Baby monitor - is a cheap one ok?

[Peanutbutteryday]

Just this. I’ve seen some in Argos with good reviews for £50. Also seen some in Jl for £130 that seem to do the same job.

I don’t even know what I’d use it for really. Dc is 8 months and her bedroom is next to ours and her cries wake me up without needing a baby monitor but I’d like one for back up just in case. There’s an hour or so when I put her to bed when I may be downstairs. That’s it

am I missing something?

Some have much bigger / better range than others. We got a very cheap one recommended by Which? as having very good range. It's been great eg when on holiday with friends in a large house. If you'll only use it at home in a smallish house, yes get the cheap one. Otherwise, you could get a 1 month subscription to which to check out which ones do have decent range.

Or I can just tell you that this is the one which which? says has very good range, and it's certainly worked for us.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8621072?clickSR=slp:term:vtech%20dm1111%20audio%20baby%20monitor:1:24:1

we’ve never bothered, just leave the doors open in our small house!

@Peony654 I know I was thinking do I just do this but genuinely wondered if I was missing something. I definitely hear her when I am asleep. My husband finds it hilarious how quickly I jump out of bed and dash next door when I hear the baby crying 🤣

I think I may need one when I am downstairs in the evening for peace of mind so thank you @Soverymuchfruit your link is helpful

We have this £50 one from Argos, which has been great www.argos.co.uk/product/9527814
We use it every evening- put 7 month old DS to bed and have the screen on coffee table whilst we watch tv/have dinner etc. His room is upstairs with door closed and with this we know straightaway if he wakes. We were also unsure whether such a cheap one would do the job, but really can't think of anything else we would need it to do.

Ooo that’s the one I saw!! Thank you.

Ours was gifted, so I don't know how much this comes as standard or not, but having one with 2-way sound makes a HUGE difference for us (being able to shush her back to sleep through the monitor without getting out of bed/disturbing her more by going in).

Ah interesting thank you! Unfortunately 0% chance of my Dc going back to sleep like that at the moment(but maybe I can hope for in the future!)

We have a super basic audio only monitor and it cost about £15 over 6 years ago. When we stay at IL’s house which is quite large and has huge thick stone walls it’s the only thing that’ll stretch. We use it at home too when we sit in the garden. It does everything I could possible need i.e. alerts me when they are crying.

I had baby monitors for my older kids, but now just use an iPad linked to my phone and the Baby Monitor 3G app, which I think was £4.99

It's super simple to use, and works on Bluetooth if you're away from home without WiFi connection.

Got a non Wi-Fi one which was hardly used as my LO never slept without me 🙈
Dug it out for number 2 but not holding my breath it will be used. Read too many horror stories of Wi-Fi ones being hacked

We had the £50 Argos one, it was fine. We didn't use it that much to be honest, at least not overnight. Came in handy for anxiously watching her cartwheeling round her cot at bedtime when she was older though.

We were given a really fancy video one when DD was born which we returned for store credit in Boot (£200!!) and got a very cheap tommee tippee audio only one. Honestly didn't even really need that because like you say we could hear her anywhere in the house, but had it just in case. It was fine, did exactly what we needed it to do,

We have that one too! DS is now 21 months (nearly) and it’s been ideal the whole way through. The little light on it is all but pointless as it is very very dim but it’s handy you can change the sensitivity of when it comes on (so at a certain volume the screen lights up and the sound comes on) or of course you can just manually check. The camera is pretty good, considering it’s so cheap too. It does have two way sound, but we never use that because it scares my son 😂

Also! It’s so handy to be able to just have a look at wtf he’s up to sometimes. He crashes and bangs around so much so being able to see if he’s just getting comfy again and will resettle himself or actually waking up is so handy.

I think it depends what you want.

If you just want audio then cheap is good because it means it will be simple without a load of gimmicks to go wrong.

If you want features like wifi connectivity, video, temperature monitoring, talkback etc then it makes sense to look at reviews and choose based on that.

We have one by Lionelo which is a cheaper brand but works very well. We at some point borrowed a REAL cheapy brand one (one of those amazon nonsense brands) and it lost connectivity after a while and just refused to work at all.

I just got a cheap audio only BT one, think it was £30. I didn't want one that connected to wifi and didn't personally see the point in one with video or anything like that. I just needed to be able to hear when she cried so I could go in and check on her! Now using it 3 years later for DD2 and still works fine.

The best one is the one that works. So look at reviews and go by that rather than price.

We own three - one for my in laws house and one for my sisters (she sleeps at both fairly regularly) and then one at ours.

The one at my sisters is the cheapest at £50 and perfectly happy with it. the battery life is amazing. it's a tiny bit grainy and the camera doesn't move but its fine as she sleeps in a travel cot there so less space for her to move anyway.

I hate the one at my in laws which is midrange. battery dies in like an hour although other than that its ok

Ours is the most expensive and i like the ability to swivel the camera and a bigger screen and able to play white noise etc through it which is great when she wakes up in the night as 90% of the time it calms her down and she goes back to sleep in a couple of mins whereas if i went into her room to switch a white noise machine on she'd start crying and wanting to play. But the temp gauge on it is awful. the other day it told me it was -14 degrees and an hour later is was 37 apparently.

They all good and bad. i wouldn't spend a fortune but decide what's important to you and find one that fits

Thanks everyone. Really helpful and I now feel confident that I m not missing anything. I’m going to get the £50 Argos one people mention on here. It has over 600 reviews equalling 4.5 stars

We have the Invidyo and it has a lot of great features. Easy on the pocket too, it fit our budget perfectly. It has the two-way communication feature and also we can remotely pan and tilt the camera to see the whole nursery. We set our alerts for motion as well, not just crying. Plus, the automatic sleep tracking is great for sleep training, and we love the lullabies range. Works perfectly and gave us a lot of peace of mind (https://www.amazon.com/invidyo-I-Monitor-Detection-Stranger/dp/B07H3QC99M)

Hey @Peanutbutteryday thanks for your thread! If you're still on the hunt for a new baby monitor, you might find our round-up of the best baby monitors useful - it has options for every budget. If you have any feedback on the article do let us know💐

Never spent more that £20 on one. Cheap Motorola one. Needs to be plugged in and audio only but did the job. And being cheap meant I didn't get too pissed off when we broke 2 of them by dropping them on tile floor and left another one in a holiday cottage.

Other people may be less careless than us though!