To really want a Ring doorbell?

[EwwwwDavid]

Not even sure why I want one. I just do! I never buy myself anything and I really fancy getting one. Problem is, I'm not sure how to tell the difference and they're all different prices. Costco seem to have a good deal but can't tell if it's better than Amazon as all have different descriptions. Any advice welcomed!

Ours is really useful but our ‘front door’ is a locked garden gate which I have to go down to if someone rings. Since having DD it’s been a lifeline - I don’t have to take her out to answer the door or abandon a feed etc. We have an Alexa in the kitchen which works as the ‘doorbell’ and as it’s one with a screen I can see the camera from there or my phone. Really rate it.

I have one and wouldn’t be without it. Cost £200. I went for the pro. You can also choose battery or hardwired. I chose hardwired. I can help if you want anything else answered.

@DobbyTheHouseElk

I’ve got one. But I read I needed to subscribe to something to make it work so it’s still in the box.

No, the recording facility needs a subscription. If you just want the live connectivity it’s free.

I think ring are losing out here. I put off getting one for ages because of the subscription thing, until a colleague explained.

We are WFH in a 3 bed townhouse we missed loads of deliveries by either not hearing or being on calls and not being able to get downstairs. I just answer it via my phone. It’s brill.

We got the Ring 2 for £89 from John Lewis two weeks ago. Added bonus is we have it without a chime so alexa announces someone is at the door. Stops the dogs going mad. Very pleased with it, really easy to install and set up.

Found this one
Plug in door bell and chime

I've got a Ring 2, we got it when we got a new and very quiet dog. I think they're very adaptable, you can change a lot of the settings to suit you. I think I change mine around once a month so it's not frequent changing, if you already have a mains doorbell you can attach it to that instead.

As for the responsiveness, I prefer the preview I get rather than going to the app. It's takes a quick snapshot when it's activated but I can go into the app to get a live view but find I don't need to very often as it can take a while to connect.

I definitely think they're worth it, the monthly storage subscription is only about £2.50 and gives me peace of mind. I got my device off Amazon in one of their sales and think it was about £60 (we'd been considering it for a while) and it was more than worth it. You'll also have the fun of catching all the slightly stupid things that go on just outside your front door.

I don't have a Ring or anything else, but saw Eufy mentioned on MN yesterday. They said it was £39.

Oh thanks everyone. I’ll get it out of the cupboard.

I did have one that was stolen. It was awful waking up to the message that it was unexpectedly offline. Then looking at the footage of it being taken. Was absolutely horrible! I replaced it though.

We had some break ins nearby and the police were able to publish a photo of a suspect who was in someone's porch in the early hours.

Sorry the picture was from someone's Ring

I have a ring 2 on the front door and a ring camera by the gate, I love them! Gives me peace of mind at night and handy to tell postie where to put the parcel if I'm out or can't get the door

I got my mum a ring 3 and chime for Christmas, worked great until she had a new router and it just wouldn’t connect at all, customer service was great and they said they would just send a new one, it’s taken 7 weeks to come
The device itself is great, my mum is disabled and can’t walk quickly so it means she can screen who is at the door eg tell the postman to pop a delivery in a box or turn away door to door sales.
You don’t need the chime door bell extra I just got it as my mum is a bit deaf
The subscription to save recordings is only £2.50 a month so worth it to me
Considering getting the security light and camera as her current light is starting to play up

I’ve got a ring 2. Had it a couple of years now and I love it.
About two years ago someone was knocking on our doors telling us he was our elderly neighbours son, that our neighbour has been taken to hospital and could we lend £20 for a taxi. He was a confidence trickster so each house he’d glean information from.

Luckily I knew my neighbour hadn’t got a son so gave him no money, and after half hour of panicking from his step-children in Australia and another neighbour and calling around the hospitals, he was sitting at home right as rain.

I reported it to the local police, gave them the ring videos, and it was someone known to them who already had an ASBO. Using the footage he was sent off for some time at HMP. The police commented what clear CCTV it was, and now every in the terrace has a ring doorbell!

If you’ve got wiring available, I’d recommend the wired one as it saves changing the battery. If not, get a second battery so you’ve always got a charged one ready to go. Subscription is £25 a year, and if yours is stolen, they’ll replace it.

I treat myself to a Ring 3 for Xmas, it's been installed almost 2 months and I've not had to charge the battery yet. It's connected to my iphone, alexa show and dot.

I paid £130 at argos and that included one chime. I also paid £25 (annual payment) to save the recordings.

I bought it as a bit of added security as I'm a lone parent.

We have an off-brand one from Amazon that cost about £45. Works fine but charging it is a bit annoying.

I got the £90 a couple of weeks ago. I love seeing who comes to my door but....

I can see who has rung my door bell while I'm at work but by the time the wifi has kicked in to talk to them they have gone.

You can't hear the bell unless you are next to the front door. (You can buy a separate chime).

We got one after we got burgled. Gives great peace of mind. We did have cctv but it wasn't clear or close enough. Ring is great and clear

I have one and I’m not that impressed really.

I’ll never speak to someone through it, because the speaker is so loud the entire street would hear it. I haven’t figured out if you can turn it down, but from googling it seems to be down to your phone, rather than the bell speaker.

It’s a bit shit if you ever needed to quickly (but quietly) speak to someone through it, by the time you’ve changed your phone’s call volume and connected to the bell, they’ll have gone. Unless you don’t mind the megaphone type voice coming out of it.

It doesn’t always pick up motion when me or dp are coming back from somewhere, so I have no idea if it’s picking up everyone that comes to the door. I’ve changed the range to only pick up motion in our front garden, but it still randomly picks up cars/ people in the road, but sometimes misses people at my door. This is pretty common too, from googling the issue can be down to cold weather apparently.

I am paying the £2.50 per month subscription because otherwise I don’t see much use of it if you can’t view the history. Like a pp says, by the time you’ve connected to the live view, whoever’s there will probably have gone by that point.

I would begrudge paying £8 a month for it (I think this is if you want more than 1 device to store history but I’m not sure).

I’d rather have just got a regular cctv camera to be honest.

I had the ring and had to return it was really lagging due to internet speed ! Got blink camera instead and they have been brilliant x

Oh and another thing, I have muted it on my phone so that if I’m talking to anyone while looking at the app, the street isn’t able to hear me but it randomly unmutes when I open live view. So I am quite paranoid about accidentally opening it and broadcasting conversations

I'm a massive fan of cctv because we had loads of trouble with feral teens throwing stuff at our windows, kicking our door etc. Facebook local page would be full of townspeople getting upset about it, then the usual lazy parents (especially the little cow ringleader's mother) coming on with "It's not like us parents can be with them 24/7!" Or "What do you expect people to do? Lock their teenagers up?" Or the real blood boiler "It's harmless fun, no worse than what we got up to! When we were kids"

The second I got cctv and made it very public that the footage will go to the police and I'll be fucking naming and shaming the little shit's parents at the same time, the parents suddenly managed to magically get control of their feral teens. Funny that. It's been about two years and I've had a single snowball at my window when before it was almost every night because I had initially reacted when it first started happening so I was then a good target.

I wanted a ring doorbell with is a great way to keep an eye on your property with motion detection live, I believe no footage is stored unless you fork out for a subscription so unless I was monitoring the app and checking each notification it was no good to me. I bought an Amazon Blink XT2 camera which is battery powered with motioned detection and a two way speaker system and a decent amount of footage storage space. I'll be getting a Ring too soon because the more cameras the better I say but I like the record ability feature of my Blink.

We got one a few months ago. We got the ring 3 plus and the chime pro. Going to get an outside spotlight next with the solar panels so we bought the subscription for more than one device when our 30 day free ended.

I have a Ring.

My neighbour across the road about 3 doors down also has a Ring.

When his Ring rings, we think it’s our Ring ringing, then you’re half way to the door before you realise it’s not your Ring at all (nope, I don’t check the app when I’m at home.)

We got one just before lockdown. Wanted it in case we had deliveries when we were out / in loft and at risk of missing it. Completely pointless with all 4 of us at home day in / day out .....!

We also don't like the time delay on it. It should feed through to your phone quicker than it does in order to do what it's supposed to.