Wireless Intercom???

[Al Launier]

My wife & I have lost some of our hearing & find ourselves yelling to get the other's attention from one part of the house to the other. I'm getting tired of this, so, I'm thinking a wireless intercom sysytem may be in order for Christmas as a mutual present. I'm currently looking at the Chamberlain NLS2 system (4 units), but have not been able to get an objective review via Google. It claims to have a 1,000' range, but has anyone used this system, or can recommend a better system that has clear reception throughout a house (basement to 2nd floor)? Is the plug-in DC adapter really better than the AAA batteries, other than the limited life of the batteries?

[Myk Rian]

That's a nice unit from a reputable company. They make garage door systems., and whole house equipment.
chamberlain.com

[Matt Meiser]

If you still have a landline, consider a cordless phone system. My parents have one and that works well for them.

[Larry Browning]

+1 on the cordless phone system with the intercom feature. We have bee using one for several years. I have one of the handsets in the shop which is over 100' away from the house. Not only does it work well as an intercom, I can answer the land line phone in the shop.
BTW, it is not required to have a land line for these to work. In fact the one we have connects to our cell phones via bluetooth and we can use our cell phones via the cordless phone when at home. My wife wears hearing aids and can hear much better on the cordless phone than her cell phone. So it is a win-win situation for her. Here is a link to the one we have.
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX-TGE263S-Link2Cell-Bluetooth-Answering/dp/B00ISKW2VY/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1449081571&sr=8-12&keywords=cordless+bluetooth+phone

(http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX-TGE263S-Link2Cell-Bluetooth-Answering/dp/B00ISKW2VY/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1449081571&sr=8-12&keywords=cordless+bluetooth+phone)

[roger wiegand]

I've tried using the intercom feature on our cordless phone but you have to know which handset you're trying to call and they are always moving around. Now we just use our cell phones.

[Larry Browning]

Ours has a feature to call all the handsets instead of just one. YMMV, but these are perfect for us. How old is your cordless phone. They have made big improvements in the last few years.

[Matt Meiser]

That must vary by system. My parents' system one can call all. And theirs has the bluetooth link to the cell as well, but its pretty poor call quality from what I've seen. Probably because their cell phones are too far from the base and I believe that's where the BT radio is located.

[Jim Koepke]

Wireless intercoms always make me think back to when two of my neighbors had these. The neighbors on one side of my home was using their's to monitor their newborn. The other neighbor was using their's so the wife could call down to the shop. The one in the shop told me he could hear the other neighbor's baby and some of the talk when the baby was being changed.

This was about 40 years ago. They may be much more secure now days, but still something to think about.

jtk

[Larry Browning]

That must vary by system. My parents' system one can call all. And theirs has the bluetooth link to the cell as well, but its pretty poor call quality from what I've seen. Probably because their cell phones are too far from the base and I believe that's where the BT radio is located.


Matt,
The key to making the bluetooth work well is indeed having the cell phone close to the base. This is how we use ours. It is sort of just habit when we walk in the door to place the cell phone down on the counter nest to the phone base. We also have the chargers set up there as well.
We are not much into texting at all and we have tablets for doing internet things on the couch, so we really have no need to carry around a cell phone at home anyway.
Like I said, YMMV depending on the way you do things.

Jim,
I have never had any interference with the neighbors. Of course we live out in the country. Not too many neighbors close by. Plus, 40 years ago, Al Gore had yet to invent the internet and electronic privacy/security was not too much of an issue.

[John O'Brien]

We had ones years ago from Radio Shack. One in my house and one in my neighbors. When either one went away that one could be put on "monitor" and any activity in the house could be heard in the other. They plugged in and as long as there was not a transformer between the 2 houses, it worked fine. No static and the volume could be controlled.


Don't know what's available today.

[Rich Engelhardt]

My wife & I have lost some of our hearing & find ourselves yelling to get the other's attention from one part of the house to the otherBefore you drop major (or even minor) money on a device......
Make sure the thing works with your hearing.

My hearing loss is pretty frequency specific. I have a lot of trouble with the human voice and other specific frequencies.

All an electronic device would do for me is make some unintelligible garble louder, not any easier to decipher.

I run into this with the TV all the time. I crank it up and strain to hear conversation, then get blown out of my seat when music or something starts.
I just got used to only hearing about half of what goes on.......with TV shows what they are, I don't think I miss all that much :D

[Larry Browning]

I run into this with the TV all the time. I crank it up and strain to hear conversation, then get blown out of my seat when music or something starts.
I just got used to only hearing about half of what goes on.......with TV shows what they are, I don't think I miss all that much :D

I have this problem as well. The wife is extremely HOH and she insists on turning closed captioning. At first I really disliked it, very distracting. But after a couple of weeks I got used to it and don't even turn it off when she is not at home. I have learned to block it out and then use it when I don't understand what was said.
Anything broadcast live, like the news, or a sporting event can get quite interesting. I think the speech-to-text software they use needs to be updated. My cell phone does a way better job of translating speech than the TV station, local or national.

Anyway you should give CC a chance, but you need to give a go for several weeks before deciding it is too annoying.

[Matt Schrum]

... I think the speech-to-text software they use needs to be updated. My cell phone does a way better job of translating speech than the TV station, local or national.

FWIW, I do believe many shows, including most (if not all) live events are generally closed captioned by an actual person with similar skills to a court reporter, etc.

[Larry Browning]

FWIW, I do believe many shows, including most (if not all) live events are generally closed captioned by an actual person with similar skills to a court reporter, etc.

Well, I'm pretty sure my cell phone would do a better job. I wonder if it's a union thing.

[Al Launier]

Some very interesting & appreciated comments above.

I also have trouble listenining to movies (DVDs or actual theaters) when there is a music background. At those times I wish I could read lips. ;)

We do not want to have to carry something around to talk to each other room to room. So, I think a wireless VOX, or PTT system is our best hope.

In any event, one of my concerns with an intercom system is the clarity & volume control. Can the volume be adjust to the desired loudness, or if not, is it loud enough to begin with??? I contacted the Chamberlain CS to discuss the features, including Voice Operated Exchange (VOX) versus Push to Talk (PTT), clarity & loudness. The response was "from what I hear they aren't too loud". Frankly, I didn't get the impression that she was very knowledgable overall about their intercom systems. Also, I would think that TV viewing becomes a problem VOX.

This has become a somewhat serious problem, so I need to get something thats works reasonably well at a reasonable price. I don't mind purchasing something if there is a really good chance that it will work as anticipated, but what I don't like is having to package & send something back, and then having to start all over again.

I think I'll call my audiologist tomorrow & get her opinion as well. ???