Yeah, unfortunately it could be almost anywhere. Since you are hearing it near the front door though it could be wired close to the actual doorbell switch or wired close to an electrical outlet that you have by your front door.
ETA: (or of course the attic crawlspace right by your front door which you said is hard to fit into)
Ok, yeah. I know what those are. We had one on the wall of a garage in a previous house. Ok. I haven’t seen anything like that in this house. But at least I’ll recognize it when I see it. Thanks.
Cool and good luck.
You can also get a battery-powered doorbell.
Per a Home Depot article on where to locate the transformer:
“Try the attic: Doorbell transformers are sometimes installed on an existing junction box in the attic of a ranch or a house with an attached garage near the front door.”
That’s our house to a T. Fun times.
My current and last house had full basements, so they were easy to find. Sensibly located near the bottom of the stairs in both.
My first was a bi-level and the transformer was in the attic, in an area without flooring in fact. I cursed the builders quite a bit when I needed to work on it. But that was a weirdly constructed house. Over-built is some ways and odd-lots in others it seemed.
My previous houses had the doorbell transformer right beside the electrical panel in the basement, which seemed like a sensible place to put it. In this house, it wasn’t there and I had no idea where it was, which bothered me a bit in case it ever failed. I eventually found it by accident – attached to a light fixture underneath the basement stairs! So yeah, a doorbell transformer could be anywhere. The OP’s best best is probably to try to let the sound guide him.
We’ve been talking at various levels of seriousness about remodeling our kitchen, which if we do so will include some updates to the front entryway and the hallway. Since apparently I’m not in any imminent danger of my house burning down due to this thing being near the end of its life perhaps I’ll just add “relocate and repalce doorbell transformer” the list of 36,835 things that the electrician will need to do.
I actually want to replace both the outside doorbell button and the doorbell chime with something that looks less tacky. I guess we’ll just redo the whole enchilada.
I’ll throw out a completely different idea: is there a dimmer switch on that circuit? Some old dimmers will hum when they’re partially switched on.
You could pull the door bell off the wall and see what direction the wires are heading going into the wall. Also, you could use a stethoscope on the wall to hunt down the sound or even a drinking glass against the wall.
Also, these are step down AC transformers so you might be able to get a reading in the wall with a non-contact voltage detector.. I tried mine on the doorbell and had to adjust it to the most sensitive setting. I’m not an electrician but I picked “something” up in the wall. Not sure it was the doorbell wire. You’re really just trying to get a direction the wires are going so you know where to look.
They’re cheap and nice to have around so it’s not a major purchase.
Also used an AM radio once to find a buried cable that was shorting out. I tuned it off station and walked around the yard until I could hear the static from the power line.
Since it’s probably mounted on a junction box, and by code junction boxes have to be accessible, it should not be buried inside a wall*. It ought to be someplace that is technically accessible, like your attic crawl space, etc.
But if the house has been remodeled by DIYers over the years, they may have ignored electrical code. After all, this is a more serious code violation:
“all modern 3-prong plugs, but the ground is just for show”!
I believe they are required to be labeled “Not grounded” or words to that effect.
I scanned this thread, so forgive me if this has already been suggested, but:
OP has already proven that the hum goes away when the overhead light circuit in the front door area is de-energized. If the question is “is the hum from a doorbell transformer?”, the easy test is to throw the breaker again (once again de-energizing the circuit) and test if the doorbell rings. “No doorbell” proves that the doorbell transformer is on the circuit and is therefore almost certainly the source of the hum.
It’s possible that the OP has a humming transformer and also a ghost at the same time.
For that matter, the ghost could be haunting the transformer.
The latter couple of posts describe the sole circumstance under which I would consider that contemplating the distress sale of the house might make sense.
Also …
If it’s the doorbell transformer, then it’s possible that actually pushing the doorbell button (while the circuit has power) could change/interrupt/alter the hum.
That would also be a good clue.
If you decide to go with my first suggestion, though, let me know.
All cash. Quick close. No contingencies.
I’m your huckleberry.
This is what we did. Our old, wired doorbell rang a chimer thingy installed on a wall of our kitchen. I work from home in an office upstairs and on the other side of the house from the kitchen, so I could never hear the doorbell ring.
We now have a wireless, battery-powered doorbell that rings directly on my phone, and has a camera so I can see who’s ringing. Easy-peasy to install, and the battery seems to last a long time.
I think there’s zero downside to a wireless doorbell, but …
If it were me, and IF my doorbell transformer was slowly dying, I’d want it out of my house whether I replaced it with a new one or not.
Some risk, no reward to keeping it in situ if it’s genuinely trying to die on you.
As I am sure you are aware, this is beyond common. It’s the situation in my house, though I have been slowly working to correct this.