It has been a few year since this topic was discussed. SIL gave me a wired style Ring doorbell for Xmas. Since we have a solid wood front door the idea of having a camera had its appeal. I just tried installing it and learned I have to put a jumper cable bypass, supplied, on the existing house chime to stop it from working. Apparently this is to prevent too much power going to the doorbell. Then I have to buy a separate Ring chime for $35 that plugs into a house socket and it works off WiFi to actually hear the doorbell ringing in the house. What a great plan.

We have a separate rear door bell that can still use the nice loud existing house chime! How nice. Five years ago Legal Bill was concerned someone could steal it. Now they provide special torque screws and torque screwdriver to secure it.

Not what I expected.

 

I just installed a video door bell on my home, I went with Lorex. I got the wired type. I have the old style ding-dong bell with transformer, and I have kept it functional, if I had a chime doorbell Lorex supplied a converter to use with chime systems (no extra cost).

I love the system so far. No worries about them getting stolen, mine is held on with screws, but it could be ripped off if someone really wanted to do it. Besides I would have them on video if they did try to steal it , lol. Ours has a nice white light that comes on at night when triggered, it has options for a siren sound if needed to scare people away, very cool IMO. Mine comes with several bases you can use to angle it left or right or up and down. I need to fine tune the detection zone as it picks up vehicles and people who walk past the house on the road, they allow you to adjust the detection zone. We are 100% happy with ours.

 

Ring wants $118 for one that works with house chimes. I certainly prefer the mechanical sounds of the house unit but ordered the $35 digital chime since I do want video and don't want to spend a lot for it. Amazon prime is at our front door almost daily but that's the only traffic it sees unless the local school is having a fund raiser. There will be no chance of wondering which door is ringing now with the front digital and the rear mechanical. Guess I will have to find a central location for the Amazon Alexa box. At least it will do some good (also a Xmas gift). All I ever say to it is Turn Off the Screen.

 

I love it when the ad says Only Takes A Few Minutes To Install. Not so when the existing stuff has been there 56 years. So the physical install took about a hour. Which wasn't bad. But getting things to work properly took another two hours. Each device works separately, had to be registered, and sign-in's/passwords and all that crap. But in the end Amazon Alexa and the Ring doorbell and chime are all alined to work to together and I can watch live whenever from my Mac. Its done!

 

We are still in the dark ages of the door bell.....................

 

Good work Dave ! Our doorbell took about 20 minutes to get it installed and running. I don't use any hub though, just straight from the Lorex app. and wi-fi. We had our first door-to-door salesperson today so the doorbell paid for itself already, lol.

 

Either the twist bell mounted on the front door or a bell on a string or the Town Crier to announce your guests?

 

I don’t even have a doorbell lol

 

We have Scottie who announces all who enter the yard. Who needs a stinking doorbell?!

 

With the last 2 posts.

Levi