Ring type doorbells. What do I need?

[Greenier]

I live alone and want to see who is at my door before answering. No need to record.

Currently have a non Ring type electric bell. Could this be easily removed and replaced with a Ring type? I don't want to have to carry my phone from room to room to hear the bell so believe it needs to be wired in (?)

What are the alternatives to Ring and your recommendations?

Is fitting a DIY job?

You can choose a wired or non-wired - that’s only a case of whether you want it to have permanent power (wired) or if you are happy to have to charge it up every couple of months. If it is in a sunny spot, you can get an add on solar charger pack.

If you want to hear the ring around the house without carrying your phone, you would either need a Chime (which just repeats the bell sound elsewhere in the house, no video) or an Echo (only the Show has a screen so you can see the video link).

There are brands other than Ring, and I think some people think these are better. I only have experience with Ring, and have found it fairly simple - though I’ve had one doorbell unit where it was died and can no longer recharge, and I’ve only used the non-wired doorbell (plus a Chime and an Echo Show)

I have a Eufy - wireless. It does record and store on a card. I also added an extra camera for the driveway. Both work a treat and a bargain. No subscription necessary.

Agree with previous poster.
The basic pairing is to buy a ring doorbell, and a Chime. The ring doorbell can be wired in or powered by rechargeable batteries. It needs to connect to your house wifi as does the chime. This is how they communicate. And the Chimes are all plugged in to plug sockets.

So when someone presses the ring doorbell, all the Chimes you’ve bought will ring. You can also set it to ring on your phone, and on eg an Alexa if you have one.

We have a chime downstairs, and one upstairs, and have it going on our phones too.

With ring, you can see who is at the door and talk to them through your phone. But it won’t save recordings unless you pay for a monthly subscription cost. Other doorbells don’t have that monthly cost for viewing who WAS at your door earlier. We didn’t particularly want it for that so we’re fine with ring, but the others may be better because of that.

We have a wireless Eufy with a chime. It was easy to fit and I bought an extra battery pack