I have an old-fashioned 2-wire low voltage doorbell. The button was broken for a long time, so I had put in an unwired doorbell (which I highly recommend if you need one, see below*) with a nice loud bell that even rings twice by default. I finally fixed the old doorbell yesterday, which has always been my preference. But I had forgotten how not-so-loud it is. It’s fine for the main floor, but I can’t hear it downstairs, especially if I’m playing something on YouTube. Probably not when I’m asleep either, although I haven’t tested that.
I’m wondering if there is anything I can hook up to the doorbell that could in some way trigger a 2nd bell downstairs. Or some other solution might be fine, always referring back to my opening sentence.
*Brand Tecknet, link to product, waterproof and no battery; bell plugs into outlet inside the house.
The lower level of my house is my basement, and on one of the joists under the front door there’s a low-voltage transformer that converts house current to the ~10V the doorbell requires. You can tap into the wire to the doorbell and have the main floor and lower floor doorbell ring together.
However, my doorbell is the original 1957 model, so be sure a) your new doorbell takes the same voltage b) your transformer isn’t concealed in the wall and c) you’re comfortable working with electricity.
Thanks, unfortunately I lose out on b) unless it’s actually inside the chime unit; I’m all right with c) especially when the output is low voltage. But I am leery of running new wires through my walls.
I have also discovered, on further searching, that there is something called a doorbell repeater, which wires into the existing chime unit, and then wirelessly signals a second chime (which is plugged into an outlet) elsewhere inside the house. That looks like it may meet my needs. If anyone has any experience with one of those, I’d like to hear about it.
Thanks, I could, but now that I have the original doorbell working again, I want to continue to use it. And the one wireless chime I had was loud enough to hear downstairs. That one has been retired to the “old electrical stuff” drawer.
Oh, I’ve been looking for something to replace our wireless doorbell, since I feel like I have to swap batteries every couple months… Didn’t know this was a thing, especially with the self-powered ringer. Thanks!
Unfortunately, no contribution to your actual issue.
I’m seriously doubting that the ringer, the push button, is actually “self powered” since one of the pictures clearly states it’s only good up to 200,000 presses. I’d happily bet that it’s exactly like those ‘shake lights’, a phony mechanism with a hidden button cell.
It could be piezo-electric. I have a wireless switch I use to turn my disposal on and off that is powered only by the force of pushing the switch. Mine is smaller than this one, but I’d wager it’s the same.
And BTW, what do you mean, only 200,000 pushes? How many people come to your door every day? If it’s pushed ten times a day, it will last only 55 years.
