Digital Baby monitors

[bluebear]

Our last baby monitor made an humming noise which led to a sleep-deprived dh to fling it across the bedroom, stopping the hum but also breaking the monitor.
We've a second baby due, and I was wondering if the new 'digital' monitors are any better than the older type. I don't want to buy a really expensive monitor and see it fly across the room again! Our house is over 3 storeys and I like to have the doors shut to stop the cats getting into the bedrooms so I really need a monitor.
Anyone got any advice??

hi bluebear we tried about four and now we have the "TOMY walkabout digital" It only seems to make any noise when she moves or turns over and shows the temperature. My dd is 2.6 but i still use it as we have a big house. I can't remember how much it was though!

The Lindam digital monitor won an award in a recent baby magazine. Supposed to be really good, crystal clear.

Read the review just after spending £70 on the 'Angelcare' monitor, which, incidentally, got a cr*p write-up...curses...

We bought the Phillips digital one, which is (I think) the top of their range - simply because it was the one purchasing decision left entirely to dp, and he got excited about all the boys toys!

It is brilliant, and very quiet. You can turn it down low in volume, and the sensor has a dial to increase or decrease the sensitivity. So you could have it set to only respond to wailing.

Am I going to get into trouble for making a joke about boys toys now?

we have the phillips one because the analogue ones didn't carry though our very thick internal stone walls. digital one works brilliantly. it is basically silent unless the baby starts up, easy to use etc. long range as well so you can wander around the garden without worrying, and if it loses the connection it beeps at you and flashes red so at least you know you have gone too far. no problems with it at all. bloody expensive though...

aha pph!

Thanks everyone, dh is most interested in the Philips one - says it works like cordless phones (DECT) so that it should be good but it is twice the price of the Tomy. I didn't know the philips one had a sensitivity dial - could come in very useful if I use it for my 2 year old - he's a noisy sleeper and we only really need to know if he's 'really' awake. Hmmm... expensive though... Any more votes for the Tomy?

We've got the Phillips one and I think it's absolute pants, so much so that I'm going to buy a cheapo Tomy to replace it. We only bought the Phillips when we had dd2 b/c our old Tomy kept picking up the baby next door - not relaxing! Of course the fact that it was v. expensive and supposedly at the forefront of modern technology was what sold it to dh...

Anyway, it was bloody expensive and personally I think our original Tomy was better. The digital one makes clicking static noises some nights and I can't work out why - have tried fiddling all the knobs and adjusting volume & sensitivity but it makes no difference. Sometimes it's so noisy it wakes me up. Also often the alert siren goes off in the middle of the night even though the monitor is plugged into the recharger and the little light is on to show that the two are connected. This drives me absolutely insane. It's sod's law that if the baby is sleeping peacefully the bloody monitor is waking me up!

Maybe we just got a duff model but I am far from impressed with the Phillips digital - in fact I'd love to throw it across a room or even right out the window into the nearest bin...

Anyone else had a bad experience with it?

Anto, Check out this thread . We had the old Philips one which wasn't good, but think the new one is great. Couldn't use Tomy because we heard more than one couple in the neighbourhood arguing and guessed they could hear us too.

just read that thread. my philips one has the same prob with the connection on the parent unit. really annoying - had it 2 yrs now though so I doubt they'd exchange it

Just read that thread - thank you bearinthebigbluehouse - and it's obviously a huge design fault b/c ours is exactly the same - The connection between the power lead and the recharging cradle often doesn't work and so its alarm goes off in the night when the batteries have run down because no connection was being made. Doesn't explain the loud crackles of static though.

Think I would rather have the good old Tomy and hear next door's 1-yr-old having a good old scream rather than face the blaring siren of the Phillips at 3am.

It makes my blood boil b/c it was v. expensive and a complete waste of money. DH bought it and so we have no receipt...he never keeps them.