Baby Monitors

A monitor with its own screen or a camera on your phone:

the real choice is whether the monitor should depend on your home internet. An audio monitor is a transmitter by the crib and a receiver that clips to a belt, the simplest option and the longest on battery. A video monitor with a handheld screen pairs the camera directly with its own parent unit, so it keeps working when the router drops, and the picture never leaves the house. A Wi-Fi camera skips the screen and sends the picture to your phone, so you can look in from work, at the cost of relying on the connection, the maker’s app and an account. Hybrid models do both. Most cameras plug into the wall and go dark in a power cut. Sensor pads and sock monitors are a different kind of device; before taking one on second-hand, check that the app it needs still works. The camera belongs on a shelf or wall bracket looking down into the crib, its cable run along the wall and out of the baby’s reach. Night lights and white-noise machines are with the rest of the nursery gear.

Block walls and the walk to the pila:

most Costa Rican houses are built in concrete block, and every wall between camera and parent unit eats into the range printed on the box, which is measured in open air. A unit that holds a clean picture across an apartment in Santa Ana can break up when you carry it out to hang washing, or upstairs through a concrete slab. Wi-Fi cameras have the same problem with the router: a camera in a back bedroom far from it will stutter even when your phone shows full signal. Ask the seller how far apart the rooms were where it was used.

The parent unit’s battery sets the price:

a video monitor with its own screen and no Wi-Fi costs around ₡55,000 to ₡95,000 new, hybrids with an app sit above that, and an audio-only unit costs a fraction of it. Second-hand, the camera hardly wears. What ages is the rechargeable battery in the handheld screen, charged every night for a year or more. A screen that still lasts a night off the charger keeps most of the monitor’s value; one that only works plugged in is a camera with a small fixed display, and should be priced that way.

Testing a used baby camera in a dark room:

switch off the light and check that night vision comes on: a faint red glow around the lens and a clear grey picture on the screen. If the camera pans and tilts, run it through its full range and listen for grinding. Talk into the parent unit to test the camera’s speaker, and make a noise near the camera to see the sound alert respond. A back cover on the handheld screen that no longer sits flat can mean a swollen battery, which needs replacing, not charging. Ask for the original power adapters for both units; the camera’s is the one that goes missing.

Handing over a camera that is still on your account:

a Wi-Fi camera still linked to the seller will not set up on the buyer’s phone, so remove it from the app, reset it to factory settings and say so in the ad. Photograph both units switched on with a live picture, the label with the model number, and the adapters and wall bracket. Say how long the parent unit lasts off the charger and how many cameras come with it. A split-screen unit only accepts extra cameras from its own series, so give the model number. A buyer driving in from Pérez Zeledón will want to see it pair and the night vision work, so charge it fully the day before and meet somewhere you can cover the lens with a jacket and watch the picture turn grey.