Why get a Ring doorbell?

[WhistPie]

Don't get me wrong, we've got one and it's useful but it only records the first 20-30 seconds after it's detected a motion or a bell ring. So why do people suggest getting one to record doorstep interactions? Or have I not got mine set up right?

(Oh, and nobody can hear me talking properly through it if I don't go to the door and use it as a walkie-talkie)

I have the Google Nest one which maybe works a bit better than a Ring (I can go back a few weeks) and I quite like it. The alerts and notifications are entirely configurable so I for example don't care to be told when someone approaches the door. Whereas DH has every alert configured so he can glare at the screen from the pub round the corner and go wtf is that at the house! They're looking at my car! They're going to try and get it! Oh, no, it's just the Amazon delivery chap (90% of all alerts).

My favourite use for it is to shout at full blast out of it, from my office, 3 floors up, use your fucking key! When the doorbell goes 4 times I quick succession at school return time as my kids all get off the same bus/train separately and separately walk up the road and serarately arrive and ring to be let in, separately, even though they have keys.

@SmartHome do you pay a yearly subscription for that one?

In not sure what we have but some kind of camera doorbell thing , I don’t have the app on my phone DH does . It’s useful, we once watched my dad carry something up our drive and while his hands were full his trousers fell down, we know where one of our kids hides his weed , we could see how many friends were sneaked in when we were away on holiday, all kinds of useful stuff !!🤣

I find it really useful, wouldn’t be without one

Yes it hilarious for watching teens trying to get in when you're away or out. I once watched DS1 doing the worm all the way up the drive at 5.00 4 hours after he was supposed to be home in attempt to evade it.

It is the all seeing eye though and NOTHING escapes it! Even when they just run really fast up the drive and try to blur themselves 😄

I do pay something for the extended recording maybe £70 a year or something? Think you get a couple of hours or something basic.

It's handy to know when the DC's have got in from school.
Mine picks up passers by on the path so I know if anyone dodgy is around.

I have a couple of trail cameras for this. Not sure how they compare with Ring doorbells.

No deer here but regular hedgehogs and one day this critter.

It is reassuring for my teen when we are out and he can see if anyone is sneaking around. As for looking out the window, not everyone has a lounge at the front, mine is on the back, I have privacy glass in my door so I cannot see who it at the door unless I go into my dining room. My house also does not face the road, I am at an angle to it. Before lockdown I was home alone a lot, my drive is very private and you cannot be seen at the front door from the road. We have a Ring doorbell plus other Ring security cameras. We got them after my car was broken into on my drive.

I found it very useful to eavesdrop using the live feature as people assume it only records when you press the front door bell. I have listened in to 2 very interesting conversations from workmen, one chap saying no the customer is not with me at the moment, I have stepped outside and then heard what his manager wanted him to say back to us, all very dodgy. Plus we were prepared for them for brushing off their shitty workmanship.

I have one because I can hear the door bell from my garden office. It's just set up to be a bell, with a ringer in my officer.

We were advised to get one by the police we my DD's bullies were coming to the house and shouting abuse outside. Thanks to it we have had them charged with harassment.
Now it's just useful as a loud door bell as we have quiet a big house and if I'm not in the teenagers don't always hear knocking from their rooms.

When I wake up in the middle of the night and want to see if DS is home I just check the camera history via my phone and don't have to get out of bed!

I have a Nest but I suppose they are all the same. I love it! We got it after someone nicked our vegetable delivery from our front garden and it didn't happen again (I imagine the thief was sorely disappointed to get a load of wonky veg, though, so might just have been that).

I've provided footage to the police on two occasions, once when someone nicked my neighbour's catalytic converter and once when the neighbours' son a couple of doors down on the other side had his motorbike stolen.

I answer the door when working or out of the house and let delivery people know where to leave parcels. Have even had a chat with the postman while stuck in a very boring meeting. I can also ask charity people who want me to sign up for direct debits etc to go away, not to mention the Jehovah's Witnesses and random salesmen.

When my house was having some work done and we were away we could see when builders were turning up etc which while not particularly useful was quite interesting.

I have also had some fun watching foxes and hedgehogs at night.

Nest ones record continuously, but Ring ones have to be motioned triggered

I’ve had the police knock on our door twice to ask for footage and both times, they said they were glad we had a Nest and not Ring because of the Ring issue of not always recording something over the road or someone running past

In every case of burglary on my road, a Ring doorbell has prevented none of them. Shared videos of guys in hoodies/baklavas do the rounds on our neighborhood watch group which are met with loads of sympathetic neighbourly texts, but a Ring doesn’t stop thieves from doing what they want, what they’re good at, and what they’re determined to do

Might help catch them though.

Telling parcel men where to hide the parcel, checking the pet sitter is coming, making sure the landlord don’t appear magically to come in.

Being able to tell the police nope sorry nobody like that came past ours. Ours is set to take a photo every so many seconds.

we also have blink cameras and a wired cctv set up. We moved from a bad area. Oh and when a Take away is marked as delivered and it bloody hasn’t been I got the proof.

Why do you need to record 24/7?

What would be the point of hours and hours of norlthing happening?

That's interesting. I didn't know that. Glad we opted for a Nest, then!

I use a riser chair and an indoor walker. Consequently it takes me an age to get up and start walking, added to which my house is long and thin, so I'm usually quite away from the door.

so I'm able to tell people in on my way, and ask them to be a bit more patient (if, I want to see them,of course 😁).

I thought it was only legal to film things that happen within your own boundary

How come you are filming things that happened two doors down?

We got a Ring doorbell and cameras following a break in. They hopefully act as a deterrent, and in the event someone were to try it again, they would alert us via our phones and provide evidence for the Police to use.

I think the requirements are that you must have clear notices up explaining that cctv etc. is in operation, but there is nothing to stop you setting your camera to record as wide an area as possible, often stretching beyond your own boundary.

Ours does that. I've actually reduced it to just a little beyond our boundary because otherwise it just recorded the whole street endlessly and I saw little point in that.

I like pretending I’m not home when chuggers come to the door.

For checking who DS sneaks into the house and grabbing screen shots of said truants.
For seeing if parcels arrive.
For looking at the cat and the rainy weather when we are on holiday and checking that dozy neighbour has remembered to feed the cat.
For seeing if the bins have been taken.
For seeing who is in at night from bed.
For checking if the car is locked

The motorbike was parked outside our front door, not two doors down. We don't live in a street where everyone always parks outside their own house.