About the Angelcare Baby Monitor System – AC402
Cost: Currently $179.00 at Baby and Toddler two with 2 parent units
Design: Comes in several parts – 2 square, flat (teal/green) sensor pads; a triangular, white “angel” baby monitor with teal/green accents (the ‘halo’ is a blue night light and the ‘wings’ are buttons); and the white parent unit with teal/green accent.
Baby Unit Specifications: The 2 sensor pads plugin to the ‘angel’ baby unit to help detect movement/breathing. The sensor pads can be detached so you can use only 1 sensor pad for a younger baby, or you can use the baby unit as a sound monitor only. Noise alerts when no movement is detected.
Parent Unit Specifications: Easy to read colour LCD display. Picks up motion from the sensor pads (alerts if no movement is detected after 10 seconds). Has 8 digital channels to select from to avoid interference. Up to 250m range (out of range detector).
Features: Motion sensors to pick up baby’s breathing, a hold function to pause movement and sound, temperature display on parent unit, night light in baby unit, portable and rechargeable parent unit.
Where you can get it from: Baby Bunting, Baby and Toddler Town
Angelcare Links: Visit the Angelcare Website, or Facebook.
Our Review of the Angelcare AC402 Baby Monitor System:
Practicality:
The Angelcare AC402 baby monitor was the one we started off with from day one as it was recommended to us by a friend. It came with ‘peace of mind’ as it detects the breathing/movement of your baby, as SIDS* is a prevalent issue in the first 6-12 months of baby’s life. The AC402 worked really well particularly in the bassinet (with 1 sensor pad), as this was before my son was rolling around and would just lay in the one spot. The monitor would pick up his breathing/movement easily and there were no issues.
Issues started to come when my son moved to his cot and he started to roll around a bit more. The Angelcare system would set off false alarms in the middle of the night because it couldn’t detect his breathing – but this is because he’d moved away from the sensors. Despite spreading the two sensor pads evenly along the cot’s slats, this happened several times in the space of a couple of months. The Angelcare system was perfect for the first few months of his life, and it worked okay once he got big enough to cover most of the space in the cot, however the time in between didn’t work as well. It is around this time we transitioned to a video monitor as we found it easier to monitor him (as he was older) in this way.
It was also a bit fiddly to install first time around, because there are plastic wire covers that need to go on the cords, as well as connecting the sensors and ensuring that they were working. It isn’t the easiest system to move around if you’re planning on going on holidays or staying overnight somewhere, so this might be something to consider as well.
Technical Stuff:
The Angelcare AC402 system include 2 sensor pads that can connect to each other and the baby unit to monitor movement/breathing of baby. These pads are placed evenly under the mattress (with the bassinet we only needed one, and then added the second when our son moved to the cot). The parent unit picks up on the motion sensors in the form of a little pendulum at the top of the monitor display. The pendulum stops if no movement is detected, and a noise alarm goes off if there is no movement after 10 seconds. It is loud and very repetitive, which springs you into action (even if it is a false alarm at 2am!).
Value:
We found the Angelcare invaluable in the early days and weeks of my son’s life – as it gave us the peace of mind first-parents need when they bring home their baby and are in charge of looking after them (and things like SIDS* freaks you out!). By the time my son got to the cot, however, the false alarms started giving me serious anxiety, and at this time I would have much preferred a video monitor. While I’m glad we had the Angelcare AC402 in the early days, I’d probably use a different monitor next time knowing that there are different options out there that might suit us better.
Standout Features:
- Peace of mind in the early days with a motion/breathing sensor.
- Noise alert system if motion/breathing is absent.
- A ‘hold’ function if you need to pick up your baby (so the alarm doesn’t go off – been there numerous times!!).
- The ability to use one or two sensor pads depending on the size of the bassinet/cot.
- The option of 8 different channels to remove interference.
- Temperature display to help you monitor the room temp.
Considerations:
- FALSE ALARMS – when your baby is starting to roll around a lot and/or is in the cot with extra space, be mindful of false alarms as they will most likely drive you as crazy as they did me.
- With the sensor pads on, we didn’t have any audio or visual display, so if you like to keep an eye on your baby, a different monitor might work better for this.
* No baby monitor can reduce the likelihood of SIDS (and no baby monitor claims to do so).
Check out the other Baby Monitors in this review!
