How to Choose the Best Wireless Baby Video Monitor for Your Home

Learn how to choose the best baby wireless video monitor for your home and nursery.

Why I Need a Video Baby Monitor for My Toddler 

When I walked away from Little Elsa (or was she Lucky Prescott today?), she was sitting on the floor in our ‘loud room’, playing quietly with her horsies and baby giraffe.

In less than a minute, from the time I walked from that room to the kitchen (where I cannot see the living room or loud room) and started washing dishes, she had sprinted to the stairs and attempted to climb up the side of the railing, a maneuver she had watched her older brother attempt the day before.

After all, wasn’t she Elsa climbing the North Mountain?

Had she not called out to me to come help her, she could have fallen and become injured, without me knowing exactly what she was even doing. I thought she was still playing with her toys, right where I left her!

Toddlers are quick, like crazy quick, like silent little ninjas. (Don’t have a toddler and don’t believe me? Borrow one someday!)

While I could make my toddler follow me around the house all day as I complete my daily tasks, it isn’t always practical for me or fun for her.

A solution for me would be to invest in a video baby monitor. I could monitor my toddlers activities no matter where I was in the house, and make sure she stayed safe!

How Do I Choose the Best Wireless Baby Video Monitor?

When thinking about the best wireless baby video monitor for my home, I decided to consider the following:

Baby Monitors That Don’t Require WiFi

It’s one thing to have a WiFi home security camera to monitor your home when you’re away; it’s quite another thing to have a WiFi video baby monitor.

Quite a few times, a story has been in the news about hackers hacking into video baby monitors via WiFi vulnerabilities, moving the cameras remotely and even speaking to the children being watched.

Creepy. I wouldn’t want a stranger watching my child!

While yes, there are ways to protect against this type of hacking, having a baby monitor with WiFi isn’t really necessary unless you want to access the monitor when you’re not at home.

Another reason to choose a video baby monitor that doesn’t require WiFi is because if the WiFi is limited or down, so is the monitor. I don’t want to have to rely on the WiFi signal to be able to watch my toddler.

Since I only want to access the video baby monitor from home and I don’t want to rely on a WiFi connection, I only would consider video baby monitors that don’t require WiFi or had the ability to turn the WiFi setting off.

Wireless Video Baby Monitors

I want to be able to monitor my toddler from anywhere in my home, which means that I’d like a wireless monitor that I could bring with me.

A wireless camera would be nice too, since cords and wires in a baby’s room could be dangerous, but I’m not sure if one exists.

Baby Video Monitors with Easy Set Up

I don’t know about you, but I get so frustrated when products have a difficult set up process. Even after following step by step instructions, the product may not even work, requiring you to go all the way back to step one!

And if I’m doing all of that, it means my eyes are off my toddler, and she may be getting herself into a bit of toddler mischief.

I want a baby video monitor with an easy set up, one that’s not going to take too long to configure. It’d be convenient to not have to go through a set up each and every time the camera is moved to a different location too.

It’s also convenient if I need to bring a monitor with easy set-up to a grandparent’s house if they are babysitting.

Baby Video Monitors with Good Range

When shopping for the best baby video monitors, one of the specifications listed in product descriptions has to do with range.

Many of the top baby video monitors boast of ranges up to 1000 ft, but that often assumes you’re in a ginormous room without walls between you and the baby monitor.

I need something that can connect well between walls and perhaps even the ceiling for when the camera is in my toddler’s room upstairs and I’m in the kitchen below. I’d need something that wouldn’t have interference from other electronic devices as well.

Baby Video Monitors with Two Way Communication

I really like the idea of being able to talk to my toddler without shouting from two rooms away. With the push of a button I could say something to her and hear her response.

This feature would be very handy when you don’t want to get out of bed at night, too!

Baby Video Monitors with a Clear View

I wouldn’t want a video monitor with a blurry screen, nor would I want a camera that I couldn’t pan and tilt to see more of the room.

I would love a monitor that had pan and tilt so that I could see all around the room, plus a clear image on the monitor in both day and night vision.

Baby Video Monitors with Night Vision Camera

Thankfully, my toddler sleeps pretty well at night, but boy, do I have a house full of sleepwalkers. I would place a video monitor in my upstairs hallway at night to catch any sleepwalkers before they try to get ready for school and try leave the house again in the middle of the night (True story! My oldest daughter did it. Scared the life out of me!).

Of course, it’d also be great as a heads up for when my toddler does climb out of her bed, amble down to my room, and try to climb into my bed. At least I won’t jump out of my skin when she taps on my arm, as long as the monitor notifies me that there’s movement or sound.

Baby Video Monitor Reviews

Of course, before I would get anything, I would definitely check the reviews, the good but especially the bad.

Why do I read the ‘bad’ reviews? I find that when it comes to tech products, the ‘bad’ reviews are often the most critical and can list any defects that might not otherwise be mentioned in ‘good’ reviews. They are often written by people who know what they’re talking about.

It's so important to read and understand good AND bad reviews of baby gear BEFORE you buy! #shopping #reviews #babygear #parenting Click to Tweet

Some bad reviews, though, are often written by people who don’t understand technology and get frustrated easily by it. When I read ‘bad’ reviews, like “I couldn’t get the monitor to connect to the camera when I first plugged it in!”, I can see that the issue is usually user related, and not product related. I can usually determine how to bypass user issues, which doesn’t mean a product is flawed for me.

But I do have to be careful with the ‘good’ reviews too. Some good reviews might only be “Ordered this for my sister and it’s going to be great!”, while other reviews will be much more in depth and include original photos of the product.

Keep in mind: A Star Rating may be deceiving. A five star product might have a whole bunch of fluff reviews, while a 4 star product will have many real people writing real, critical reviews as they have actually used the product in real life.

With all that being said, I was contacted by Eufy to review their Spaceview HD Wireless Baby Monitor. 

You better believe I did my extensive homework before even receiving the monitor for the purpose of this review!

This is what I discovered.

(I was provided with the Eufy Spaceview HD Wireless Baby Monitor for the purpose of this review. All words and opinions are mine and are honest based on my personal observations. This blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com at no extra cost to you.)

About the Eufy Spaceview HD Wireless Baby Monitor

Eufy is a part of Anker Innovations, which is well known for their tech products, which include portable chargers, charging cables, portable speakers, and more.

In early 2018, Anker started a Kickstarter campaign for a Eufy Wireless Security Camera, which became the most funded smart home product in history. Later on in the year, they released the Eufy Spaceview HD Wireless Baby Monitor.

According to the description, the Eufy Spaceview Monitor has:

• Quick and easy setup
• Night Vision
• 460 ft Range
• Two-Way Communication
• Pan, Tilt, and Zoom (2x zoom)
• Secure Wireless Connection
• Long Battery Life
• Smart Alerts
• Auto Screen Off
• 20-ft Sound Pickup
• Wall Mount
• 5″ Display
• Additional Wide-Angle Zoom Lense
• 720p HD Resolution
• Built-In Thermostat

From just the description, it sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Time to put it to the test!

Wireless Baby Video Monitor Review

Before I dive in to my opinions about this wireless video baby monitor, here’s my unboxing video so you can see what is involved in setting it up.

The Eufy Spaceview comes with:

• Camera
• Monitor
• Wall mount
• 2 Micro-USB charging cables
• Mounting screws
• Wide-Angle lens
• 2 AC power chargers
• Owner’s manual

For some reason, I missed the wide-angle lens during my unboxing, but it was in there, tucked in a little pocket.

Like I said in the video, it took me about 10 minutes from start to finish for the set-up.

Getting the monitor to work was the easiest part. You literally just plug in the camera and the monitor (the monitor doesn’t come charged) and turn on the monitor. By the time I found places to plug them in and turn them on, it was about 2 minutes.

The rest of the time I spent trying to find the best spot for the camera to get the best view, and going through the monitor menu to change the time and the temperature units, which was about another 8 minutes.

The menu on the monitor is easy to navigate, though I have to admit that it took me a bit to get used to the fact that it’s not a touch screen unit.

From the monitor, you can adjust the brightness of the screen, sleep mode, sound activated alerts, time, zoom, night vision mode, and more.

Note: You can turn off the screen using sleep mode, which will conserve battery. The audio will still work, and you can always tap any button to get the screen to turn back on.

The screen resolution is really good. It is very crisp and clear in the day or when light is present, and it’s really good in night vision. I do notice however that with the wide angle lens on and in zoom while using night vision, the image is a tad pixelated.

Zoom is available, but only through the Menu. I wish there was a button on the face of the monitor that was dedicated to zoom though.

The audio is really clear, with less than a half second of delay.  I like that at the lowest level, it barely emits any white noise unlike the noise my traditional audio monitor emits at night. It definitely will allow parents to sleep without every single sound waking them up through the night.

I really, really like the Two-Way Audio function. When I moved the camera to our ‘loud room’ (aka kids’ living room) and had the monitor in the kitchen, I could talk to my toddler through the camera without yelling to her.

 

Same for when I brought the monitor upstairs: I was able to see what she was doing downstairs and ask her through the camera not to throw her Re-Play snack bowl to the ground.

The first time I heard a Smart Alert, it startled me. I had the sound level up to Level 5 (highest level), and when that level was reached, a loud alert came on the monitor along with a message on the screen.

The alert went on for 20 seconds or so before it stopped. I can imagine that the alert would definitely awaken any sleeping parent from a deep sleep.

Since I’m mostly going to be using the camera in the loud room during the day to keep an eye on my toddler, I disabled the Smart Alert. Otherwise, it would be going off every 10 seconds. You know how loud toddlers can get!

The Range of the video monitor is pretty impressive. As I mention in the video, I’m able to view the camera from any location in my house, through walls and ceilings. (The toddler’s bedroom is upstairs in the back of the house, and I can view any activity on the camera down in my kitchen.)

I wanted to test the range further. Baby monitors often have a hard time transmitting once the viewing or listening part is outside.

I brought the wireless monitor out to my backyard to see how it would do once I was out of the house. I could see the service bars waver a bit, but from 20 ft from my patio (about 70-80 ft away from the location of the camera inside), the image and sound were still clear.

(Note: The screen isn’t great in the sunlight as it really isn’t made for outdoors, but I could still see what was going on.)

Back near our shed in the rear of our yard, I was still able to see and hear everything going on inside the house! I’m really excited to use this monitor in the summertime when I’m outside doing yard work but the toddler is napping inside.

You would think that interference from other electronic devices (we have quite a few..) plus the walls being in the way would mess with the range, but I have to say I’m quite impressed at how well the camera and the monitor transmit sound and clear images.

A Few More Things

One of the ‘bad’ reviews I saw while researching mentioned that the Eufy Spaceview made a terrible noise, both from the camera and the monitor.

The camera doesn’t emit any noise, at least to my ears.

The monitor does warn that if in close proximity to the camera with the volume full blast, it might make a noise, just as any other baby monitor would. I stood near the camera with the monitor in my hand with near full volume, and there wasn’t any noise. (Not sure why my black pants are purple in the image, though…)

Another review mentioned the light on the camera and how it interfered with a baby’s sleep. My guess would be that the camera in question was very close to the baby’s bed. I don’t feel like the little light would be enough to interrupt sleep if elsewhere in the room.

Do I Recommend the Eufy Video Baby Monitor? 

Yes, I would definitely recommend the Eufy Spaceview Video Baby Monitor. I wish I had something like this when my kids were still babies!

It might just be one of the Newborn Must Haves!

Baby Video Monitor on Amazon

You can find the Eufy Spaceview HD Wireless Baby Monitor on Amazon.

It is also available on EufyLife.com. 

A Video Monitor for My Toddler

I’m very grateful to now have a way to monitor my toddler’s activities from anywhere in my home. No more climbing up the ‘North Mountain’ for you, Elsa!

Tell me: Have you used a video baby monitor for your toddler? What would be your must haves for a video monitor? Leave a comment below!