Hopefully this post can save someone a few pounds with the inevitable drastic price drop that will come Boxing day. A few years ago I made the plunge to further advance my Amazon Alexa network with the addition of a Ring doorbell. After a few years I’m left with a shell of a device that barely functions as it was intended to!
I have nothing against Amazon, my whole smart home is based on the Alexa ecosystem with PIR sensors!
You can end up with a crusty Ring doorbell
I’ve always been a fan of darker variants of most products. No exception was made with the Venetian bronze which was my go to. This was the first mistake. Because within less than a year, the coating started peeling off leaving a crusty substrate that almost looks a bit disgusting to touch. Initially I thought, no bother, I can get a warranty replacement due to the timescales. Unfortunately aesthetics aren’t covered, even though this is clearly a design flaw.
If this isn’t enough to put you off then please at least get the silver version!
Functionality is compromised when not subscribed
I’m not referring to the premium features that you unlock with the subscription plan. We won’t go into that here as there’s plenty of information online about what that gets you.
A family member bought the same doorbell and during her trial of the subscription plan, Live view worked perfectly well. Suspiciously when she was off the trial, she kept getting connection errors and Live view would struggle to work. The support team had an easy scapegoat of referring to wifi positioning and internet speed. But for me this isn’t correct and I don’t know if they have structured their bandwidth or server priority to paying subscription members for the Ring doorbell.
I have no proof of this and it’s one person’s experience, but I’d love to know if anyone else has experienced this. It’s hard to google as it highlights peoples problems with connectivity in general.
Smart home notifications have stopped working
So now whenever the Ring doorbell is pressed, only the mobile phone app gives us notifications that someone is outside. I have Amazon Echo devices all over the house, including Echo Flex so we’re literally within earshot at all times! For about a year all these devices were setup to notify in place of a Ring Chime.
For some reason, none of these notify us now. I’ve reinstalled the Ring doorbell, reinstalled both the Ring and Alexa app. But to no avail. I lived with it thinking I was doing something wrong. But what was interesting was a friend of mine bought the Ring Doorbell on the same Black Friday deal I did. It was only until recently I mentioned this problem to him and he said he has the exact same issue. For him it was annoying enough that when the Ring doorbell lost its charge, he didn’t bother recharging it.
Any alternatives to the Ring doorbell?
I’m patiently waiting for Reolink to release their attempt at a doorbell. The most common alternative discussed online is Eufy. The benefit of this company is they have storage solutions so you can save constant recordings without a monthly fee. I grew up in a time where service based business models were rare and I much prefer higher upfront costs!
Google Nest is another strong contender. I don’t know how good it is and don’t see many people with them. I’d say they’re still worth checking out as the system looks slick.