Smart Caregiver Wireless & Cordless Weight Sensing Bed Pad - 10"x30" with Monitor/Alarm for Elderly Care, Home Healthcare & Patient Monitoring

I got this for my mother who has dementia so that I would know if she got up during the night. It works great! As in other reviews I read, I put it under her upper body so that if she gets up, I will have time to get to her.Before the bed alarm, my sister and I suffered from terrible sleep deprivation because our mother awaken us every hour. She’d already fallen and broken her hip, so there’s no way we wanted her getting out of bed without assistance. We purchased this bed alarm and also bought the PureWick external female catheter (not sold on Amazon), which changed all of our lives for the better. Mom learned to trust the PureWick and slept much better, although she sometimes wakes up confused and tries to get out of bed. The alarm has saved her on many occasions. Now, for the reasons I gave this four stars instead of five. First, it’s necessary to attach the pad to the mattress to prevent it from shifting. We used large safety pins for that purpose. The pad is vinyl with unreinforced holes in the edges, presumably for attachment. In a matter of a month or so, the vinyl had started tearing. There should be reinforced grommets for attachment. Second, there is a potentially dangerous delay in the alarm no matter how we tried to position the pad. If we put it by her shoulders, the alarm would go off when she reached for a drink of water or to turn off her bedside lamp. If we put it near her hips, she’d have feet on the floor by the time we go into the room. Not good. We ended up having to position the mat toward the hips and putting a rail on the bed to slow Mom’s progress. The third issue is the fact that the stated lifetime of the pad is one year, and the lithium battery in the device is engineered to die after one year of use. Why? I don’t like products that have built-in expiration dates. This sort of planned obsolescence if annoying.This thing seems like the best of the bunch in its class. The manufacturer has real people answering the phone who know the product and want you to be satisfied. It seems like the product could be improved. It works like this: 1. Sit on the bed pad->the bed pad sendingiunit flashes a (typically hidden) LED, and the alarm unit flashes the two outside LEDs twice. 2. Get up from the pad->the alarm starts chiming within 5 seconds or so. At this point if you sit back down the alarm stops. Similarly, if you turn the alarm unit off the alarm stops chiming, and if you then turn it back on the alarm will not chime again until the pair is re-armed by sitting on the pad again.So, if you are monitoring the pad from a remote location and the alarm chimes you will probably want to turn the alarm off, which gives you a few choices, none of which is optimal. You can turn the alarm off while you see what's up. You can turn it off and then back on while you check. Or you can turn the alarm off and take it with you while you go to check. The trouble is that whichever action you take, you will need to remember to follow a sequence of actions to ensure that the system will work as you expect the next time, and if you are using 3rd party caregivers the odds are slim that they will use the pad/alarm combination as effectively as you might like.The bed pad radio could have a way to report battery status. The remote unit could have a way to query the pad to ensure communications are working and verify the pad status (weighted or not). The remote unit should have a button to disable the alarm for 20 minutes or so, then automatically re-enable it.Our unit is being used in my mother's memory care facility. We monitor her night-times with a DropCam and can tell after the fact when she gets up and the alarm does not ring. I believe that when this happens, the facility staff generally do not have the alarm turned on, but sometimes it seems the alarm and pad are not communicating. This latter situation can be fixed by bringing the alarm to the pad, and sitting down and getting up a few times (waiting 30 seconds on the pad and off the pad) until the LEDs flash and the unit alarms. Asking low-pay midnight-shift staff to deal with the uncertainty and complexity of this system is not ideal. Professionally written instructions and troubleshooting guides would at least allow the staff with time and motivation to have a prayer of figuring out what is going on when they find Mom in the hall with no alarm going off. I want to reiterate that the manufacturer's staff have been super and easy to contact, but that is a help to me, not to the staff at the facility... they don't have time, responsibility, authorization or expertise.My Mother was unable to vocalize the need for assistance and got to a point that she couldn't remember to ring for us (wireless doorbell from HD). She was constantly getting up to use the restroom. She was at the point that someone needed to be with her to make sure she made it there and back. We'd be sitting downstairs and hear a creak in the floor and go running upstairs to find her shuffling along-barely! It was SO frustrating.Anyhow, you get the picture. I got this because I was really worried about night time when we were asleep and not being able to hear her get up. I didn't want her to know it was there so one day when we got her up I slipped it under her sheets. She didn't seem to notice it was there. I thought the "crinkly" noise it made might alert her but it didn't.Like another reviewer stated...You'll get a work out if you live in a multi story unit. That thing went off constantly! And it wasn't a false alarm (just a few of those).It took us a few trips to figure out what a good position for it was. I suggest lower hip area. That way, when they sit up the pressure releases and alerts you. If it's up too high, you'll get a few false alarms, especially if they turn a lot and curl when they sleep (side sleeper). Too low, they'll already be standing up by the time it alarms and you get there. (about a 3-5 second delay once pressure is released to alarm sounding)It was a huge stress reliever during the night. Yes, I still worried that it might not alarm but that worry was alleviated pretty quick. I'd say once we got it, it went off every 1-2 hours during the night. Each time it did, I found her sitting up in bed getting ready to stand up.The only thing I didn't like is that the alarm continues to go off until you turn it off manually and reset it OR put enough weight back on the pad to get it to stop. That wasn't really a big deal though. You get in a routine. We kept the alarm on a table. Whoever was nearest to it shut it off on their way to the bedroom. Just remember to turn it back on!!I would absolutely suggest buying this. It really did help relieve some of the worry!This was purchased to allow caregivers to know when their someone was getting out of bed during the night. The transmitter is in the 'patient's' room and the receiver is with the caregiver. It works very well with a tone that has two volume settings - "ding-dong" - and will not stop until manually shut off, which is a good feature.HiWe used for 4 months (sept 2019-Feburary 2020 when my mom dead). It did its job and I was happy. However for the price and to be told today May 2021 that the transponder gizmo only works for one year not happy at all. It has been in my cupboard for 1 yr. March 2020-April 2021. Just sent to my mother's sister for her to use and she tells me the transformer does not work any more????? Wow.. Everything is looking new but now I am told we need to replace the pad/transformer. Shame on the company. Now its all for the garbage. What a wasteBought this last year for my 89 year old father with dementia. First one worked great, helped us to sleep and have peace of mind. It stopped working after about 11 months, so not as long as advertised, but I reordered a new one which we started using last Saturday, Friday we noticed the alarm wasn't working. double checked the batteries in the alarm and they were fine. There is a small red light that should light up in the sealed bed pad when released and that does not come on, so either there is a defect or the battery that was shipped was old. Literally did not even work for 6 days. Looking for new solutions, as I'm now having to sleep near his door to monitor through the night!Good value for the costHas worked amazingly allowing us security in keeping elder parent safe-peace of mind