projection system stopped working for us, too. It lasted for about three months and one night, just stopped spinning. We still use it as a night-light for the baby, but I am in the process of figuring out how to return it for another one because it should still be under warranty.

Overall, I would still recommend this product even with the known projection defect because I think it has served its purpose thus far for my baby. He falls asleep to it well and I like the timer functionality as well.

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Update (06/14/10)
After several emails and form submissions on the HoMedics website, I finally got an email response from HoMedics customer service who said that I should mail it in for them to review/fix/replace. They had the machine for a couple months without any communication with me, and I had almost given up hope that I was ever going to see a replacement, when it appeared one day on our doorstep. I can't tell if they fixed our unit or just sent us a new one, but this one has been working for about two and a half months now, so fingers crossed.

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Update (09/13/10)
The projection system stopped spinning again after three or four months of use after the return of the device from HoMedics. We still use the projection light as a nightlight, but I do miss the rotating images. I would have contacted HoMedics for another warranty repair except that it took so long the first time for them to respond, I figured it would have been past the one year warranty period anyway.

It really did help my son fall asleep, until it started making the horrible squeaking noise that others complained about. Now it's so loud I can't use the projector. The problem is my son automatically looks to the ceiling when I put him to bed now (it's a part of our good night routine) so I'm stuck having to buy another one. Don't get sucked in. It's a piece of crap.

I bought this for my two year old, because she does not sleep well in the dark and it often takes her over an hour to go to sleep at night. We recieved it yesterday afternoon, and used it at bedtime. My daughter loved it! She was so excited about her new light. We turned it back on tonight and the projector light will not work. I am now comforting a very sad 2 year old because her light is broken. Very VERY dissapointed.

First one we bought for our baby worked for one month until it squeaked so loud that we couldn't stand it. We returned it, and the second one was no better. The projector seized and will not move the picture on the ceiling. Ripoff with a capital "R". I was going to throw the projector on the floor and stomp on it to make myself feel better, but then we wouldn't be able to try for SoundSpa number three, maybe the next one will work!