single family room to room intercom system
do you guys have any experience with such a system? we’re renovating a single family, 4 floor townhouse and have 3 kids who’s bedrooms will all be on the top floor — so i was thinking an intercom system might be good for us. i’d be interested to hear if those of you w/ these…
do you guys have any experience with such a system? we’re renovating a single family, 4 floor townhouse and have 3 kids who’s bedrooms will all be on the top floor — so i was thinking an intercom system might be good for us. i’d be interested to hear if those of you w/ these systems actually use them and any recommendations you might have. thanks!
Hello. Radio Shack sells a wireless intercom which we use in our house for the same reason. The only drawback is that you cannot select which unit will receive the message. But then, we usually use it to call the kids down for dinner or to get ready for bed, so we want them to hear us whereever they are in the house.
Good luck.
I’ve raised 2 kids in a 4 story brownstone. We have a Panasonic telephone system which is hardwired into every room, and is connected to the 2 front doors. It’s very convenient- when someone rings the doorbell you can pick up the phone in every room- and you can “broadcast” that dinner is ready all over the house when you don’t know where everyone is, as well as dialing an extension for each room. When you’re in the kitchen on the ground floor and your kid in on the top floor with the door closed, it’s nice to have the intercom. It’s basically a small office telephone system.
thanks all. sounds like they’re moderately useful (and certainly not v. expensive…) but i think we’ve opted against. thanks again for your help.
An intercom is is especially useful in a muti-level dwelling with children. I purchased an easy installation battery operated one for all 4 levels.
We have one and use it all the time to avoid yelling up/down the stairs. The kids do like playing with it, but that is kinda funny.
My 3 kids have rooms on the top floor of our triplex. When we were renovating, the electrician or contractor put a intercom outside the front door, parlor kitchen, 2nd and 3rd floor hallway. I don’t think it was expensive because they threw it in for free. It is occasionally handy and I’m glad we have it. I could live without it. I have only used the outdoor one on a couple of occasions. It is helpful when you need a kid 2 floors up and I think having one in the hallway is sufficient. Sometimes when my kids’ friends are over they play with it and it can drive me crazy.
we used a simple plug-in system in a multi-story brownstone. it mostly worked fine but sometimes it didn’t. i wouldn’t recommend the simple plug-in systems (see cons below)
either hard-wire one in or try the phones that call each other. we have phones that do that now but in a small apartment. the only con i can see with the ones we have is you must know the handset# of the one you want to intercom to.
plug-in intercoms
pros:
– they don’t walk away like walkie-talkies or phone handsets
cons:
– had to be near a plug
– didn’t always work – some funky wiring or poor design? hard to tell
– had to pick a # for each floor and then to call another floor, switch to that floor’s number, buzz, have the conversation and then remember to switch back to the regular # for the floor
– there was a button to make it a monitor that sometimes got pressed accidentally making none of them work
– don’t do it with small kids, they press the buttons endlessly and you’ll never figure out how to call another floor
I grew up in a family of 7 living in a five level home. Yelling for each other drove my mother crazy so she got a cheap intercom system. It worked great. Each room had a small device that we’d place on a bedside table or next to a phone. It would buzz and you could talk right into it, like a door buzzer but quieter. I’d highly recommend one.
Funny, I think we’d use an intercom all the time in our own house. Right now we call each other on our cell phones when inside the house and can’t or don’t want to go down two floors to talk. Or we send an email. And our house is only 2 stories plus E-basement.
What about walkie-talkies? That might work. You can buy one for every family member.