Community Stories

Video doorbell recommendations

DrmexicoII
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980
Hey OF... looking to get any recommendations on video doorbells. I was quite happy with a normal "ding dong" doorbell but, as a predominantly home worker, mrs mexico has decided she wants her living room back and I should take my work paraphernalia, music equipment and horology related "nonsense" into a garden office, which is some way away from the front door. So I need a way of seeing who's at the door and talking to them from another building (will be networked).

So, any personal recommendations on those sorts of doorbells? Ideally I don't want to pay a subscription, but I will if it's the best solution. Do I just follow the herd and go for a ring doorbell from Amazon?
 
Poppyboy
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375
I use Google Home, which is easy to install and pretty reliable. Unfortunately, the monthly subscription to keep history keeps going up. Right now it’s $8/month.
 
ahartfie
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13,610
I have had the Ring doorbell 2 (wired) since 2017 when I installed it after a porch pirate got me. It works okay enough but the sound is all geborked now and has been for awhile. It probably just needs cleaning, but tomorrow I’m replacing it with a Google doorbell as part of a security system upgrade.

What I’ve liked about the Ring are the customizable motion detection ranges and sensitivity. I don’t want to get notified about street traffic. Oddly enough the city’s trash trucks do trigger it.

What I don’t like about the Ring is that often the app will not give me alerts on my phone until I unlock it, at which point I’ll get five or six alerts in a row.

I’d advise going wired versus battery if you can.
 
fiberguy
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2,154
I have several Nest (now google) cameras installed, the first gen Hello doorbell camera at the front door. Works well, although their can be minor lags between when someone is detected at the door and when you get the notification. The current Google doorbell cams are different, and I have no first hand experience with them. If you dont want to have activity recorded/stored, and just want your phone to alert you someone is at the door, I believe you can still do that without a subscription. Ecobee is also making a nice doorbell camera, not sure on the subscription requirement.
 
SOG53
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7,171
Arlo makes decent doorbell camera which doesn’t require the whole base station just link in to home network. Good image quality and you can talk to person. Battery or hard wire options. If you’re home regularly battery is easily removable and rechargeable and lasts for months on a charge. Storage requires subscription but for camera alone I think 4.99/mo may have increased to 7/mo
 
W
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0
I went with a wired setup since it’s more reliable and I didn’t want to mess with charging batteries. Also made sure it had decent night vision and two-way audio.
 
DrmexicoII
Posts
643
Likes
980
Ah, this new post reminded me I should update what I went with in case it helps a future OFer. After lots of research and conversations I went with the Reolink Video Doorbell. My WiFi coverage is good so took the risk with the wireless version. Have to say I've been really pleased. Reliable, works on home or accessed via mobile network, no online storage fees, playback from micro SD card. Vision is good both at night or during the day, communication is good through the mic, notifications are pretty instant and the additional doorbell plug sound thing works great.

All this with no monthly fee. Has power over ethernet capability but I didn't use it in the end. Only downside is getting the right power to it. If you can plug it in to a 3 pin socket, fine. If you want to run it off a doorbell transformer it gets more complicated. In the end I got an electrician to fit it via a separate RCD thingy. Was a pain to get the right one. But once fitted it's been flawless.
 
Walrus
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53,803
I’m actually looking at these as I’m trying to get a place in a rural area where people often post bears and various critters their doorbell picks up but I’ve read and watched somethings about how these devices are helping the government create a surveillance state. I don’t know how big a deal it is anymore with the data we spew everywhere but it does cross my mind
https://pilr.richmond.edu/2020/04/2...of-local-government-and-private-surveillance/
 
ghce
Posts
4,930
Likes
49,834
DrmexicoII DrmexicoII
Ah, this new post reminded me I should update what I went with in case it helps a future OFer. After lots of research and conversations I went with the Reolink Video Doorbell. My WiFi coverage is good so took the risk with the wireless version. Have to say I've been really pleased. Reliable, works on home or accessed via mobile network, no online storage fees, playback from micro SD card. Vision is good both at night or during the day, communication is good through the mic, notifications are pretty instant and the additional doorbell plug sound thing works great.

All this with no monthly fee. Has power over ethernet capability but I didn't use it in the end. Only downside is getting the right power to it. If you can plug it in to a 3 pin socket, fine. If you want to run it off a doorbell transformer it gets more complicated. In the end I got an electrician to fit it via a separate RCD thingy. Was a pain to get the right one. But once fitted it's been flawless.
Cool looking unit and best of all subscription not needed.
 
W
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2
Likes
0
I ended up going with Vivint mostly because it came bundled with the house’s security system, but I’ve been pretty happy with it. The video quality’s solid, and it records events even if you don’t answer the alert. I like that everything’s tied into one app too—alarm, locks, cameras—so I’m not juggling different systems. Not the cheapest, but it’s been reliable for me.
 
The Father
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14,884
IMG_0218.webp
These work pretty well.

Have an Arlo to monitor front door and walk and driveway. Cameras up high and out of the way.
 
The Father
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14,884
SOG53 SOG53
Arlo makes decent doorbell camera which doesn’t require the whole base station just link in to home network. Good image quality and you can talk to person. Battery or hard wire options. If you’re home regularly battery is easily removable and rechargeable and lasts for months on a charge. Storage requires subscription but for camera alone I think 4.99/mo may have increased to 7/mo
This
 
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