We live in a townhome community and thinking about adding a Ring or other brand doorbell camera. Looking for suggestions, pros and cons, reliability, etc…
There had been a few things going on within the community where neighbors that have cameras in place have shared their videos. Once our gates get installed in a couple of months, the builders have been waiting until all units are completed, I think some of these issues will resolve themselves, but husband is thinking we should go ahead and get one. The way our unit is set up with 6 attached homes, our front door is on the backside from the driveway, so anyone we expect that enters our home, comes in through the garage. It is rare for someone to go around the building to the front door, unless they are unknown to us, or a package delivery requiring a signature. Amazon and UPS always leave packages at the garage for the homes with the front door not beside the garage.
With very little research yet, I was thinking of getting the Ring 3, as Costco has it on sale. It comes with a camera that I don’t think we would need, unless we set it in the garage somehow, or if it is weatherproof and could go outside the garage, under the deck.
I’ve been using Ring eco system consisting of 9 cameras in and out of my house for about two years now with very high satisfaction. I got almost all of them when Costco had them on sale. For doorbell, I decided on Pro 2 because it detects packages placed close to my front door (other doorbell cameras can’t) and other useful programmable functions. For my backyard, I use Floodlight Cam Wired Pro, which is excellent. The system has been reliable beyond expectation. I even replaced my Bushnell wildlife cam with one of Ring outdoor cams with better results for my backyard birdwatching hobby. The system is very easy to set up and use. Whenever I’m on a trip for more than a day, all I need to press is the “Away” button on my phone app and all 9 cams are in monitoring mode. When I return home, I press the “Home” button, and all indoor cams are inactivated while the outdoor cams continue to monitor. There are so many ways to program these (with Alexa, too) cams to suit your needs. The annual subscription cost of $100 for all (unlimited) cams is one of the cheapest on the market, too. If anyone steals the expensive Pro 2 doorbell or any of the outdoor cams, it will be replaced free of charge as long as I have a record (police report) of it being stolen.
We have a Ring doorbell and a Ring camera/security light above our garage. It actually came in handy this morning - a car backed into my driveway at 5am, setting off the security camera. I actually woke up at the time after hearing a horn go off and my dog ran to the window. It wasn’t until I went out to walk our dogs that I noticed a whiskey barrel full of plants I have on the corner of our property (we live on a corner lot) had been knocked over. I went back and looked at my security footage and saw the car back into my driveway, then when he turned the corner he drove over the edge of my lawn, crashing into the barrel and his horn went off.
I’m pretty sure it was whoever was delivering my neighbor’s newspaper. It’s not the same car so think it was a substitute (normal guy backs out of our dead end street, does not use my driveway).
We’ve been very happy with Ring. Most of the time it just captures local wildlife but this time it may come in handy in determining who cased the property damage. I’ve also used it to see who is ringing my doorbell in case I don’t want to answer (solicitors)
Doorbell cameras have many benefits. However, one should remember that, if they are connected via wireless, they are hackable. So the security of the system is important to consider. So when deciding, it is important to check whether there are such issues - there was a whole thing with Wyze, when it turned out that their cameras, which include indoor security cameras, are pretty hackable, and they knew it.
Not a reason to avoid buying, but a reason to add hackability to the important factors to consider when deciding which one to buy.
We also have ring. Two doorbells on the front/back door and a floodlight camera on the side. We caught two sketchy people going through our backyard last week. Concerned me a lot, but now I’m wondering if they aren’t part of the sketchy contractors next door who apparently ran off with $42K. They slipped through a gap in our fence that I couldn’t imagine people would have known was there unless they were familiar with our properties. The back yards aren’t visible from the street.
We also have used them to talk to people at the door when we aren’t there. Usually, it’s a contractor who shows up early. We let them know we are on our way.
And with Ring too. I don’t quite remember what the issue was, but it was pretty egregious and easily preventable. They apparently fixed it, so I like to exist in a state of naive bliss assuming it’s ok.
For the most part, at least from a privacy perspective, there’s not much to see at our place!
Interesting thread. Security/hacking is one of my vague concerns on setting up a camera… we’ve just not invested time to research. I do think we’d feel better when going on vacation if we had a system. At least with a home setup, there is not high monthly fees or concerns about false alarms sent to security company.
We have a Ring 2 doorbell that is pretty easy to swap rechargeable batteries. I’m not sure if all subsequent models have this capability but if you don’t have the wiring available then it may be acceptable to buy a second battery and swap them. It depends how much recording activity occurs. I would get about three weeks between changes, which was acceptable to me, but I eventually hardwired the doorbell so that I didn’t need to think about the swap while traveling.
We have a Eufy doorbell camera. It notifies us of deliveries even when the driver does not ring the bell. Its picture quality is as good as our Lorex cameras. You can also elect to talk to someone at the door, which has come in handy a few times. It comes in both wired and battery powered models.
While we have several cameras, the doorbell camera is probably the most important, as it is the one camera that covers our drive and the gated fence area into our yard. When I first had mine installed, there wasn’t an option for a rechargeable doorbell.
We also didn’t have a doorbell, amazingly enough, when we got our home, so I had to have an electrician come to hardwire it in. I have a plug-in Ring chime rather than an electric or mechanical doorbell chime. If you have an existing doorbell, the installation for the camera is simple. Hooking it up to an existing chime is a bit trickier.
We get street vehicular traffic and some pedestrian traffic, which the Ring doorbell camera picks up. I would have to change batteries all the time if it were battery-operated. So, for us, hardwired is the better option.
Again, I highly recommend it. If you pay $100/year, all your cameras are covered, and you get to see video for something like 30 days. We’ve had people crash into our fence when parking etc, so it’s a security camera in the widest sense.
I would suggest you get a small sign to let people know you have video surveillance. You can generic signs from Amazon, etc, and I would avoid telling people that it is Ring. Not because Ring is bad, but keep the “bad guys” guessing as to what you mean.
Hardwired doorbells have several advantages over battery operation. One is of course there’s no need to keep changing out batteries and recharging; second, there’s no delay in chime sound; third, no need to worry about battery being stolen (yes, people do steal these batteries).
They’ll even steal the cameras! One thing I’ve noticed is the “bad guys/gals” are now covering their faces with hoodies, their hands etc if they know there are cameras. It might be good to have some hidden cameras to try to deal with it.
Even if you can’t identify them facially, the video is instrumental in establishing the time that an event happened and, if you have the right angle and lighting, what actually happened.
While we live in a good neighborhood, installing an alarm system and getting Ring was the first thing we did have we took possession of our home.
On NextDoor app, sometimes folks show video of porch thief and car vandals/thieves. I’ve noticed more of the criminal with hoods and face masks, savvy to the possibility of camera. There was one amusin clip of porch theft attempt, with they starting up an alcove sidewalk toward an apartment door…then doing quick one-footed pivot when noticing camera.
We have a Simplisafe fire/burglar alarm system. Required by insurers.
So, I have ordered a Simplisafe a doorbell with a camera. But, we are also installing a couple of Google Nest outdoor cameras. So, it is possible that I should instead get a Google Nest doorbell instead.
I’m also installing Simplisafe doorbells that can be opened with a keypad.
Our town is very safe but our house is isolated – one cannot see our house from the road. So I like the idea of having views of who might be coming to the house.
I still have not decided what we will do. The issue I have with the doorbell cameras, is the walkway in front of our door. As I mentioned we are in a townhome community; our front door is on the opposite side of the house from our driveway. There is a walkway connecting several buildings, so many people use the walkway to walk their dogs, as well as taking their daily strolls. In the 5 years we have been here, someone has rung the bell maybe 5 times!
We have a home alarm and I think we can add a camera with that, but again, do not know if we really need it. Many neighbors have the Ring doorbell, so if something happens, they will ask on our forum if anyone’s camera picked something up. Usually it is a car or person that is suspicious, but these are all on the street side.
Has anyone used the cameras that fit into the outdoor light socket? I would think those are easy to steal as I believe they just screw in like a light bulb.
@Rivet2000, in our case, the choice is for simplicity rather than for optimal performance. We have a Google Mesh wife network and we use Google Home to control lighting (though Alexa could easily be used for the lighting if we wished). Plus we have Google Nest thermostats. So, for us it seems simplest to use Google Nest rather than Ring.
@snowball, I think burglars would probably just unplug devices (and maybe steal them) if they were powered from an external plug.
