When our wired doorbell died I installed the peephole ring doorbell. I like it very much, especially since deliveries rarely knock or ring the bell these days and I can hear/see motion at the front door.
The only frustration I have with it is that when the sun is at the right angle we get false motion alerts when large vehicles drives by. I’ve played with notification zones but haven’t found a perfect solution. We’re on a quiet street so it’s really not a big deal.
Glad to see this forum. Are folks still happy with Ring?
We are contemplating same idea, but different brands. (Hubby has a NAS storage system and likes the idea of using that instead of paying Ring fees.). For us it would mostly be for peace of mind when traveling, hoping to find a way to remotely view house temperature during winter vacations.
We’ve had a complete Ring camera set-up, including the doorbell, for a number of years and are VERY happy with it. For the most part, it’s trouble-free, and I am on a package where they replace any defective unit “for free”.
All the cameras are super easy to install and connect. For the doorbell, assuming you’re connecting it to an existing powered doorbell, it should be easy to install.
You do need to make sure you have good wi-fi coverage throughout the areas where you install the cameras. For that reason, we moved to a Google mesh network, and that’s fine. Plenty of good signal on our property.
Sadly, one of our cars was ransacked recently. At first, we weren’t sure what happened, but when I went to review the video, we saw the culprits. I’ve turned the video over to the police. Nothing will happen, but I did what I could.
FWIW, Ring is owned by Amazon, so you have that backing. Ring’s customer service is excellent.
To the extent privacy is an issue, assuming you’re carrying a smartphone (Android or iOS), I think privacy has flown the coop right then and there. Also, think carefully as to why Google gives Gmail “away for free”…
There are plenty of other cameras out there. My husband is in IT and installed Wyze. We do not do Alexa. Jeff Bezos already knows enough about us from our Amazon orders. He has also set up old iPhones inside for pet cams.
No doubt, but all of our cameras are outside. If Jeff and the good folks at Ring went to stare at our yard or driveway, more power to them!
You are, of course, right. There are tons of cameras out there, wired and wireless. I didn’t want to be drilling holes and running cable, so I went with the easiest setup we could find, which, for us, was Ring.
If I had the time and greater patience (and skill), I would definitely check out others. But Ring has worked well for us for several years, and I basically just need to keep up with changing batteries once every few weeks.
You have to change the batteries every few weeks? Wow. So I guess that means that this won’t work for someone who plans to be away from home for an extended period.
That’s just the option I go with. I have one that is solar-powered (never had one issue with it), and there are wired options too, both indoor and outdoor.
I go with batteries since we are home generally. But yes, if no one is home for several weeks, you need to with solar or be connected into the grid.
Wyze is wireless, too, and outside. I think it was a pretty easy set up. I don’t weigh in on the tech matters too much since he’s the expert. He gets alerts on his phone and can watch any videos there.
The old iPhone pet-nanny cams inside are just something he put together with an app. He has those running when we are out of town to check on the cats.
Check out Wyze if y’all want something that isn’t connected to Amazon or Google and offers more privacy.
We use Arlo cameras at our beach house. They are connected via wifi, the outdoor cameras have rechargable batteries that last 4-6 months or so. The indoor camera is plugged into the wall.
We have a battery powered Ring doorbell/camera but the battery is a rechargeable one. I get alerts when it’s time to recharge and that’s only about every 3-4 months. So it just needs an extra charge before we go on vacation. It takes the better part of a day to recharge and you have to remove one screw and a face plate to get it out.
With the Ring you can also check settings to see what your charge is, in case you want to charge it before a trip or something. I get a notification at 30 percent charge that it’s time to recharge (I didn’t choose that, so it must be an automatic setting). We got an extra doorbell battery so when we see it’s really low we charge the extra one so it takes about 30 seconds to swap out. The battery life will depend on your settings and a few other things, but ours lasts about two months before we need to swap it out.
I’m trying to figure out what to install. We have a house at the end of a 1/2 mile dead-end street with some pretty big houses. You can’t see our house from the road except in the winter and can’t see it from any other houses. The insurance company requires a burglar and fire alarm connected to a central station. So I installed SimpliSafe.
Now, I am trying to figure out whether to install Simplisafe doorbells or another brand. I think Amazon and Google know an awful lot about us already. Not sure that they will learn a ton from outdoor cameras. But, are Amazon or Google systems more easily hacked?
@BunsenBurner, I think you can turn off the connection to Ring Neighborhood (which, incidentally, is also shared with law enforcement.
I also want to install some wildlife cameras in the back to see what wanders by.
Have any of you installed digital locks? We live in a pretty low-crime exurb, but in a neighborhood that would look pretty attractive to thieves. We also travel and sometimes let friends use our house when we are gone. A digital key might be good for that (plus we wouldn’t have to remember to bring a key (or lock the door).
We have a simply safe alarm system and Blink cameras at both homes. GIven that our other place doesn’t have close neighbors and there have been break-ins, we like being able to check when the camera pings. Very easy setup.
We’ve spotted a couple of vehicles making their way down the drive, but it’s usually otters, raccoons, bunnies, and squirrels. Today we got snow photos.
We have digital locks on back and front doors. We set up a code for different people who might need to come in when we aren’t home like the cleaning lady.
This summer we were unexpectedly out of town for 9 weeks and the mail holds kept expiring. I was able to text the neighbors and ask if someone could set the bin inside. I unlocked the door and turned off the alarm with my phone when the volunteer came up the walk.
We have an outside keypad for our garage door opener. Over the years it has allowed the kids, my gardener mother as well as other helpers get in the house as needed. I suspect it is not as secure as a digital lock system on a front door.
We also have seen a couple of vehicles come down our driveway. We are the only driveway on the cul-de-sac and so it is unusual for cars to come down (but not impossible for them to get lost). Nonetheless, we’d like to be notified of vehicles coming down the driveway and record their license plates.
The cops here generally will not respond to a house break in… so sadly, cameras are rarely a deterrent. I’m thinking we need to add a moat with snow-acclimated alligators .
@BunsenBurner, no idea whether police are responsive in our neighborhood or not, but I don’t think they have a ton to do in this town and there are not a ton of break-ins. But in our old neighborhood of less expensive houses closer together (and all visible from the street), it would have been a less desirable neighborhood to rob. Much of the town is fairly expensive houses so I’d guess they respond. But who knows? I’d just like to get a record of who is coming down the driveway.
We have a Schlage digital lock on the front door that has a key option. It’s the only one I could find that has a kit to fit our thick front door. Took it to a locksmith before installing to rekey it to the key that all our doors use. I was worried about a dead battery keeping us out of the house (other doors aren’t designated entry doors on our alarm system and would set it off). Battery hasn’t been an issue, I get a notification if it’s low.
Also put a Yale digital lock on the door between the garage and house when I changed out the hardware on that door. It runs on AA batteries, so doesn’t last as long.
.