Tommee Tippee SureSound Ultimate Monitor

Author's product rating:   

Powered by	Mains and batteries
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Movement detector
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Expecting your first baby is a very exciting time in most people's lifes. However through this exciting time, you need to keep a level head to ensure that you are buying the best for your baby, without blowing millions and millions of pounds. Trust me it is quite easy to get carried away thinking you need loads of gadgets and equipment to help look after your baby.

However the one gadget we certainly invested in was a very good baby monitor. So why did we choose this Tommee Tippee SureSound Ultimate Monitor. Simple, the biggest fear parents have (in my opinion) is the fear of cot death. During the day you can make several trips to your baby's room to check on them, but in the minutes that you are not in the room, what reassurance do you have that your child is breathing. Whilst you are a sleep, after a long day of looking after a little baby, who will check on them. Let Tommee Tippee assist you so you don't have to sit by your baby's cot side 24/7.
However, that is not to say that this monitor will prevent cases of cot death, and it should not solely be relied upon for your baby's well-being.

So what do you get when buying the Tommee Tippee SureSound Ultimate monitor:

1 Movement sensor pad
1 Baby unit
1 Parent unit
1 Parent docking station
1 Parent unit belt clip/stand
2 Mains adaptors
1 Instruction booklet

**** Movement Sensor Pad ****

The Tommee Tippee SureSound Ultimate Monitor comes with a sensor pad which monitors your baby's tiniest of movements. If movement has not been detected for 20 seconds an alarm (which is rather ear piercing) will be triggered. The sensor is the size of an A4 piece of paper and is to be placed under the mattress of the cot, or the moses basket. The detection level of the sensor can be changed so you can place the sensory under a thin (foam) or thick (spring loaded) mattresses. Once you have switched the sensor on, a green light flashes intermittently as movement is detected. As I mentioned early an alarm will go off if no movement is detected within 20 seconds, however, if movement is detected again, the alarm will stop sounding. The alarm light will flash red to indicate that the alarm has been activated, and will continue to do so, until you physical go and reset the alarm by turning the baby unit off and on. If no movement is detected the alarm will continue to sound, therefore, if someone picks up your baby the alarm will sound, unless they have turned the sensor off before hand. (So if you are concerned that someone may walk off with your baby whilst they sleep, it can help ease that paranoia, but as mentioned earlier it is not a substitute for proper adult supervision).

The alarm going off does not necessarily mean that there is a problem with your baby. The alarm on our unit has gone off on numerous occasions, when we raced up to check our boy, he is sleeping soundly. Completely oblivious to the fact that his parents have just shot up the stairs faster than the speed of light.
So why would the alarm go off I hear you ask? Firstly as the sensor is the size of an A4 piece of paper, it is easy for your baby to have moved away from the sensor pad area. I am amazed by the number of times I have found my little boy curled up in the corner of his cot like a cat. Obviously as your baby gets older, they tend to cover more surface area of the mattress than a new born, so as they get older if your child moves they are less likely to move away from sensor area and therefore less likely to trigger the alarm. The alarm sounding may also mean that the batteries are running low, so make sure you have spare AAA batteries in your home. Also new born babies can breathe unevenly from time to time, and some babies can take along time from breath to breath, which can again cause the alarm to be triggered. I do remember in the early days sitting there watching my little boy sleep and watching him breathing, getting ready to poke him or actually poking him as he would take what seemed like several minutes between breathes.

**** Baby Unit ****

The baby unit comes with a digital room temperature monitor; however you need to be careful when reading the temperature from the monitor as it will depend on where you leave the baby unit in your nursery. Unfortunately the only place for us to keep our baby unit is on the window sill; therefore, dependant upon the temperature outside the baby unit has read 2-3 degrees warmer or colder than the actual room temperature. There is also a night light with a dimmer switch, which allows you to check on your sleeping angel without the need for additional lighting. However even on the brightest setting, I was finding it hard to see anything except the light itself. In the first 6 weeks our little boy slept in the moses basket on my side of the bedroom. When I got up in the night to feed him, I could see the light but that was about it. I couldn't really see my little boy, let alone check if he was still breathing, so we gave up using the so called 'night light' after a few days. There is also a low battery indicator on the baby unit as well, so if your baby unit can not be activated by the mains, you will know if your batteries are running low.

**** Parent Unit & Parent Unit Belt Clip ****

The parent unit has a volume control from very loud to off, as well as a visual volume indicator. The visual volume indicator comprises of 5 green sound lights. So the louder the sound, the more lights are illuminated. The green lights are very bright and easily attract your attention. There is also a sensor light which flashes green with every movement your baby makes. As I mentioned earlier if no movement is detected for 20 seconds, then the alarm will sound. The flashing green light goes red and the alarm will definitely be heard. If movement is detected again, after the alarm has been triggered the sensor light on the parent unit will begin to flash again, but will flash red, to indicate that the sensor has been triggered. It will continue to flash red until you physically go to the baby unit and reset the sensor. There is also a red power light which illuminates when the power is on and flashes when the batteries are running low. It also comes with a belt clip, allowing you to carry the parent unit with you at all times. The belt clip can also be converted into a stand so that the antenna can be kept upright to ensure that you receive the optimum reception.

**** Docking Station ****

The monitor comes with a docking station for the parent unit. The docking station is not a charging unit, but will hold the parent unit in an upright position to ensure that you get the best reception, and prolong the life of your batteries, as it is powered by the mains. There is a red light which comes on to indicate that the parent unit is positioned correctly within the docking station.

**** Instruction Booklet ****

There is a 16 paged booklet which talks you through how to set-up your baby monitor, which in my opinion is very straight forward. Even I managed to unpack it and set up the monitor and ensure that it was working correctly, whilst 8.5 months pregnant. The instructions do cover how to test it before you use it for the first time and what to do if you encounter any problems.

**** Other Information ****

As the monitor comes with 2 mains adaptors the best way to use your monitor is by plugging it in to the mains. However both the baby unit and parent unit can be used on batteries, so it makes it portable, as you don't need to worry if your destination will have facilities for mains adaptors. Both the baby unit and the parent unit take 4 x AAA batteries each. This is a lot of batteries; however we do not seem to go through loads and loads of batteries as we run our monitor from the mains where possible. We have been using our monitor for almost 12 months now and have changed the batteries in both units once. The information provided states that in the event of a mains failure the unit automatically switches to battery. I can not confirm this, at this moment in time, but it is good to know.

As that the monitor is analogue, you may get interference dependant upon where you place your parent unit. We have our parent unit sitting on the docking station under the television and we don't seem to have any problems. However, if you sit your mobile phone next to your parent unit, do expect to listen to interference. Also if you are on the move and don't keep the parent unit in the vertical position you may find a slight bit of interference, but it is not unbearable and does not prevent the monitor from working correctly.

The quality of sound you hear from the nursery is very clear. When my little boy has been suffering from a cold, he does have a tendency to snore; this can be heard very clearly through the monitor, and it does sound like he is sleeping in the same room as you. If I have left the window open in my boy's room whilst he is sleeping I can hear the traffic going by quite clearly, and can definitely hear when my husband has parked his car on the driveway. The quality of sound does decrease the further away you get from the baby unit. The information provided states that the monitor has a 100 metre range. However we have found that the signal becomes rather weak once we have reached the bottom of our garden, which is approximately 40 metres away, so not really convinced about the 100 metre range.

The entire Tommee Tippee SureSound Ultimate Monitor is white in colour. We bought our monitor from TescoDirect.com for £99.00 plus we collected Tesco Clubcard Points!!

Having searched the internet today (02/07/08), you can buy the Tommee Tippee SureSound Ultimate Monitor from the following places:

www.kiddicare.com for £99.97
www.tesco.com for £109.97 (we did buy ours 12 months ago)
www.mothercare.com for £110.00
www.tommeetippee.com for £87.99

I am sure that you can purchase this monitor from many other places, but as my search shows it is worth shopping around.

Prior to buying this monitor I was not aware of baby monitors that came with movement sensors. It was my husband who informed me of this concept. In my opinion, although the night-light is not the greatest and the digital room temperature monitor may not always be accurate, I would still recommend this baby monitor to all parents. What is more important than a human life?

For more information on the Tommee Tippee Suresound Ultimate Monitor visit www.tommeetippee.com

© Anjuna 2008