Home Paging/Intercom Recommendations Please

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hello all, I’m usually just a lurker here but I have been unable to find a solution that meets my needs and I was hoping someone might have some suggestions.

I’m the primary caregiver for my elderly father, who lives next to me in an attached bachelor apartment. He’s healthy, alert and mobile but I need some sort of paging system so he can call me for emergency help or everyday assistance (reaching things, help putting on clothes, etc).

I do not want a Lifeline-type of system that calls a third party operator for help. Most of his calls for help are non-emergencies.

We currently have a basic intercom system (1 unit in his bedroom, 1 in my bedroom, 1 in my home office). We don’t use it to talk since he cannot hear well enough to communicate via speakers. It has a simple push-and-hold page button that sends out a loud BEEP, which is all we need to summon me. Its main problems are that its not portable, not expandable, and it suffers from constant loud humming/buzzing whenever a storm rolls in or the power flickers.

Ideally I need something that meets these needs:

  1. Minimum 250ft range. 300+ would be better, so he can call me from the garage or garden.

  2. Needs some sort of audible alert, so I can keep it by my bed at night and be awakened.

  3. Non-portable base units are fine but having at least one portable unit to stick in his pocket for when he goes out in the yard or to the bathroom would be highly desirable.

  4. Shielded from interference (or maybe I am ignorant of how to protect electronics from this sort of thing, which is likely)

  5. My budget is around $500, although I could probably go higher if there is no other choice.

So far all my googling just produces cheap junk that is too basic or professional alert systems that requires a third-party operator. I cannot find a happy medium.

Thank you for any advice or resources you can point me to!

2

Any reason you can just use cell phones?

3

We have no service where we live. We’re in a log house in the mountains of NE Washington. We’re lucky we have regular phone lines :slight_smile:

4

a Family Radio Service radio (USA) might work. there is a range of features. you can have a alert beep (somewhat loud) to get the to answer. you can get with an earphone and microphone on an earbud to help with hearing. pick a channel that is unused frequently. not private.

5

You can buy land-line systems that act like intercoms (as well as phones) and do what you describe. I had one that was great, but I hesitate to recommend it because it was a Bang & Olufsen system, pretty pricey, and almost certainly not made any more.

That said, I’d be highly surprised if you couldn’t find a relatively inexpensive system that does what you want. This one, for example, gets good reviews and is only around $100.

I’m sure there are others, I just did a quick Amazon search and found that system.

6

:smack: It never even occurred to me to use a landline system…

Thank you Athena and johnpost. I will look into both your suggestions!

7

Hi Prongo,

Have a look at a company called Doro.
They make many ‘ease of use’ and accessibility communication devices for elderly, impaired, disabled etc.

Phones, wireless phones, emergency call systems and walkie talkies.

http://www.doro.com/

8

DECT cordless phones often have an intercom function. I have a set in my house and I use it to communicate to people in other rooms when I’m feeling lazy.

Pretty cheap, a set of 4 phones cost less than £120 when I bought it.