At the beginning of 2014, for the birth of our oldest son, we bought an Alecto DBX-88 ECO, which came out best in the test at the Consumers' Association. This baby monitor regularly interfered, a noise could be heard on the line, but by briefly pressing the Talk button this disappeared again. When our second son was born at the end of 2016, we purchased a second Alecto DBX-88 ECO in a different color.
However, the software of this baby monitor model has since been modified and it is not an improvement. The new baby monitor was also disturbing, but if you wanted to remedy this by briefly pressing the Talk button, you heard a warning beep in the baby room, to alert you that someone is about to say something. This beep is very disturbing if you just want to stop the noise. This "trick" was therefore no longer possible with the newer version of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO.
In addition, the display of both the parent unit and the baby unit sometimes spontaneously lit up in the middle of the night. According to Hesdo, who does maintenance for Alecto, among others, the latter would be a bug. The added beep would be new functionality. Because the new functionality with the noise present was very disturbing, plus because the purchased color was no longer available, we returned the Alecto DBX-88 ECO. I will spare you the tedious process for this, but summarize it for you with the fact that we will in any case never buy an Alecto product again.
The Philips Avent SCD560, the less extensive version of the Philips Avent SCD570, recently came out on top in the test at the Consumers' Association. The Philips Avent SCD570 has not been tested, but is actually the same baby monitor, but with some advantages over the other model, including a charging station and a so-called quiet night mode, which ensures that the light intensity of the lights, the display and the volume of the warnings are lower. Reason enough for us to purchase the Philips Avent SCD570. But how would the new baby monitor compare to our Alecto DBX-88 ECO?
The first thing that struck me when unpacking is the build quality of the baby monitor. The Philips Avent SCD570 feels sturdy. The housing is of a clearly higher quality than that of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO. You may pay more for both the Philips Avent SCD560 and the Philips Avent SCD570, but the difference with the Alecto DBX-88 ECO is immediately noticeable when unpacking.
The first night, the Philips Avent SCD570 turned out to be very sensitive, so we simply lowered the sensitivity through the settings. The sound is crystal clear and, most importantly, there is no noise. Both the Alecto DBX-88 ECO baby monitors sometimes spontaneously started to hiss in the middle of the night, but the Philips Avent SCD570 is quiet, as it should be. A breath of fresh air. No more occasionally walking a few steps to the baby monitor at night to press the Talk button to get rid of the noise of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO.
Our Alecto DBX-88 ECO sometimes does not load properly. You think you have placed the parent unit correctly in the charging station, you even heard the beep that it would look good in it (!), but in the morning it turns out that this was not the case. The baby monitor may have been slightly skewed and the battery is therefore now completely empty. Difficult if the children are still in bed, you are downstairs and the parent unit is unexpectedly empty. You will not have this with the Philips Avent SCD570. The baby monitor fits perfectly in the charging station, you can't insert it slightly crooked.
The baby unit optionally contains four regular AA batteries, so that the baby monitor continues to work if, for example, the power goes out. In the baby unit of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO you can also place four AA batteries for the same purpose, but you have to use rechargeable batteries. Now on paper a baby unit that also charges the batteries sounds better than a baby unit that doesn't, but in practice it is the other way around. The good Duracell rechargeable batteries that we used in the baby unit of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO lasted a maximum of 2.5 years and then had to be replaced. The baby monitor gave no warning for this. Coincidentally, we saw at a certain point that if you removed the plug, the baby unit would not remain on. Inserting new rechargeable batteries solved this, but we had to buy them first. On the other hand, we always have regular AA batteries in stock, which makes replacing them easy.
Is there nothing wrong with the Philips Avent SCD570? Not so far, although I can think of a few minor negatives if I try my best. The first is the temperature sensor. The Alecto DBX-88 ECO shows the temperature in the baby room on both the parent unit and the baby unit. If you are in the baby's room, you can easily see on the baby unit how hot or cold it is in the room. The Philips Avent SCD570 only shows the temperature on the parent unit.
The parent unit of the Philips Avent SCD570 comes with a neck strap. Handy if you want to have your hands free. The parent unit of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO, on the other hand, has a belt clip. Personally, I like a belt clip better, although you run a greater risk of dropping the parent unit, for example if you walk a little too close to a wall. We have never dropped the parent unit of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO, so we prefer a belt clip.
The baby unit of the Alecto DBX-88 ECO and the Philips Avent SCD570 have a light and can play music. You can operate the light on the Philips Avent SCD570 with both the parent unit and the baby unit. With the Alecto DBX-88 ECO you can only do this with the parent unit. Secretly still a plus for the Philips Avent SCD570 in between. What is a pity is that the light does not go out automatically, for example after a quarter of an hour or half an hour. We have never used the lights on the Alecto DBX-88 ECO, because they gave too little light, but I don't think they go off automatically (?). We have never used the music on the Alecto DBX-88 ECO. Also on the Philips Avent SCD570 we will not be using it any time soon, I expect. The music on the Philips Avent SCD570 sounds better than on the Alecto DBX-88 ECO, but in any case on the Philips Avent SCD570 they don't stop automatically either. Whether this is the case on the Alecto DBX-88 ECO, I do not know (?).
Long story short; do we recommend the Philips Avent SCD570? I can answer a resounding "yes" to this!
