Talk to Me – Video Monitors (And a Sorta Review)

 Terry and I bought the summer Infant Day and Night Video Monitor from Babies R Us (HERE) right around the time Henry was born.  It had night vision, a large screen and was $99 (which was nearly half the price of other video monitors).  We bought the warranty with it as it was only $15…and thank goodness we did!

We didn’t start using the monitor until he was about 6 weeks old, when we moved him into his room.  About 6 weeks after we started using it we started having issues with it and the final straw was when in the middle of the night I woke up and the monitor had shut itself off (I may have peed the bed while also having a mild panic attack as I flew into Henry's room!).  Terry went to Walmart and got a standard monitor just so we could have something and over the next couple days the video monitor would randomly turn itself off until one day the picture became distorted, it turned off, and never turned on again.

Thank goodness for the warranty!

Oh wait…, what did you just say.  You can’t just take it to the store with the warranty and get a new one?!  You have to talk to the warranty place, then get a UPS sticker, package up the monitor, send the monitor back to the company, and THEN in 6-8 weeks they will send you a gift card to Babies R Us.  Uh, ok.  That is convenient.

We used the standard monitor for awhile, but let’s be honest…I am too much of a nut job to not be able to see if my son is ok after every little noise he makes. I NEEDED a visual of him!  So we headed up to Babies R Us and got the same monitor again, hoping this monitor would be better and we would have a different outcome. (What is the definition of insanity again?  Hint...look for my picture.)

I shit you not, less than ONE WEEK later the monitor started acting up again.  The screen started flashing whenever we turned the video part off and then it started going to black and white “snow” and we would have to turn it off and turn it back on again.

I called the manufacture, Summer Infant, and they said that it is interference.  Yeah, I am not buying that, but apparently I am buying your crappy product – TWICE.  They said they would replace the monitor but, like the warranty, they would have to mail me a UPS label and then we would send it back and get a new one in 6-8 weeks.  At that rate we should have a monitor right before Henry’s first birthday.

Luckily it is within the 45 days so we can return it to Babies R Us (no questions asked) and get a new one.

So here is the question.  We can either do an even exchange and get the same one and try for a THIRD time or we upgrade to one of those fancy but expensive digital video monitors. 

IF we go digital we were possibly looking at this one. And yes, I know it is the same company but I have heard good things about it.

We are going this weekend but I wanted to see what video monitors you all had and if you liked yours and if it worked for longer than 2 months?! That last one is a HUGE selling point for us.

As for the product itself, I am not impressed.  I wanted to like it.  I mean really like it. I liked the night vision, I liked the larger screen (a whopping 5” – eh, oh!), I liked that you could turn the video off at night and just have the sound, and I liked that you could hook up multiple monitors if you need too….but of course I would have liked even more if it WORKED!  It had so much potential.

Thoughts?

I did not get paid for this review....but by gosh I should have as we have spent so much money on stupid monitors!!