We already had a baby monitor, but I wasn’t too happy with it. My mom gave us a used Safety 1st monitor that’s about 4-5 years old that she picked up at a thrift store. It was doing the job, but it had a lot of static in it no matter what channel I used. I started looking at video monitors, then I quickly realized that would be a waste of my money. Our house is small, and if I want to see how Elliana is doing all I have to do is pop my head into her doorway. I decided I’d pick up another audio monitor to see if I could get it to work better than the old one. I figured the old one had it’s quirks mainly because it’s well…old.
I didn’t have a lot of cash to spend at the time, so I grabbed the Safety 1st Glow & Go Monitor. I was drawn to it because it was cheap ($24.99 for the single & $39.99 for the duo), I liked the fact that it has a built in night light, and it lights up when baby makes noise. My old monitor doesn’t have lights, and that was a drag. Sometimes when Hubby and I are watching tv I would prefer to keep the volume turned down, and with lights I could see if she’s making noise. That’s also a handy feature for those who are hearing impaired. I also like that the parent unit is small. My old one was bulky, and would weight down my pants if I had it clipped to my waist. I also liked that the Glow & Go monitor uses less energy. Conventional monitors (and anything else using an AC adapter) pull power even when the unit is switched off. The only way to save power is to unplug the unit all together. The Glow & Go adapters only pull power when the units are switched on. Plus both the baby and parent units can run off batteries, so you don’t have to unplug the unit if you need it in another room. Since Elliana is in and out of various rooms throughout the day, that’s an added bonus. The packaging is also “eco-conscious” since Safety 1st used 44% less cardboard and 29% less plastic in the packaging.
On top of it all my favorite feature is the digital room temperature display. I had purchased a cheap little $5 portable thermometer so I could measure the temp in her room, and it doesn’t read accurately. Plus it was just one more thing I had to find room for on the dresser. The Glow & Go has a 400ft range, but we’ve discovered it will actually pick up a little farther than that for us. If I need to run next door to my Grandparent's house (which is about 500 ft away from mine) I’ll leave the baby with Hubby and take the monitor with me. It will get a little bit of static in their house, but I can still hear everything perfectly.
After using the Glow & Go monitor one night I was satisfied. We’ve had it for a little over a month now, and I’m so glad I purchased it. It does everything I need it to without a ton of frills or added cost. It’s a 2 channel monitor, and neither channel has any static at all. We also discovered that we can use the parent unit from the old monitor with it without any static! That means we saved ourselves $10 since we didn’t have to buy the 2 parent unit model. We have a ton of electronics in our home, and we’re happy knowing none of them are causing interference with the monitor.
Overall I’m extremely happy with this monitor, and I recommend it to any parent looking for a good cheap monitor. The great results, temperature display, and night light make it a great alternative to higher priced versions.
Update 4-21-10:
Today the parent handset to the unit stopped working. Well it didn’t completely stop, but the speaker seems to have died in it. The light portion still works. I will be contacting Safety 1st to see if this is a common issue with these monitors. I’m not happy at all right now because the monitor should not die after less than 2 months of use!
Update 4-27-10:
Safety 1st has offered to replace my monitor with the newer 2010 model. Thank you Safety 1st for taking care of your customers!
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