Ring Doorbells

[solo2]

I’ve been resisting but now my mobility is so poor it’s about time I get one of these as too many times now by the time I get to the door the person has gone

I’d also like to get a security camera to look out over my car/front driveway and another down the side of the house/garden gate.

I cannot make my mind up between Ring Video wired doorbell, Ring Pro 2 hardwired or Ring 2nd Gen which is battery. How long do the batteries last before needing to be replaced/rechargerd?

Are they all motion sensor activated. I just find comparing them rather confusing.

I plan to get the indoor cam to look out over the driveway from my bedroom and the outdoor security camera with solar panel to monitor the side gate but again will this all be set off by motion sensor and which subscription plan is needed.

I don’t wish to spend a fortune as this in mainly for my mobility but feel I would be stupid to not make it a security system too while I have the chance

Can you add to it over time or is it likely to change and not be compatible

I know this is far more simple than I’m making it but I don’t want to faff with batteries if I do not have too but cannot find any simple comparisons chart between all the models they offer

Then there’s the option of going for a Blink etc instead of a Ring one. Too much choice.

[rigga]

My gen2 battery lasts about 3 months before it needs charging, I have a spare so just 30 seconds or so to swap over and no down time while the battery is charging.

If the motion alerts are configured to be less , or your setting ,door away from a road unlike mine, it will last even longer.

[AndrewGP]

We have a gen 2 battery powered Ring Doorbell and much like Rigga’s experience, ours lasts around 3 months on a charge. I’ve added a couple of cameras to the system and they also work well.

It’s a good system and from what you’ve said of your requirements, it should work ok.

[skwdenyer]

We have the through-door (“spyhole”) Ring model. Battery lasts about a month in our use (we use the door a lot).

Motion detection is good, but suppresses multiple hits in a non-configurable period. So if something happens less than, say, a minute after a motion detect, it won’t get picked up as new motion.

Definitely not a replacement for a proper security camera. But as a doorbell it works well. We got it because my wife’s mobility is poor.

Unless you have a need for cloud storage, it is far cheaper to use security cameras with local storage and a remote vision capability for “just checking”.

If continuous “cloud cover” is needed, I use a Nest camera at work. Very good, but not super cheap to run - and if the wifi drops, there’s no local storage.

The ideal would probably be a camera with local storage and background cloud sync too. I don’t know if that exists as an offering anywhere.

[netherfield]

I've got two cameras from Eufy, lets me know if the paper,post or parcel has been delivered, I reckon a charge does about six months, although you can get
a solar panel charger as well, there is a doorbell available also, never bothered getting one because we have a parcel box by the door.

No subscriptions to pay, it's all available to view on a smartphone, you do need the main box to be able to 'see' the cameras and be connected to a network, if we're out with the dog I get an alert on my phone, supposed to be able to talk via the camera, but by the time you get he alert most couriers are back in the van, but I guess that's due to the parcel box.

Black Friday offers on right now

[freedman]

netherfield said:

I've got two cameras from Eufy, lets me know if the paper,post or parcel has been delivered, I reckon a charge does about six months, although you can get
a solar panel charger as well, there is a doorbell available also, never bothered getting one because we have a parcel box by the door.

No subscriptions to pay, it's all available to view on a smartphone, you do need the main box to be able to 'see' the cameras and be connected to a network, if we're out with the dog I get an alert on my phone, supposed to be able to talk via the camera, but by the time you get he alert most couriers are back in the van, but I guess that's due to the parcel box.

Black Friday offers on right now

We’ve got a Battery Eufy doorbell plus two external cameras and one mains powered in the garage

I’ve found them very good and they do what they are supposed for a decent price

[Oakey]

I have a Ring doorbell and two Stick Up cams (wired). They're okay but if I was having a do-over I'd consider the TP Link Tapo cams as they can be wired to the mains, have the capability of SD cards (so local storage) and offer cloud based functionality;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Tapo-C310-Sensor-...

[Evanivitch]

freedman said:

netherfield said:

I've got two cameras from Eufy, lets me know if the paper,post or parcel has been delivered, I reckon a charge does about six months, although you can get
a solar panel charger as well, there is a doorbell available also, never bothered getting one because we have a parcel box by the door.

No subscriptions to pay, it's all available to view on a smartphone, you do need the main box to be able to 'see' the cameras and be connected to a network, if we're out with the dog I get an alert on my phone, supposed to be able to talk via the camera, but by the time you get he alert most couriers are back in the van, but I guess that's due to the parcel box.

Black Friday offers on right now

We’ve got a Battery Eufy doorbell plus two external cameras and one mains powered in the garage

I’ve found them very good and they do what they are supposed for a decent price

Another recommendation for Eufy. Local storage inbuilt on the 2nd gen hub, but need third gen hub for expanded storage. No subscription fees. Eufy is a brand name of Anker, a company I've long trusted for pocket-hand grenades (i.e. battery booster packs) and electronic equipment cables.

[Sticks.]

I have a Ring doorbell which is wired. My mobility isn't great either but I can be in the car and pulling onto the road before it pings. It takes clips of the back of the postman. Ring say it's my wifi, which is a BT Fibre with a mesh system. Probably the only real benefit is if I'm out when a delivery arrives or similar.

I also have 2 Blink cameras. While not state of the art they respond much more quickly, not instantly obviously, and I find the app (android) easier to use, eg downloading a clip or sending it to my PC. My Blink cameras are battery which don't last that long, nowhere near what they say, which isn't an issue for a doorbell but if an additional camera is high up, may be.

[fourstardan]

I've just bought a couple of the Blink cams for front/back of the house, you get a free indoor cam at the moment.

They also do a door bell option.

[GT03ROB]

I have a couple of ring doorbells & several stick up cameras.

I'd concur with those that say around 3 months for the batteries. The other thing to consider if you can't hardwire is the solar panels. I have a couple of the cameras tied to these & they work perfectly

[sutoka]

I have a Ring Doorbell 4 on the front door and a Blink Outdoor front and back, also added the Blink floodlight thing which was only 34 quid as I already had the outdoor cameras. Use it forover my back gate which is handy for bin runs etc can't fault either for the money.

Ive also got mobility issues as I'm awaiting spinal surgery so it's very handy for knowing when it's a parcel I can lift. Also good for when the chuggers and cold callers arrive and can't read the signs.

[Belle427]

Our Ring only lasts just over a month before a recharge but our wi fi signal isn't strong there so I think this plays a factor in it.
I do find it a pita having to remove it to charge so will look into a mains option for it.
It does also take a while to start charging if the temps are very low for some reason.

[hotchy]

Iv got the eufy cam doorbell. I don't pay a subscription, and that's a plus.

However, many times I click play, etc, it just won't. It's got better with recent updates and a new thing in the settings I clicked saying it gives better connectivity. It's the actual base station I think so the new ones may be better.

Pictures crystal clear though. Iv yet to catch the serial front garden dog pooper though...

[myvision]

I have a ring doorbell gen 2 that i also hardwired works well and is fast enough with my slow internet.

[Flooble]

We had Ring (doorbells and cameras) and the batteries were as others have said - about a three month job. Camera lasted a little longer if you didn't use it much.

However, unlike the above, we found it took so long for the doorbell to ring the phone (even using the "Rapid Ring" app, and having a Ring Chime repeater setup) that we gave up and switched to Blink. That was with Gigabit broadband too.

With Ring, we often found we missed people as they had given up waiting. Blink is fine though.

[captain.scarlet]

netherfield said:

I've got two cameras from Eufy, lets me know if the paper,post or parcel has been delivered, I reckon a charge does about six months, although you can get
a solar panel charger as well, there is a doorbell available also, never bothered getting one because we have a parcel box by the door.

No subscriptions to pay, it's all available to view on a smartphone, you do need the main box to be able to 'see' the cameras and be connected to a network, if we're out with the dog I get an alert on my phone, supposed to be able to talk via the camera, but by the time you get he alert most couriers are back in the van, but I guess that's due to the parcel box.

Black Friday offers on right now

I would also not to bother with Ring. I bought and had a Ring product installed back in 2018 before Ring fever caught on.

I purchased a twin LED floodlight with an apparently high resolution camera. It had additional things like a speaker and an alarm. I didn't want to rely on wireless and was in the midst of a house rewire, so hard-wired made sense (IMO it always does with the types of device). I've since moved out of that place!

The full HD images on the box were totally misleading.

Not HD in reality at all and far from it.

I got grainy, awful quality imagery during day, which was even worse at night: 240p resolution reminiscent of late 2000s camera phone quality.

I was speaking with my electrician recently about Ring products and he said he gets people calling him up to complain he's apparently not installed them correctly but he has to keep telling them that the quality simply isn't what it is made out to be. The TV and internet adverts we see these days, of which IIRC there weren't any in 2018, are equally misleading.

And yes, Ring is subject to a free initial subscription that expires after however long. You either sign up or you lose all the recorded footage and it won't record anything until you take out a subscription package.

If you don't want a money pit then what are you then left with (as in my case)? A security light that continues to operate on its own, or that and a spying device, an alarm and a buzzer, all of which you can play with and operate from your phone if you're that bored.

Defeats the object really.

What I have bought this time round is a Homsecur hard-wired video doorbell system. Generic add-your-brand Chinese type thing. It won't win awards for HD and I know that Ring is no better, so it will be an addition to CCTV that I'm having installed, but at least there'll be no subscription and I can still store footage for free.

I would recommend researching these types of device properly in terms of quality, specification and any subsequent prices. Try and get a hard-wired product if you can as well.

Ring are a bunch of well-marketed products and the name has become the default go-to brand, which thanks to aggressive marketing everyone immediately yet innocently thinks of first and foremost.

Take care not to be bamboozled.

They are like the Heinz Ketchup of video doorbell systems: the most well-known and subconscious default choice, but not necessarily the best and there are far better alternatives (e.g. Daddies, and I don't even like Ketchup!).

Edited by captain.scarlet on Monday 28th November 08:20

[Bobtherallyfan]

We use a wired Ring doorbell (uses existing doorbell wiring if you have one) and a battery Ring camera for precisely the reasons you seem to require. The camera is set to give a view of our driveway and road beyond. The doorbell is used to see who is at the door and can be used to talk to delivery drivers etc. We do pay the subscription charge but actually rarely use the video functionality…most of the time we are using it for real time footage to see what is going on. The setup allows you to easily adjust sensitivity levels and you can blank out areas to maintain privacy for neighbours etc. Yes it’s not high definition viewing, but it’s perfectly adequate for our needs and was very easy to set up.

[brownspeed]

A quick thread resurrection; I'm looking to install a Ring doorbell- hopefully utilising the existing doorbell button connections (which IIRC is 18v). Am I correct in thinking it is really that straightforward? (Obvs it needs to connect to our interweb) Can anyone out there recommend which model to procure? Also open to suggestions for Ring alternatives if anyone has a success story with a hard wired model they can share. Thanks in advance.

[Sticks.]

I changed my Ring doorbell for a Blink. Both wired into the original mains doorbell, which rings, as well as the phone tone. The Blink unit needs non rechargeable lithium batteries which last a long time.

Blink connects to a hub which connects to the wifi. The location of hub, camera and wifi makes all the difference I think. Picture quality is fine and lots of settings to adjust to suit.