Monitor Shopping Guide and Safety Tips

Purchasing Advice

Pay attention to the store’s return policy for the monitor. Monitor performance -despite the manufacturers’ claims- is strongly affected by where it is used.

Factors that affect monitor performance:

• Distance between the baby unit and the parent unit
• Construction materials of house or apartment (metal, especially metal door frames, causes interferrence)
• Number of walls, the more walls between the baby unit and parent unit the less range the monitor will have
• Electronic devices operating in the same frequency band as the monitor

What do you expect the monitor to provide?

Baby monitors can be grouped into the following types:

• Audio; sends sounds the baby makes to the parent unit
• Audio with sound indicator lights, or ‘voice lights’; blinking lights indicate the baby’s sounds. Louder sounds produce more light activity. This feature is useful either in a noisy surrounding, or just to enable ‘silent’ monitoring, i.e. without audio.
• Audio and Video; sends actual images of the baby to the parent unit. This feature can be useful to monitor the baby’s position in the crib. Some models have infrared sensing to allow viewing of the baby at night.
• Motion-Sensing; sends an alarm to the parent unit if movement is not sensed in a certain time period. The focus of these monitors is in monitoring SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) like conditions. 

How do you feel about your privacy?

Some monitors broadcast on frequencies that can be heard on radio scanners, CB (Citizen Band), nearby cordless phones, or other baby monitors.  Our Interference and Static section lists frequency bands for commonly used electronic devices.

If possible, find out the frequencies that your internet router, cordless or cell phones use then select a monitor that uses a different frequency to minimize interference and static.

 

Safety Tips

Important safety considerations when installing and using your monitor system are:

• Ensure that the power cord for the baby unit is routed well away from the baby’s reach. This will greatly reduce the risk of strangulation.
• Choose a product that has power cord connections that cannot be mistakenly connected to the wrong unit.
• Never place or use a monitor or receiver near water.
• Choose a product that provides good indication of fully charged batteries.

 

The Lingo

Here are definitions you’ll see in your search for a baby monitor. We also include the definitions of various terms that you will find on our buywise.com site.

Audio quality: the richness and volume of the sound from the parent unit. While some monitors had good range, the sound from the parent units was unpleasant.

Baby monitor: the whole system, it is sometimes used to mean that part of the system placed in the baby’s room.

Batteries: these can be either standard disposable, or rechargeable. Rechargeable include Li-Ion (Lithium Ion), NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride), or Ni-Cad (Nickel Cadmium). buywise.com recommends rechargeable batteries.

Channel: a specific frequency within a frequency band.

DECT: Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications; allows encoded private signal, and intercom.

Baby unit: the part that is placed in the baby’s room; also called base unit or transmitter.

Eaves-dropping: the reception of signals (by another person’s receiving device) from your transmitter using the same frequency band or channel.

Frequency band: the wavelengths in the radio spectrum that a device uses to send (and receive) its signal. Communication devices operate in various frequency bands, and in certain cases there can be interference between their signals. Commonly used frequencies include:

• Citizens band (CB) radio; 26.96 megahertz to 27.41 megahertz
• Walkie-Talkie: some 49 megahertz
• Cordless phones (older); 40-50 megahertz
• Cordless phones (newer); 900 megahertz, and 2.4 gigahertz
• Cell phones; 800, 850, 900, 1800, 1900 megahertz
• Wireless routers; 2.4 gigahertz
• Baby monitors: 49 and 900 megahertz, 1.9 and 2.4 gigahertz

Infrared: the low end of the light spectrum that registers heat waves. Infrared sensing enables viewing the baby by its heat image at night.

Interference and Static: hiss (shhh), buzz or hum in the audio, or a breakup of video image in the parent unit caused by

• physical obstructions or materials in the home
• other electronic devices using the same frequency as the monitor

Interference can result in signals from a nearby device using the same frequency band. 

In motion-sensing monitors, interference may be caused by vibrations from clothes washer/dryer, fans or other sources.

Parent unit: the part that is held or carried by the parent to listen or watch; also called receiver, remote or handset.

Range: the distance in feet that the signal can be received. Manufacturers typically list a maximum range obtained when no obstructions or interference are present. Our buywise.com range is based on a usable distance with good signal-to-noise ratio, and reasonable volume (loudness).

SIDS: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Sound Indicators Lights: also called  Voice Lights or Sound Lights; these blink to indicate the baby is making sounds.

Last edited by on August 18, 2008 at 9:40 pm