Graco Digital Deluxe iMonitor Baby Monitor

Nothing irks me more than this supposed "baby monitor". Because isn't the point of a baby monitor to monitor babies? Not to work sometimes, if the moon and stars are aligned perfectly, and work only when it feels like working. Not to beep endlessly and flip channels until I want to pull my hair out and throw the thing against the wall, not necessarily in that order.

Now when this monitor works, it works well - it picks up every little sound clearly and I can hear my babies the instant they wake up. I rarely hear static. Despite other reviews, it has a long battery life (7-8 hours). I have twins, and set up this monitor in two different rooms so that I can hear the babies whether they are napping together or separately. I rarely remove the receivers from their battery chargers; they just sit in my office where I'm working, which is incidentally 15 feet from either baby. Since nothing moves, you'd think I'd only have to set it up once and be done, yes?

Not even close. What usually happens is one of two things:

One, it will lose a frequency and search for a signal. It does this whether I'm on the other end of the house or in the next room. It loses a signal at least twice per day. Then it starts endlessly beeping, during which I begin to imagine drop-kicking this monitor across several blocks and into the freeway, where it gets run over again and again by a convoy of tractor trailers.

Two, it will flip channels so that it's suddenly monitoring the same room as the other device, and now one baby is out of communication. It doesn't matter that the switch is set to "room 2", because it's now monitoring room 1. I have no warning this has happened, no beeps or even a flashing light, so unless I'm within earshot and hear her crying, that baby is out of luck should she need attention. This happens at least once every other day, so I simply don't go out of earshot anymore. To which I wonder, why have a baby monitor at all? It's only out of morbid curiosity I keep it plugged in.

I will try to reset the frequency (which you do by clicking buttons which also beep maddeningly) but usually this doesn't work, and it continues to beep. I am actually surprised this monitor hasn't yet been embedded in my wall.

Maybe today will be the day.Buy Graco Digital Deluxe iMonitor Baby Monitor!