How do I choose a Ring doorbell?

I have been very happy with my Google Next doorbell. I had the Ring before and the Nest seems to do better in our cold weather.
 
rk911 said:
Can you see the two wires where the push-button was? If you can you can test the chime simply by touching the two wires together.
Click to expand...
Many older chimes don't work half the time with these doorbell cameras The original transformers don't have enough power and even after I upgraded mine it was hit and miss on the first doorbell I bought which was not Ring branded. When I bought my Ring it instructed me to disconnect the house chime and either buy a Ring branded one or use my Echo display and/or cellphone which I did and it still works great.
 
RetiredAndLovingIt said:
Prime day is tomorrow and they usually offer a deal on Ring doorbells paired with an Echo display. I paid $50 for mine a couple of years ago and love it.
I have the 2021 wired version and when anyone comes close It alerts me to my kitchen Echo display and I can view the front door. It also alerts my cellphone so I am never out of touch.
They're so good now they can tell if it's a person, animal or package.
Click to expand...

OK as much as I don't like Ring this definitely appeals to me since I have several video Echo devices so this would be super convenient. I need to research more on just how bad the Ring is....

rk911 said:
Can you see the two wires where the push-button was? If you can you can test the chime simply by touching the two wires together.
Click to expand...

No. Where the doorbell has been filled in and painted over...
 
I went and look at the Ring doorbells. I feel better about it as long as I just don't post to the neighborhood thing. However, their webpage is truly awful at describing the differences between the various options. I just gave up after 30 minutes or so and decided to worry about it later....
 
I've had a Ring video doorbell for five years and have never been happy with the glitchy, inconsistent notification lag when someone comes to the door - from a few seconds to a delay of several minutes. Plus, Ring initially charged $30/yr for a subscription to video monitoring and has now increased that twice. I'm not paying $40/yr plus tax for a new subscription and have decided I'm done with Ring.

CR just came out with "The Best Video Doorbell Cameras Without a Subscription" (sorry, but you'll probably need a subscription to read that :) ). I'm dumping my Ring for a recommended model with built-in video capture and an excellent rating for response time.
 
REWahoo said:
... (sorry, but you'll probably need a subscription to read that :) ). ...
Click to expand...
When I want something from CR I just go online and buy a month's subscription. I have often bought copies of the auto issue that way but don't remember whether a subscription was required or not.
 
OldShooter said:
When I want something from CR I just go online and buy a month's subscription. I have often bought copies of the auto issue that way but don't remember whether a subscription was required or not.
Click to expand...

I just log onto my library, and they have online access to CR mag, and others.
So I can read the issue and past issues, etc. for free.

Actually not free, since I pay taxes that pay for the library !!
 
My 2 cents worth, I have a Amcrest: AD410 doorbell camera and love it. It runs off your low voltage doorbell wires, so no battery to replace. The Amcrest has a 4MP camera and software to view what’s going on in front of your door. They all seem to have some drawback, if you are solely relying on the micro-SD card to store images. If a thief wanted, they could just pull off the doorbell and you wouldn’t any evidence. Of course, this would be eliminated buy paying for cloud storage. Pricing starts at $6 a month for service.

Part of the reason I went with Amcrest is I'm replacing my other security cams as they get retired with Amcrest products.
 
Last edited:
Following up to my post above (#32), I just completed removing my old Ring doorbell and installing a Eufy Dual Camera Video Doorbell (wired). It was an easy installation with great instructions, and a significant upgrade from the Ring.

Compared to my 5 year old Ring doorbell:

1. The video quality is much better
2. The response/notification time is far better
3. Video data is stored locally, not in the cloud so no annual fee for video capture

A feature I really like is that it has two cameras, one pointed at a downward angle and adjustable so you can easily see packages left near the door.

The only potential negative is that the wired version bypasses your existing doorbell chimes and "rings" a device you plug into any outlet in your house. Not an issue for us but it could be for some.
 
Wyze has a new doorbell camera, it's V2

I'm tempted by it as I have some other wyze camera and they work well.

https://www.wyze.com/products/wyze-video-doorbell-v2

Stores on an SD card locally, but don't know about cloud storage.

It does with the existing doorbell chime, but probably only 1 as it adds a module inside, and I imagine they supply 1 module.

Does anyone have this V2 model ?
 
REWahoo said:
2. The response/notification time is far better
Click to expand...

Looks very interesting. Can you elaborate a little on this point?

My Ring doorbell normally notifies me within a second or two of someone approaching it, and when I tap the app on my phone I immediately see a screen grab from the approach. It takes several seconds at least to get the recording, but I at least have an idea who came (UPS, Amazon, whatever).
 
REWahoo said:
Following up to my post above (#32), I just completed removing my old Ring doorbell and installing a Eufy Dual Camera Video Doorbell (wired). It was an easy installation with great instructions, and a significant upgrade from the Ring.

Compared to my 5 year old Ring doorbell:

1. The video quality is much better
2. The response/notification time is far better
3. Video data is stored locally, not in the cloud so no annual fee for video capture

A feature I really like is that it has two cameras, one pointed at a downward angle and adjustable so you can easily see packages left near the door.

The only potential negative is that the wired version bypasses your existing doorbell chimes and "rings" a device you plug into any outlet in your house. Not an issue for us but it could be for some.
Click to expand...

We must think alike. I just put the Eufy single camera version on my house last week or so. Nice camera(s) and nice having local video clip storage. I had to bypass my ringer too. But the new one is actually pretty nice.
 
braumeister said:
Looks very interesting. Can you elaborate a little on this point?

My Ring doorbell normally notifies me within a second or two of someone approaching it, and when I tap the app on my phone I immediately see a screen grab from the approach. It takes several seconds at least to get the recording, but I at least have an idea who came (UPS, Amazon, whatever).
Click to expand...

I have been pondering doorbells since the house we moved into recently had no doorbell. It had once had one (house built in the 60s) as there is a chime but no doorbell.

I am considering the Ring Doorbell Plus (battery, not wired) and it is indicated that what differentiates it from the earlier Ring doorbells it is has much higher video quality. So newer ones likely have better video quality than those bought several years ago.
 
Katsmeow said:
I am considering the Ring Doorbell Plus (battery, not wired) and it is indicated that what differentiates it from the earlier Ring doorbells it is has much higher video quality. So newer ones likely have better video quality than those bought several years ago.
Click to expand...

No knowledge of the newer ones, but I bought mine nearly four years ago and I think the video quality is very good.
 
braumeister said:
Looks very interesting. Can you elaborate a little on this point?

My Ring doorbell normally notifies me within a second or two of someone approaching it, and when I tap the app on my phone I immediately see a screen grab from the approach. It takes several seconds at least to get the recording, but I at least have an idea who came (UPS, Amazon, whatever).
Click to expand...

My Ring doorbell would frequently not notify me of someone at my door for several seconds, sometimes it would be a minute or even longer. Other times it was very responsive. But on many occasions an Amazon driver would walk up to our door, place a package on the porch, take a photo, walk the 25 yards back to his vehicle and depart before I got a notification from Ring. On a few occasions the notification didn't show until 10 or more minutes had passed. Note that I got quick notification if the doorbell was rung, so I assume the problem was in the area of motion detection/notification.

I thought the issue might be the wi-fi but the doorbell is only 20 feet from my router and my phone shows a very strong wi-fi signal when I place it next to the doorbell.

Whatever the reason for the inconsistency, initial indications are the new Eufy doesn't suffer from the same problem as it has been very quick to respond. Time will tell of course...
 
REWahoo said:
My Ring doorbell would frequently not notify me of someone at my door for several seconds, sometimes it would be a minute or even longer. Other times it was very responsive. But on many occasions an Amazon driver would walk up to our door, place a package on the porch, take a photo, walk the 25 yards back to his vehicle and depart before I got a notification from Ring. On a few occasions the notification didn't show until 10 or more minutes had passed. Note that I got quick notification if the doorbell was rung, so I assume the problem was in the area of motion detection/notification.

I thought the issue might be the wi-fi but the doorbell is only 20 feet from my router and my phone shows a very strong wi-fi signal when I place it next to the doorbell.

Whatever the reason for the inconsistency, initial indications are the new Eufy doesn't suffer from the same problem as it has been very quick to respond. Time will tell of course...
Click to expand...
We have a Nest (wireless) doorbell and have experienced similarly delays. Maybe not to 10 minutes, but some over 1 minute and typically 20-30 seconds.

We have a new issue as well, which is the doorbell chime stopped working. The Nest forums show this to be a common issue and so far unresolved.
 
REWahoo said:
My Ring doorbell would frequently not notify me of someone at my door for several seconds, sometimes it would be a minute or even longer. Other times it was very responsive. But on many occasions an Amazon driver would walk up to our door, place a package on the porch, take a photo, walk the 25 yards back to his vehicle and depart before I got a notification from Ring.
Click to expand...
That would be perfectly fine with us. We don't need to know instantly that a delivery was made but knowing within a couple of minutes would be fine so we could go out and get the package.
 
For those of you who were/are hesitant to purchase a Ring Doorbell because your cloud videos may be viewed by unauthorized persons I received the following from Ring:

"On June 16th, 2023, we entered into a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission - the nation’s consumer protection agency - to resolve the FTC’s allegations that more employees and contractors than necessary had access to the stored videos collected by Ring cameras. The FTC alleges that several years ago, a limited number of employees viewed customers’ videos without their permission and without a business reason. These individuals are no longer employed by Ring. Since 2018, we have significantly changed our access and review practices. Now, only a very small number of employees can access videos, and only in very limited circumstances."
 
rk911 said:
For those of you who were/are hesitant to purchase a Ring Doorbell because your cloud videos may be viewed by unauthorized persons I received the following from Ring:

"On June 16th, 2023, we entered into a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission - the nation’s consumer protection agency - to resolve the FTC’s allegations that more employees and contractors than necessary had access to the stored videos collected by Ring cameras. The FTC alleges that several years ago, a limited number of employees viewed customers’ videos without their permission and without a business reason. These individuals are no longer employed by Ring. Since 2018, we have significantly changed our access and review practices. Now, only a very small number of employees can access videos, and only in very limited circumstances."
Click to expand...
That's pretty good. Certainly the hackers will be adhering to Ring's policy on viewing videos. Interesting that everything else in Ring's database is still wide open.
 
OldShooter said:
That's pretty good. Certainly the hackers will be adhering to Ring's policy on viewing videos. Interesting that everything else in Ring's database is still wide open.
Click to expand...

I don't know what protection Ring has against hackers. Hopefully it is more robust than some govt. agencies, banks, etc.
 
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