This Rugged Portable Baby Monitor Was Designed by an Outdoorsman for Families That Love to Camp
In an ironic way, a baby monitor means freedom. Yes, you need to stay proverbially tied to that parent unit when your little one is sleeping, but with a baby monitor, moms and dads (or other caregivers) are free to move about the house or even to step outside and enjoy some fresh air in the yard, safe in the knowledge that if their little on so much as makes a peep, they’ll hear it and can take whatever parental action, if any, is needed.
But most baby monitors require AC power to run the kid’s in-room unit. And even those that are battery powered are definitely designed for indoor use. So what’s an outdoorsy family with little kids to do when it’s kiddo bedtime (or naptime) at the campsite?
Traditionally, there were two ways to deal with kids sleeping while family camping: the parents could either throw in the towel on further activities and just stay in the tent as well, maybe reading by a headlamp’s dim red glow if the child’s slumber was deep enough, or they could huddle just outside the tent, staying close enough by to hear a child’s entreaties (AKA cries).
Those options weren’t good enough for
founder Austin De La Cruz, though. So this lifelong camper and dad with young kids decided to do something about it. That something was designing a baby monitor specifically created for use in the outdoors.
“I grew up in a family of campers, so when I had kids of my own I wanted to be able to pass along my love of camping to them as early as I could,” De La Cruz says. “My favorite time of every camping trip is sitting around the fire at the end of the day, making s'mores … and looking at the stars, but that time is always after my little ones have gone to sleep. In order for me to be able to put my kids to sleep in their tents and still be able to enjoy that late night bonfire, I needed a baby monitor that worked in the outdoors. I needed this baby monitor to provide that peace of mind knowing they were sleeping soundly, and to alert me so I could help in case they needed a drink of water or a late night bathroom run.”
Every monitor De La Cruz considered had a problem when it came to camp use. Either they required power or had batteries but with only a few hours of run time. Some were too flimsy and easily damaged for outdoor use. Others had such poor range that they were little better than just sitting right outside the tent anyway.
So when Austin De La Cruz developed the hardware that would become the Roar Baby Monitor, he made sure his outdoor baby monitors addressed all those issues and then some. And having put these monitors to the test, we here at Dad Gear Review can say he was successful.
First off, there’s an elegant simplicity to a Roar monitor. You turn the black parent unit on, then you turn the orange child unit on, and they pair up automatically, the child unit continuously listening for and sharing sounds with the parent device. (If they don’t pair, holding in the volume buttons for three seconds rejigs the units into connecting, FYI.) There are volume buttons, a push-to-talk feature that lets the parent unit speak through the kid unit, there’s a headphone jack, a charging port and… that’s pretty much it. (OK, there are removable batteries and an option for a wrist lanyard or belt/pack clip, too.)
The fact that that’s it is a good thing, because you don’t need any more features, what you need is function. And you get it. In most conditions, these monitors can connect at a distance of nearly 1,000 feet. They can operate in temperatures well below freezing and well above 130 degrees Fahrenheit (not that you would have your family in said temps, but still). Roar’s baby monitors resist water and dust or dirt, they can live through a drop or two or 10, and they have a battery life of up to 20 hours when fully charged.
In other words, these baby monitors are truly outdoor ready. So as soon as you are ready to get back to the outdoors with your little kids, make them a part of your kit and get after it.
Photos c/o Roar Baby Monitors