Review: Levana CT1000 Digital Wireless Child Tracker Wrist Watch and Kid Finder/Locator

Product: Levana CT1000 Digital Wireless Child Tracker Wrist Watch and Kid Finder/Locator

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Review:
I'll be up front, I did not have a good experience with this product. I think most of my problems came from what I thought it was versus what it actually was.

What I wanted: a product to put on my 22 month old daughter to let me know if she suddenly decides to take off while my back is turned at Wal-mart. I also wanted to put it on her at the park so that if I couldn't see her because she was behind a play structure, I would now she was still in range. I also wanted to keep it in my purse and be able to put it on her when we got somewhere.

What it is: a product for short range tracking of your child (up to ~100 feet). It also has a locate feature that is supposed to help you figure out which way your child went. The battery on the kids band is rechargeable.

Pros:

• rechargeable battery on child's band
• adjustable range (close, medium, and far)
• points which way your child went and whether you are far or close

Cons:

• there is no off switch on the child's band. This means from the second you take the wrist band off the charge, the child's band is on (unless you remove the battery). I could see this being good since there is no way for the child to turn it off, but mostly I find it annoying because I can't store this item in my purse, ready to be used if I need it.
  
• battery life - the charge on the child's band only lasts and hour or two.
• The band barely fits around my child's ankle. I know the band is supposed to go around her wrist, but I know that on her ankle, she won't notice it as much or have fun pushing the page button.
• The beeping on the parent unit is too quiet if you keep it in your pocket and are outside. There is no volume control. This means I had to be actively monitoring the monitor, especially since it ran out of battery part of the way through the outing.
• The child's monitor and adult monitor are rather bulky.
  

I guess my main complaint with it is that I was expecting a painless monitoring solution. Having to take out the battery on the child's unit and store the battery until I need to use it is not painless. The battery is a little smaller than a quarter, the perfect size to loose.

I think I could work around the problems it has, but I'm not sure I want to. I'm going to give it one more chance, then I'm returning it to Amazon.

Updated (3/9/09): I returned this to Amazon. The parent unit stopped communicating with the child unit. I think though that most of my complaints would stand even with a perfectly working unit.