Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Review based on 8 lbs 30 day old baby preference. Fisher Price makes multiple versions of these swings. They have diff themes and colors with diff prices. As a buyer you find yourself looking through the different themes and wondering what the differences are. I purchased the Snugabunny and the Snugapuppy to compare first hand since the reviews are all over the place. First off, Fisher Price swings have a grinding motor noise issues, (after reading this review, Google, "Fisher Price Swing Noise.") Having a baby, I learned that the point of a swing is to find one with some power, to get a sway going, yes they are just babies but you will find that an aggressive smooth swing will calm a baby down opposed to a low power sway without good range. They want to rock. Snugapuppy- The motor has a limiter with high friction so that the gears and motors don't grind as loud on start up. So imagine being in a race car, you hit the gas and the breaks are always on so you don't peel out you creep out slowly. But you always hear the rubbing of the breaks, constant friction sound, like a bike tire with the brake applied, that type of rubbing noise that sounds like friction. This swing rubbing noise is constant and never stops. This is not recommended. The result of the Snugapuppy motor restrictor is the swing range now is not as strong limiting the side to side range, it has less throw and is weaker. The Snuapuppy avoids the Fisher Price motor grinding with this restrictor applied, but now you hear the constant rub of the motor during the entire rocking session. So this solves the startup of the loud grinding motor in the Snugabunny but leaves you with constant rubbing noise with less power and less range, boo. This Snugapuppy swing is being throttled back so the swing will not sway back and forth as well with this model. Now the other Snugabunny has nice power and good sway because it does not have the motor limiter. So now when you hit the gas, it squeals out for 30 secs which will wake your sleeping baby. But it does not have the rubbing sound once it gets up to speed, but it has clicking and popping sounds from side to side which is bearable for the baby. However, if a parent wants to sleep with the swing in the room at night, this clicking will drive you mad. We do not sleep near this swing, but the baby can tolerate the clicking and popping noise, just not the initial loud grinding and stripping motor start up sounds. Fisher Price has an older model, those never made any noise. But now they replaced the inner parts with cheaper Chinese plastic parts, and now all the new swings grind and click and make too much noise. All the demo vidoes have music over them so you can't hear the grinding or rubbing. There has to be another option out there for parents? Something that has nice power and sway range that does not sound like a dump truck dropping it's load. Fisher Price has good customer service, they know they have issues, they tried to help troubleshoot over the phone, by the end of the call, they will tell you, "Yes our swings have an initial grinding start up noise, but that should not last more than 60 secs." For a $100-$120 you should not tell a customers they will have a loud grinding noise for no longer than 60 secs. Also, I read so many folks saying the setup/assembly was too hard. To be fair it is not a problem as I built two and disassembled both and returned them. So it is not that hard if you are good with your hands and should be the least of the issues they have. I persoanlly would ask or go into a store to find something to test out.