Another Ring Doorbell and Camera advice thread please - so confusing!

[TheFlyingBanana]

OK, I've decided to put in a Ring doorbell and one or two outdoor cameras.

Having spent some time looking on Amazon, I am utterly confused, and I don't think I am a total thicko with tech stuff.

There appear to be several different versions of the doorbell, and it is not helpful that Amazon seem to be selling older models alongside newer updated ones. To add to this, some come with Chime, but would I ideally want Chime Plus if I want to add other cameras?

Some of the doorbells are battery, some (the Pro?) apparently wired. There seems to be some evidence that if you have Alexa Echo Show (which we do) you don't need the Chime unit.

Amazon seem to do a variety of bundles, none of which seem to cover what I actually want - which is a doorbell, and one or two outdoor cameras.

What I think I need is the Ring Doorbell Gen 3, but bizarrely there seems to be about a ten day delivery wait on those. The Gen 4 seems to be out on May 5th. Ideally I'd like to get this sorted this week.

Or do I just need a Gen 2 - which they are selling with delivery tomorrow.

Regardless, I want all of it to be battery powered for quick and easy installation.

If anyone can help me out on this I would be very grateful. Hell, I'm even tempted just to give you my credit card and ask you to order it...

[wileeeeeey]

I had a Ring 2 and Ring Spotlight Cam. Personally I wouldn't bother with another. The new Google cams and doorbells are announced next month, that's what I'm waiting for.

I wouldn't buy any doorbell with a battery at all. The notifications are delayed and it takes ages to connect even with a proper Nest/Google wireless router providing fantastic coverage (Chime Pro is pants). Other providers have quicker notifications and connection times to view/speak.

If you do go for it I would strongly consider the Ring Elite for £350 but you would need to connect via power over Ethernet which might not be convenient for you. I'm sure a few people will probably recommend Eufy now too.

[Crouchy]

TFB
I had a system combining Ring doorbell and Arlo cameras, however, I changed the whole lot to a Eufy system. The Eufy system has better cameras with a wider choice of options. The ecosystem works much better and the rechargeable batteries last for a ridiculous amount of time - even with heavy use. I would agree with Wiley though, do not go for a battery operated doorbell, whatever system you opt for. The doorbell will absolutely rinse batteries and the time lag is ridiculous.
If you want any more info’ feel free to pm.
J

[Harry Smith]

We have a Ring 3(battery version) and Hikvision CCTV. Good balance. If you buy a Ring get a spare battery as charging takes a few hours and it's more convenient.
Lasts a month btw.

[Franky Four Fingers]

I’ve had a ring 2 battery for just over a year and it’s been virtually trouble free. My then internet connection was the only issue. As someone else said get a second battery and keep it charged then its just a simple swap over.
Mine lasts about 7-8 weeks on a single charge. You can get the add on solar charger for these but have no idea if they’re any good


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[IAmATeaf]

I’ve got a Ring Pro, so mains powered and if doing it again wouldn’t be going with it. Had nothing but problems with the chime not chiming, delayed chimes and clips history only going back a week.

Each and every time I’ve called their CS they’ve always blamed it in my wifi connection stating that it is lagging hence the delays/lags we see. On one occasion I even showed the CS person via the doorbell me streaming a 2k video on YT on my phone connected to the wifi.

[~dadam02~]

Another with a tale of warning. This is my Ring Pro after 2 years of use:



The button is falling off, and at a guess I'd say half the people who knock on my door currently knock on the actual door rather than use the bell as a result. I've raised it to Ring who are trying to get me to buy a replacement, which isn't going to happen. And guess what, there are no replacement buttons available from Ring, only some 3rd party offerings which I'm not happy about. So proceed with caution, this is a widely known issue.

The other gripe I have, button aside my Ring experience has been fine generally speaking, no connectivity issues etc, but for whatever reason recently I've been getting so many false positive motion detection alerts its driving me insane. Even setting the camera to the lowest setting, its far too sensitive.

Good luck.

[alfat33]

You can get the add on solar charger for these but have no idea if they’re any good


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I have the solar charger, mounted West facing so in direct sun for half the day. I’ve found it works really well, once I had properly established the connection by restarting the camera a few times while the sun was on the panel.

[TheFlyingBanana]

Thanks for the advice all. After a pm with Crouchy I've gone for the Eufy system with two uprated cameras with the 365day charge (we'll see) and the doorbell.

The reviews seem excellent and fingers crossed it all works as advertised.

[J3w3ll3r]

I have a ring door bell 2 at both mine and my mums and my mum has demetia so we have 3 cameras inside her flat, plus I have a floodlight camera in my garden

Overall I think they are great, they work excellently, the floodlight is a little sensitive and I would probably get the wired doorbells if I was doing it again but overall they are a massive improvement on the Arlo cameras we had before


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[gavsw20]

We have a Ring 3(battery version) and Hikvision CCTV. Good balance. If you buy a Ring get a spare battery as charging takes a few hours and it's more convenient.
Lasts a month btw.

This is the exact same setup we have. Spare battery is a godsend too as you just swap out in seconds.

Just remember all the years you’ve never had any outdoor surveillance before rushing into buying.

FYI - I get very little lag over mesh WiFi.

[bowie]

I have a Ring spot cam with 3 batteries and also plugged into a solar panel on the front we don't get much sun in the winter up here, and two blink camera on the side and back. no problems

[djjuk]

Another with the Ring Spotlight Cam. Can be a little sensitive but captures everything at the whole front of our house with instant notifications and snapshot picture sent which is useful if you don't have time to view the full recording straight away. No real lag issues on our mesh wifi. Motion zones work well as well.

Have just purchased the solar charger as the batteries don't last that long which is to be expected really.

[Matt8500]

You made the right choice with Eufy. After endless problems with ring 2, and trying to fix with a chime pro, I switched to Eufy which works faultlessly in exactly the same location.

[subzeer0]

ive got a eufy...very happy wiwth it

[Phil Lee]

Thanks for the advice all. After a pm with Crouchy I've gone for the Eufy system with two uprated cameras with the 365day charge (we'll see) and the doorbell.

The reviews seem excellent and fingers crossed it all works as advertised.

You should be very happy with the Eufy system. I have 6 Eufycam 2 cameras and Eufy Battery Doorbell (which is wired in to my old mains doorbell). The camera batteries last around 9 months with a higher sensitivity enabled and the doorbell is great. It rings the old chimes as well as sending alerts to my phone and Echo devices around the house.

[bigbaddes]

get a dog !

[number2]

get a dog !

[TheFlyingBanana]

get a dog !

Got one.

Greyhound.

They sleep about 22 hours a day.

See pic above for accurate assessment of his guarding abilities.

[Middo]

These are in Amazon today.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/eufy-Securi.../dp/B08PVDLWQW

[craig1912]

Had a Ring for three months. Battery seems to last about six weeks. Only thing that is really annoying is that it won’t reconnect to the Wi-Fi when the Wi-Fi is turned off and then on again. I have to do a hard reset and go through the set up process with that annoying American accent

[Boss13]

Had a Ring 3 on previous house. It was OK. But definitely some lag. May try nest next time as a friend has it and apparently no lag.

[Mj2k]

Had a Ring for three months. Battery seems to last about six weeks. Only thing that is really annoying is that it won’t reconnect to the Wi-Fi when the Wi-Fi is turned off and then on again. I have to do a hard reset and go through the set up process with that annoying American accent

We don't have this issue, very strange!

[TheFlyingBanana]

I’ve gone the full Eufy, and so far I’m very impressed. A doddle to set up, and worked perfectly while we were away this weekend.

The cameras are supposed to do 365 days on a charge. They do feel very well engineered- the whole kit feels quality.

Fingers crossed it keeps working as well as this.

[Phil Lee]

I’ve gone the full Eufy, and so far I’m very impressed. A doddle to set up, and worked perfectly while we were away this weekend.

The cameras are supposed to do 365 days on a charge. They do feel very well engineered- the whole kit feels quality.

Fingers crossed it keeps working as well as this.

I'm getting less than 365 days (I've had them around 10 months and have had to charge once). I have got the sensitivity and recording time settings turned up though and the app warns this has an impact on battery life.

[hops]

I'm tempted by the Eufy 2C setup with local storage and was wondering if any current owners can clarify a point of me. I believe these only store events where the cameras have been triggered. Is that correct or can you download an event from the timeline if something comes to light later like a conventional CCTV setup?

[skmark]

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but I'm also with Eufy (2 cameras) and I'm very impressed so far (6 months). However, I've just got around to setting the cameras to Geofence via the app. It not very intuitive.

I would like the cameras to work only when I'm out of the house and during the evening/night whilst I'm in the house. I've set the 'away' bit ok but the 'home' bit still seems to record all of the time. Any guidance/tips from those who have had the system a bit longer?

[Mike1988]

I've always had a problem with lag with my Ring doorbell but always put it down to poor wifi signal but by the sounds of it that's just how they are.

[Tokyo Tokei]

fyi for Eufy owners https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/17...curity-breach/

[ben4watches]

oh dear, just fitted one of these today.

fyi for Eufy owners https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/17...curity-breach/

[wileeeeeey]

There might be a new Google/Nest doorbell announced sometime between tomorrow and Thursday at the 2021 Google hardware event.

That's where my money is going if one is announced. Hopefully it isn't announced tomorrow and released next month.

[wileeeeeey]

Food for thought re Ring

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...nce-network-us

[Tokyo Tokei]

In a similar vein, for those thinking of cloud-managed wifi routers... https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/...-catastrophic/

[amii21]

I have the chime pro and battery ring doorbell, and battery outdoor cam. All fine, no lag. The chime pro acts as a wifi booster.

[noms2000]

I've had a Ring 2 (battery) and 5 stick up cams (3 battery, 2 wired), and have no issues whatsoever for the 2 years they've been running.
Always worth buying a spare battery for around £20 and keep it charged, it takes less than 60 seconds to change. Although Ring always give me around 2 days notice when my battery is running low, so ample time to charge the spare when required.
Camera and sound quality is excellent, regular software updates with new features are coming all the time. The night time images are now in colour (previously B&W) which is great.
Batteries last between 4-6 weeks, no false notifications, and the siren feature is great.
One thing to remember is that you must have good Wi-Fi, otherwise you will be disappointed and blame Ring, when it's actually your Wi-Fi that's not good enough.
I have 2 extenders plugged in to reach the cams, as well as the router and it's all good.

[wileeeeeey]

In a similar vein, for those thinking of cloud-managed wifi routers... https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/...-catastrophic/

Good reminder. I'll disable the cloud on mine this weekend.