Considering purchase of same, and possibly their security light camera as well. Please tell me about your experience good or bad.
I like my Ring Door bell. If I get a FedEx, UPS, or other delivery Ring lets me know that there is motion at my front door. Many times some of the delivery people just toss the package and walk away, no knock or ring the ring.
I am working a temp job and FedEx just drops my paycheck at my front door right out in the open. It is nice to know when it is there. If I am home I pick it up. If I am away I can use my security cameras to keep an eye on it.
If I had used the money it cost to install a camera system into Rings I would have a better system.
http://https://forum.facepunch.com/sh/buulq/For-Owners-of-Amazon-s-Ring-Security-Cameras-Strangers-May-Have-Been-Watching/1/
Heard this on NPR, decided against it
I have been pretty happy with mine, but if I were to buy one today, I’d look at the Nest video doorbell more carefully. The camera and user interface looks better from what I’ve seen on the web. Though at this point I wouldn’t spend $200 or whatever to replace my Ring, as it still works pretty well.
Thanks, I’ll take a look at the Nest system.
I have a Nest doorbell.
It started with the thermostat, and I liked their interface so much, I got their doorbell. I liked that enough to get two additional cameras, one for my back patio and another to go above my driveway.
All told, I’m very pleased with my Nest products. Their indoor cameras seem to be a bit expensive, and since I have the outside covered so well, I might just hold off on those for a bit.
I have actually put up a sign that says “Deliveries: Please do not ring doorbell unless signature is required”. Different strokes.
I looked at the Nest Doorbell on their site and it looks like it needs AC via transformer. Due to the way mine is setup that’s not as easy as it was in my old house.
AC for cameras is easy because I already have lights on that location.
Yeah, luckily, mine was easily accessed in the attic.
Another plus, you can disable the interior doorbell, so now when people press the button outside, only my phone makes a noise (helpful bc I have dogs).
In my neighborhood there are people driving around looking for packages on the front door. So far I have had only one package walk, but no paychecks.
Just installed the hardwired version of the Ring a few days ago. I like it so far. It works fine with the existing ding-dong chime and I can use my phone to act as a video intercom with whoever is at the door. It will record motion-activated video whenever someone is at the door which I can review later. I can also activate it at will from the app and yell at the neighborhood.
I know someone with the Ring system, bell and camera/lights. I guess I need to go visit and do a close examination of his stuff.
I’m in a rural area so porch pirates are not really an issue, just more of a convenience to know when visitors arrive.
We have the Ring Doorbell 2 which has the rechargeable battery and the ability for continuous charge with AC. I have a digital chime on our 2nd floor. Installation was easy. That said, I’m very disappointed in it and there is little I can do other than replace it with something else. My largest problem is the device itself seems to have a very weak wifi component. Our home complicates things, it is an old victorian brick home and there is a vestibule between the interior of our home and the device outside the front door. I regularly experience poor connections to the device which results in poor real-time video and audio, significant lag when trying to answer a door bell on my smartphone or communicate with anyone outside, and sometimes delays in someone pressing the Ring doorbell and the internal chime going off or getting notification on my smartphone. Now normally I’d just chalk this all up to a large, old home made of brick and various hardwoods but…
My cable modem and Eero base are direct line of sight to the Ring doorbell location and less than 30 feet away on the 1st floor. I even tried a Ring Chime located less than 10 feet away to see if that resulted in better connection. It did not. I can stand on my front porch, directly beside my Ring doorbell and run a speed test on my mobile phone connected to the same wifi router and get 450+/- download speeds and 50-100+ upload speeds but my Ring doorbell reports a poor connection to wifi. I can get the same speed test results +/- 10% all the way up on the 3rd floor of my home using the same smartphone and speed test. Yet the 30 feet from the main modem and Eero base (not the beacon) and well… crap connection. At this point I can’t help but identify that the Ring doorbell’s 802.11 wifi hardware is just junk. We do have friends who also own a Ring doorbell and they do not have the same issue we have. No, Ring support has not been willing to do anything - they blame our “weak” wifi. rolls eyes
What I like about it:
Easy installation.
Continuous charge so I don’t have to deal with swapping batteries.
Ring app is easy to use.
Automatic archiving of video (for a monthly fee) so we can go back and look at history of captured videos if needed (we’ve needed to do so on occasion).
Some control over the motion detection zones although I found this does not work the way I expected but part of that is our home is very elevated from the street.
Night “vision” capability is fairly good although our porch light is on 24x7.
Since I spent my day in a home office on the 3rd floor, in theory it would be nice to answer the door via my iPhone or be able to peak and see who is there. Again though, due to the poor Ring connectivity it is mostly useless for this purpose.
Sorry it doesn’t work as well as it should but I appreciate the extensive report.
Here’s something you absolutely must see: the world’s best use of a Ring Doorbell.
It’s a 2 minute video clip of a 5 year old kid using Ring to call his father.
The cutest thing in the history of the internet. 
( It’s best with sound turned on).
Trust me, you’ll smile.
To quote Mr. Burns “Excellent”.