As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page are affiliate links.
Baby monitor battery life: which number is the screen-on number?
Updated
Many parent units carry two battery claims. The smaller one is with the screen on. The bigger one is for a power-saving mode where the screen is off and only sound comes through, or where the screen wakes on noise. On the 3 picks here that state both, the screen-on figure is 53 to 66 percent of the bigger one. Plan around the smaller number if you like to glance at a live picture.
Audio-only, voice or eco modeScreen on, showing video
- VTech VM81929 hours19 hours
- HelloBaby HB655030 hours16 hours
- Babysense 5 inch HD Split-Screen20 hours12 hours
- eufy Baby Monitor E21none stated12 hours
The two numbers on each listing
| Model | Screen on | Power saving | Gap | Screen on as a share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VTech VM819 | 19 h | 29 h (audio-only) | 10 h | 66% |
| HelloBaby HB6550 | 16 h | 30 h (voice mode) | 14 h | 53% |
| Babysense 5 inch HD Split-Screen | 12 h | 20 h (eco mode) | 8 h | 60% |
The eufy Baby Monitor E21 is in the chart with one bar. eufy's support page says its monitor runs up to 12 hours with the live stream showing all the time, and we did not find a power-saving figure. Infant Optics DXR-8 PRO and VTech VM901 give a battery size in mAh and no hours on the listings we read. Infant Optics' product page does not give hours either. It does say the battery is user-replaceable.
One more wrinkle. The VTech VM819 listing says up to 29 hours of audio-only use. VTech's own product page says 31. Both say 19 hours of video. When two pages from the same maker differ, take the lower figure.
What the modes are
- Screen on, or video mode: the display shows the nursery all the time. This drains the battery fastest.
- Audio-only or voice mode: the screen is off and you hear the room. VTech and HelloBaby quote their biggest figure for this mode.
- VOX, eco or sound-activated mode: the screen sleeps in a quiet room and wakes when the camera hears noise. Babysense quotes its 20 hours for eco mode. How long you get depends on how noisy the night is.
Does it last the night?
Take a 10 hour night with the screen on the whole time. By the makers' figures, the VTech VM819 at 19 hours covers 1 full night, the HelloBaby HB6550 at 16 covers 1, and the Babysense 5 inch HD Split-Screen at 12 covers 1 with 2 hours left. None of them covers two screen-on nights on one charge. Most parents leave the parent unit on its charger at the bedside, so battery hours count most in the daytime, when you carry it around the house.
These are claims for a new battery. Owner summaries for several picks mention batteries that stopped holding a charge. A parent unit that stays plugged in every night still works with a tired battery. One that you carry around does not, which is where a replaceable battery like the one in the Infant Optics DXR-8 PRO helps.
Camera batteries are a separate thing
Most nursery cameras have no battery and stop when the power goes out. The eufy Baby Monitor E21 is the exception here. Its listing says the camera's 5,000 mAh battery gives about 9 hours, or about 5.5 hours with night vision on. That helps on a trip or in an outage.
Run your own home through the link checker, or compare all 7 picks on the roundup page.