Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor review

Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor

The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor is a large sensor pad which you put under the baby’s mattress and a remote device that resembles an angel and can be hung on the outside of baby’s door.

The object of the Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor is to alert you when baby stops moving, breathing, or has rolled out of sensor range. The alarm sounds and you rush in to check on baby and hopefully it’s just baby’s moved far enough out to trigger the alarm.

Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor breakdown

The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor is

• a large sensor pad coming in at roughly 10″x10″
• 12ish feet of audio-style cable
• One base unit with two switches that look like angel wings and a sensitivity knob
• 3 LED indicators for tic (baby movement,) alarm (no baby movement,) low battery
• 2 AA batteries (not included)

Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor broke down

During use the base unit fell off a shelf onto the carpet. It was placed back and continued blinking away. The next day I went and took staff editor Maggie out of her crib and walked away and realized I had forgotten to turn off the monitor. I went back to turn it off and realized that even though it was in the on position it was not functioning.

A quick check of the thing revealed that during the fall one of the AA batteries had somehow managed to push the clip that pushes on the negative side of the battery back just a wee bit, which mean one of the batteries was completely free-floating at this point.

Considering it was working post-fall, the only thing I can come up with was that the temperature difference (it has been 80 degrees, was now 60,) lead to the battery not being snug as a bug.

Fortunately during this event my child did not spontaneously combust, but it’s something to keep in mind in the event you drop the base. Check the batteries to make sure they’re still in snug.

Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor shortcomings

The base is larger than it needs to be, but is designed as it is to look cute. The cord is too short to reach past the door to baby’s room, although I guess I could probably get an audio extension cord and remedy that.

The Tic noise the monitor makes when you’ve got it set to paranoid mode is just annoying as all getout. While I understand that that noise probably is the loudest and least battery consuming, man it’s annoying.

The pad can be so sensitive it picks up a central air conditioner running, so you’ll need to make sure that the alarm goes off without baby in the crib before trusting the thing.

Wrap-up

It’s relatively inexpensive, does the job, does it mostly right. Your needs will vary, but if you’re in a small house or apartment this may be the perfect solution for you.

Our unit was provided courtesy of Lydia S, and many thanks to her for that. The blinking light has kept us from poking baby to make sure she’s fine more times than you would believe.

The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor is available from Amazon for $50.77 and ranks as one of those things I don’t think I’d attempt to engineer on my own using the motion sensor on a deactivated cell phone, although I think it could be done.