Are ring doorbells worth it?

@Inthefuturenow - "watching strangers go about their business".....well, if their business involves traipsing about on my front driveway then you bet I want to know what they're doing.

I mean, I don't just sit there with a cup of tea watching random postmen, but it's reassuring to know that there's video footage should something happen. There's no walkable pavement at the bottom of my drive, so by and large nearly everyone the Ring camera picks up is on my property.

We have five cameras fixed to the soffits. Overlapping fields of view and professionally fitted. Around £1500 but with it. Hik connect. There is allegedly sound recording ability but not sure on this.

You'll get the usual - it's against to law to cover anything one centimetre outside of your garden but "it's a grey area " was what our lawyer and a police inspector friend said so....

Not really. What are the police going to do about a bulglary? They all wear masks anyway.
Besides I've thankfully never been burgled in my 50 odd years on the planet.
Helps that I live in a very modest house with no flashy car near some much nicer houses with much more expensive cars. I should imagine a burglar would go there first.

And yet if you were burgled or something else unpleasant happened to your properly, id hazard a guess you would be very interested to see if anyone had any footage..

I fancy one as it would mean I wouldn't have to run down stairs to see who was there when I'm ill in bed and I could just ignore the various cold callers we get.

Did you see that story today about the people who saw an Amazon delivery man on theirs - stealing their cat? So maybe. (Cat is now home, unharmed).

It is very handy for parcels, especially as a lot of delivery drivers never actually ring the doorbell, they just dump and run, and they could be sitting there all day if I'm at work.

So my phone alerts me that someone has been detected, I can see them put the parcel down....then let DH know to go and retrieve it (he's usually head down in the study working).

No. I don’t see why I need any kind of camera doorbell. I just answer the door if I’m in , and if I’m not it doesn’t matter. I never have my phone on me and by the time I’ve found it it would’ve been quicker to answer the door. I don’t see the need to record people, not that many people come to the door anyway. Just the postie , and deliveries.
Ive got an old fashioned clockwork bell push one, I love the sound of it.

Wouldn't touch a ring one but we have a eufy- no subscription and can add an sd card to save all the footage. Has been very useful!

Interesting there's a case on the news the past few days where a cat went missing. When the owners checked their ring doorbell an amazon driver had picked it up and made off with it.

The cat has since been returned but without that footage they'd have had no idea what happened.

Why he took the cat I dont know, but without the ring door bell, they'd never have known

I had a parcel delivered. The courier put the parcel on my doorstep, stepped back and took a photo of it and then picked the parcel back up. She then noticed the camera, stared at it and then put the parcel back on the doorstep.

I do wonder if she was going to pretend it was delivered and take it away.

It would have been no use to anyone as it was all personalised gifts for Christmas so worthless to anyone else, and I wouldn't have had time to reorder in time for Christmas.

We have Aqara rather than Ring and wired in. I don’t know much about which I’d go for as DH huffed and puffed over it but having something at the door to catch parcels, trespassing etc - absolutely. We had an interesting one last week where we had apparently received a huge parcel for a neighbour - actually the driver had propped it up against our wall, taken a photo as proof and then taken it away again. We showed the neighbour, they were able to follow up.

Can't say I've ever felt the need for one given I can see my front door from my lounge. I actually really dislike them. I can see from footage other people post on local FB pages that they cover half the street when they're only meant to cover your own property. I find them really invasive and dislike the idea of people watching strangers go about their business or just doing their jobs. Privacy is a thing of the past it seems.

I think so. Mine is five years old and still going strong. I pay for the subscription as I'm away fairly often.
I've got a spare battery and a chime so the dc's know when the doorbell is pressed.

That's what I have. Had it now for about 3 years roughly.

Yes but I have a horrible neighbour so it helps to keep him in check. I now have two lots of footage of antisocial behaviour. I do pay the subscription though which is annoying.

I were you, I'd look into the free one.

I have a eufy which is brilliant, we chose this over the Ring due to no subscription charges.

On balance, yes, worth it, and we picked ours up really cheaply at Costco, but there are a few really annoying things about our Ring doorbell.

You have to pay a subscription if you want to be able to look at historic videos (I know there are other brands you don't have to).

It regularly drops offline, and you get no warning or alert at all, so the first you know about it is when the Tesco driver is phoning to ask why you aren't answering the door. So irritating.

You need two batteries (or be prepared to have no doorbell for a few hours while it charges).

There isn't enough time to respond to the phone notification when you aren't home. By the time I've worked out how to speak to the person they are half way back down the drive.

It records some events, but then randomly ignores others. I can walk down the drive, get in my car and drive away.....nothing. But then a random bus goes past in the distance, and I get a nice recording.

So....could do better, Ring.

They are.

However I wouldn't get a ring. They were great until.tnrh got greedy. Find an equivalent that gives cheap or free cloud storage

Lol, it is true I have never had one around since I got the ring.

I really like mine from a security perspective. It is great as a visible crime deterrent.

I don’t think they deter people as I had a random guy kick my door at 2am and run away despite having a ring door bell 🤷‍♀️ and I see people stealing parcels from doors that have them too (pictures on fb)

Yep, we a blink one cos it was cheaper and we missed so many deliveries due to lag and sound quality. Ring is amazing in comparison.

Police caught a car thief in our village. The daft beggar kept trying to get into cars there was loads of footage from different house holders.

Reallyop😄😄

DH bought a n AOSU no subscription. I've had bad hips and one operation. It's been brilliant. Takes me ages to get to the front door at the moment so it's been very useful.

Yes . It makes me feel safe in my house as I live alone ( with kids) . .i have the doorbell and security cameras and alarm . Pay for the subscription- worth every penny .