The 10 Best Wireless Intercoms

For most homes, the Wuloo WL666 lets you talk between rooms for little money, with no wiring and no Wi-Fi. Each unit runs off a USB charger or a power bank and offers 10 channels, group calls, a voice-activated mode and a monitor mode for listening in on a nursery. Wuloo has sold this design for years, so extra units are easy to match. You hold a button to talk, and walls cut the claimed range sharply.

Hands-free talk is the reason to pick the Hosmart UltraSpeak HY812. Both people can speak and hear at once, like a phone call, instead of taking turns on a button. A call can also answer itself after a few seconds of ringing, which helps someone who can't reach the unit. It plugs in with a USB-C cable and needs no pairing. It works only with other Hosmart units, and its talk-at-once audio draws mixed reports.

The Amazon Echo Show 5 turns the intercom idea into a video call. Over Wi-Fi it can drop in on another Echo with a screen, announce a message to every Echo in the house, or show a compatible doorbell camera, and you can check in from your phone while away. There's a camera shutter and a mic-off button. Both ends need Wi-Fi, an Amazon account and an Echo, so a whole house adds up fast.

Three stations come in the box with the Wuloo WL888, so a kitchen, an office and a bedroom are covered from the start. A small screen shows the channel, and the big keys suit older hands. With 22 channels and many more ID codes, it's easier to dodge a neighbor's set on the same frequency. Each unit has a slot for wall hanging. It's push-to-talk, though, and anyone tuned to the same channel can listen.

Built for caregiving, the CallToU Caregiver Pager kit pairs wearable call buttons with plug-in chimes and adds a pair of walkie-talkies for talking back. A press on the button rings a chime loud enough to wake a sleeper, and the buttons and chimes handle splashes, so a bathroom is fine. The pager and the radios are separate systems that don't link, and indoors the buttons reach only a few hundred feet. It isn't a monitored medical alert.

Pocket-size handhelds like the CallToU WT42 go where a plug-in unit can't: the yard, the garage or a walk to the mailbox. A voice-activated mode lets you talk without pressing anything, and a keypad lock stops pocket presses. Each one recharges over USB-C, and the case handles rain and spills. Only one person can speak at a time, and they need charging every day or two, which is easy to forget.

With the Wuloo Intercom Doorbell, a visitor rings and then talks to you through either of two indoor units, which rest in charging docks. The outdoor button screws to a door frame or gatepost, runs on a rechargeable battery and stands up to rain. You pick from a long list of chimes. There's no camera, so you hear who's there without seeing them, and the outdoor button needs recharging now and then.

A set of four makes the Sanzuco Full Duplex kit a fit for a larger house or a small office. Each unit lets both sides talk at once, as on a phone, it can answer calls on its own, and a silent mode mutes the ring at night. Units split into two groups, so upstairs and downstairs can talk separately. The brand is small, its range claim is hard to believe, and it works only with its own units.

An alarm button sets the ChunHee WT08 apart: one press sounds an alert on the other handsets, which matters when an older relative spends hours alone in another part of the house. A large talk button on the front and a second on the side suit stiff or shaky hands, and a voice reads out the channel when you change it. It isn't water resistant, and reports on how long it lasts are mixed.

Anyone who grew up with a cordless phone will know their way around the Chtoocy Rechargeable handsets. Each one sits in its own charging cradle and has a number keypad, with calling, group talk, room monitoring and a voice-activated mode. A charge lasts about a day of use, and the set can grow to 10 units. The handsets need that cradle every night, and Chtoocy is a young brand with little history.