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Motorola Nursery Audio Baby Monitor

Motorola Nursery Audio Baby Monitor

By Motorola · Baby Monitors · Cleaning & Smart Home · More from Motorola

  • 1.5" LCD display with orange backlight
  • DECT wireless technology
  • Up to 300m (1000ft) range
  • 10 hours battery life
  • Two-way talk

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Problems, parts and running costs

Summary

The Motorola Nursery AM24 is an audio-only DECT baby monitor with a nursery temperature readout and two-way talk, for parents who want a simple monitor with no Wi-Fi and no app. Check the range before you buy: the advertised 1,000 ft came in at 750 ft open field and 110 ft through walls in the only independent test.

Strengths

  • DECT 6.0 digital transmission means no Wi-Fi, no app and nothing streaming out of the nursery.
  • The room-temperature readout on the display is one of the features BabyGearLab listed as a reason to buy.
  • Two-way talk lets you soothe the baby from the parent unit — half-duplex, so you cannot hear the nursery while holding the key.
  • BabyGearLab scored battery life a perfect 10.0/10 in its instrumented test.
  • The parent battery is a user-installable 2.4 V 750 mAh Ni-MH pack, so a worn pack is replaceable.
  • No subscription, no app fees, no cloud storage — nothing recurring to pay for.

Weaknesses

  • Measured range fell well short of the claim: 750 ft open field and 110 ft through 7 walls indoors, against the advertised 1,000 ft.
  • There is no sound filtering, so ambient nursery noise is always audible on the parent unit and can disturb light sleepers.
  • Maximum volume measured 86.6–87 dB — lower than most competitors, and well below the VTech DM111’s 104 dB.
  • The interface is unintuitive: the baby-unit power button needs multiple presses and menu icons scroll left and right.
  • The temperature display is a readout only — no high or low alarm, unlike the sibling PIP11.
  • The baby unit has no battery backup, so a power outage silences the monitor.

Verified specifications

ModelAM24; the AM24-2 pack adds a second parent unit.
Display1.5" black-and-white LCD with an orange backlight.
WirelessDECT 6.0 digital at 1.9 GHz; 5 channels in the US and Canada, 10 in the EU.
Rangeup to 300 m (1,000 ft) claimed; BabyGearLab measured an initial cut-out around 350 ft (107 m) open field, distinct sounds to 750 ft (229 m), and 110 ft (34 m) through 7 walls indoors.
Parent batteryuser-installable 2.4 V 750 mAh Ni-MH pack; Motorola claims 10 hours of playtime.
Two-way talkpress-and-hold key on the parent unit; while you hold it you cannot hear the nursery.
Temperaturenursery temperature readout from the baby unit; no high or low alarm.
Volume5 levels or off; maximum measured 86.6–87 dB.
Sound alertoptional beep when the baby unit detects a loud sound; off by default.
Display languages6 (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese).
Unit separationkeep the units at least 1 m apart to avoid high-pitched feedback noise.
Power6 VDC 400 mA adapters (100–240 VAC input); the baby unit must stay plugged in, with no battery backup.
ComplianceFCC Part 15 Class B, ISED RSS, FCC/ISED SAR tested.
EMF1.01 V/m at 6 ft from the nursery unit, below the class average.
In the boxparent unit, baby unit, rechargeable Ni-MH battery pack, battery door, one adapter per unit; the AM24-2 adds a second parent unit with adapter and battery pack. The baby unit has keyhole slots for wall mounting.
Warrantythe manual reads “One (2) years” for consumer products, an apparent typo; BabyGearLab records 1 year.
Full research notes and sources

Range: the claim and the measurement

Motorola claims up to 300 m (1,000 ft) of range, and the manual itself warns that metal objects, reinforced concrete, walls, TVs, computers, cordless phones, fluorescent lights and dimmer switches all reduce it. The only independent measurement found is BabyGearLab’s 2023-09-29 test: an initial cut-out around 350 ft (107 m) in open field, with distinct sounds still audible at 750 ft (229 m), and a signal lost after 110 ft (34 m) through 7 walls indoors. If you carry the parent unit far from the nursery, plan on the indoor figure, not the claim.

Sound, volume and two-way talk

Talk-back is a press-and-hold key on the parent unit, and it is half-duplex: while you hold it, you cannot hear the nursery. Volume has five levels or off; BabyGearLab measured a maximum of 86.6–87 dB, lower than most competitors and below the VTech DM111’s 104 dB. Sound clarity scored 7.3/10 — clear with minimal distortion, with challenges on higher pitches — but there is no sound filtering at all, so ambient nursery noise is always on the parent unit.

Battery, interface and upkeep

The parent unit runs on a user-installable 2.4 V 750 mAh Ni-MH pack, claimed by Motorola at 10 hours of playtime; BabyGearLab scored battery life 10.0/10, its strongest metric, though the 10-hour figure is a manufacturer claim and Ni-MH packs of this class degrade with age and charge cycles. The baby unit must stay plugged in — there is no battery backup for outages. Running costs are effectively zero: no app, no subscription, no cloud storage, and the manual specifies the same 2.4 V 750 mAh pack when a replacement is needed; no parts catalog for the AM24 exists on motorolanursery.com. On the interface, ease of use scored 6.1/10: the baby-unit power button needs multiple presses and the menus scroll left and right. Keep the units at least 1 m apart to avoid high-pitched feedback, expect high volume to drain the battery quickly, and care for it per the manual — cords out of reach, nothing covering the units, no water or extreme temperatures, unplug before cleaning, and no self-repair.

Is it worth it?

At Motorola’s official $29.99 (BabyGearLab lists $30), the AM24 makes sense if you specifically want the temperature readout and two-way talk on a no-Wi-Fi DECT unit. In the only instrumented comparison found, it beat the award-winning VTech DM111 70/100 to 65 at the same list price, winning on sound clarity (7.3 vs 6.8), features (6.2 vs 3.3), sound filtering, rechargeable battery and temperature readout, while losing on ease of use (6.1 vs 10.0), range (6.0 vs 7.3) and max volume (87 vs 104 dB). BabyGearLab still recommended the VTech DM1211 ($77 list) or the TimeFlys QQ Portable ($42), and its verdict was “a sound monitor that lacks user-friendliness and functional range”. Above about $35 the value thins out: the VTech DM221 at $40 scored 77 with far better sound clarity (9.5) and max volume (103 dB). Brand-level Reddit complaints about Motorola monitors exist, but they target the video models — r/daddit’s “Don’t buy a Motorola baby monitor” cites camera reconnection and customer service — not this audio one.

Which model this is

This page covers the Motorola Nursery AM24, an audio-only DECT monitor also badged MBP24 in some markets and manuals, sold as the AM24 single pack and the AM24-2 dual-parent pack. It is distinct from the AM21 (no display, no two-way talk, no temperature readout, disposable batteries) and from Motorola’s video monitors.

Mumsnet’s December 2023 test of the AM21 — the same DECT family without the display, talk or temperature — praised reliable signal in a small terraced house and a sturdy build, but called the sound “a little tinny” and found batteries draining fast at £25.

Sources

Manufacturer:

Independent reviews:

Owner reports:

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