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Video Doorbells | Pad Patter 12.15.22

umyesh

umyesh

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We had some suspicious activity on our video doorbell last night and of course it stopped working during that time. We have the Google Nest wireless version so we're wondering if we should try wired or a different brand. It was pretty cold last night so we're wondering if it stopped working because of that. It also stops working in the summer when it's really hot.

Do you use a video doorbell or know someone who does?
If so what brand?
Is it wired or wireless?
Does it function poorly when it's too hot or too cold?

Thanks in advance!
 
I have Ring doorbells. Mine are on battery because I didn't want to drill into the brick. And the original doorbell was taken out many years ago and who knows what happened with the wiring on it.

I've only had them since July (saved $400 by buying during Prime Day). One is outside, the other is in the garage so that when the garage door is open in the summer, my friends and neighbors can use that door. I can't answer about weather because it hasn't gotten really cold yet and this summer the temps didn't get extremely hot. I have had to change the front door battery 3 times. When I changed it yesterday, it had only been 5 weeks so apparently the cold weather is a factor in that.

I also have 2 wired floodlight cameras. One on the driveway which covers the door as well and one on the patio. And, the 2 inside cameras so I can track Peyton... it's funny to watch the videos in history after I've been gone for awhile. And, there are a lot of creatures running around outside at night... cats and even opossums. Squirrels and rabbits during the day.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
I have Ring doorbells. Mine are on battery because I didn't want to drill into the brick. And the original doorbell was taken out many years ago and who knows what happened with the wiring on it.

I've only had them since July (saved $400 by buying during Prime Day). One is outside, the other is in the garage so that when the garage door is open in the summer, my friends and neighbors can use that door. I can't answer about weather because it hasn't gotten really cold yet and this summer the temps didn't get extremely hot. I have had to change the front door battery 3 times. When I changed it yesterday, it had only been 5 weeks so apparently the cold weather is a factor in that.

I also have 2 wired floodlight cameras. One on the driveway which covers the door as well and one on the patio. And, the 2 inside cameras so I can track Peyton... it's funny to watch the videos in history after I've been gone for awhile. And, there are a lot of creatures running around outside at night... cats and even opossums. Squirrels and rabbits during the day.
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I love the idea of wired floodlight cameras! Maybe that’s what we need to try. Thanks!
 
umyesh said:
I love the idea of wired floodlight cameras! Maybe that’s what we need to try. Thanks!
Click to expand...
They are also motion lights so I can see them kick on when a cat walks across the driveway in the middle of the night! I had been wanting to get new motion lights for awhile since mine was broken (light worked, motion sensor broken) but just hadn't done it. So the camera/motion floodlight was perfect. I had an electrician install the lights then my IT friend did all the Ring setup for me making sure everything connected/worked correctly.
 
Do you use a video doorbell or know someone who does?
We do. I don't usually "answer" the door that way. I look to see who is there... lol! If I know them and at home, I answer, and if I don't, home or not, I ignore. My hubby talks to people that way... lol!

We've had the police ask us to check out videos for videos about stolen cars and once for a manhunt - that was a bit crazy with helicopters and police EVERYWHERE!

The funniest is sharing videos of silly things that happen to get caught on video - falls (where all are ok), or tripping and random silly stuff that people do to the camera.

If so what brand?
We have the Ring version.... They have oodles of kinds, door, garage, with lights, backyard. It's cheap to maintain an account as well.

Is it wired or wireless?
Wireless, and we charge it I'd say once every couple months? I know we do, but don't know the schedule, hubby does. It will go off when charging on our kitchen counter and it scares the beejezus out of me late at night! :giggle Or when my kids pick it up and talk to it, and me checking the video confused.

Does it function poorly when it's too hot or too cold?
Never had a real issue that I am aware of.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
They are also motion lights so I can see them kick on when a cat walks across the driveway in the middle of the night! I had been wanting to get new motion lights for awhile since mine was broken (light worked, motion sensor broken) but just hadn't done it. So the camera/motion floodlight was perfect. I had an electrician install the lights then my IT friend did all the Ring setup for me making sure everything connected/worked correctly.
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Motion lights would be very helpful. Yay for a helpful IT friend!
 
jk703 said:
Do you use a video doorbell or know someone who does?
We do. I don't usually "answer" the door that way. I look to see who is there... lol! If I know them and at home, I answer, and if I don't, home or not, I ignore. My hubby talks to people that way... lol!

We've had the police ask us to check out videos for videos about stolen cars and once for a manhunt - that was a bit crazy with helicopters and police EVERYWHERE!

The funniest is sharing videos of silly things that happen to get caught on video - falls (where all are ok), or tripping and random silly stuff that people do to the camera.

If so what brand?
We have the Ring version.... They have oodles of kinds, door, garage, with lights, backyard. It's cheap to maintain an account as well.

Is it wired or wireless?
Wireless, and we charge it I'd say once every couple months? I know we do, but don't know the schedule, hubby does. It will go off when charging on our kitchen counter and it scares the beejezus out of me late at night! :giggle Or when my kids pick it up and talk to it, and me checking the video confused.

Does it function poorly when it's too hot or too cold?
Never had a real issue that I am aware of.
Click to expand...
That manhunt sounds crazy! We watch a lot of fails so I know exactly what fall videos you’re talking about haha so good!
 
umyesh said:
That manhunt sounds crazy! We watch a lot of fails so I know exactly what fall videos you’re talking about haha so good!
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When I walk my neighborhood in the summer, I have noticed that quite a few houses have video doorbells and some have outside cameras as well. Some have the signs in their flower beds about being protected by video surveillance. I chose not to do that. Not too long ago I pick-up truck was stolen from a driveway and someone's video captured it in the middle of the night. The sheriff was able to nab the person and get the truck back within 36 hours.
 
umyesh said:
That manhunt sounds crazy! We watch a lot of fails so I know exactly what fall videos you’re talking about haha so good!
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It was! We saw the helicopters and they were so low and close, I actually asked my husband if we should go inside and maybe something bad was going on nearby. He scoffed. :giggle They landed the helicopter to let state troopers out at the nearest school (about 4 houses away). The guys escaped after crashing a stolen car on a highway, ran pretty far, went into a house, stole keys and then stole 2 more cars! All were eventually found. Crazy!

ETA: The thieves were not on our Ring, lol! They were on our backyard neighbors though!
 
I'd love to know more about those camera motion floodlights -- I've had a couple of small succulents "disappear" from pots on my patio, and something just appears to have eaten an aloe plant (desperate?). Would love to know what kind of critters are munching on my plants.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
When I walk my neighborhood in the summer, I have noticed that quite a few houses have video doorbells and some have outside cameras as well. Some have the signs in their flower beds about being protected by video surveillance. I chose not to do that. Not too long ago I pick-up truck was stolen from a driveway and someone's video captured it in the middle of the night. The sheriff was able to nab the person and get the truck back within 36 hours.
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That’s nice someone’s video helped the sheriff.

Our neighborhood will post their doorbell videos on Facebook if they see something suspicious and want to warn the rest of us which is helpful but also unnerving.
 
jk703 said:
It was! We saw the helicopters and they were so low and close, I actually asked my husband if we should go inside and maybe something bad was going on nearby. He scoffed. :giggle They landed the helicopter to let state troopers out at the nearest school (about 4 houses away). The guys escaped after crashing a stolen car on a highway, ran pretty far, went into a house, stole keys and then stole 2 more cars! All were eventually found. Crazy!

ETA: The thieves were not on our Ring, lol! They were on our backyard neighbors though!
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That’s crazy the thieves were on your backyard neighbors’ videos! That’s so close to you! Yikes!

The only time we had helicopters close was in our last home during a fire so we knew exactly what they were doing.
 
elseepe said:
I'd love to know more about those camera motion floodlights -- I've had a couple of small succulents "disappear" from pots on my patio, and something just appears to have eaten an aloe plant (desperate?). Would love to know what kind of critters are munching on my plants.
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I think it would be fun to have video evidence of the critters around us too. We usually just have cats as far as I know. I wonder what likes eating your aloe and stealing your plants!
 
umyesh said:
That’s nice someone’s video helped the sheriff.

Our neighborhood will post their doorbell videos on Facebook if they see something suspicious and want to warn the rest of us which is helpful but also unnerving.
Click to expand...
The stolen truck alert was posted on a FB group which led to people checking their videos that live in the area. They knew the approximate time it was stolen and posted that. I checked my video and nothing even though I live on one of the streets that could have been taken to leave the neighborhood.

The main critters I see during the night hours are cats and a couple of times, opossums. The squirrels and rabbits come out during the day. There was even one cat that was getting on to my patio and I'm not sure how. It is fenced in and the bars are really close together. Then there is the darn chipmunk that scurries across it. It is probably hibernating since I haven't seen it for a couple of months.
 
I have Ring cameras all over the place. The way our house is set up, I can't really see out to the front of our house without going all the way to the other side of the house and looking out one of my kids' bedrooms. So, we have one just looking out into the driveway so I can see what is going on out there when the dogs start barking or there is other activity out there. That one is battery operated and I just swap the battery about once/month. We also have a ring doorbell that is wired in the place where a regular doorbell used to be. Our front door is in a sort of alcove, so the doorbell faces sideways which is why I can't use that one to see the driveway/front of the house.

On the side of the house, I took out our old regular, wired flood lights and replaced them with a wired, motion activated flood light Ring (if you can do basic light fixture wiring, you can do this). In the backyard, I have another motion activated floodlight but since it's in a place where we didn't have wires and I didn't want to change the batteries, that one is solar and it works great. That one is mostly to keep an eye on the pool -- we are all adults in the house but I still don't like people swimming by themselves. And I have two plug-in Rings inside for keeping an eye on the dogs when we're not home. I'm not really a total paranoid nut, I promise -- each camera has a specific purpose! :D

It doesn't get too cold here in Scottsdale but it sure does get HOT! We haven't had any problems with our cameras in the heat. If you have another kind of camera, you probably already experienced this but the two things that I don't love about the Rings is that you have to pay a monthly fee to be able to access the video after the fact and they take a few seconds after the motion alert to actually get the video feed up and running in the app.
 
Do you use a video doorbell or know someone who does? We do use one. It always records motion, but I don't always have it notify me when it does. I just check it usually every morning and afternoon.
If so what brand? We have Ring
Is it wired or wireless? It's wireless and rechargeable. Because of the settings I have on it, it doesn't drain very fast at all. I probably charge it every couple of months. I have far more animals trigger it in the night than visitors or creepers. I'd like to put another one on the back of the house.
Does it function poorly when it's too hot or too cold? Haven't had any problem with it at all.
 
My husband just installed a ring doorbell... we have cameras everywhere so I didn't want it... Our other doorbell was a motion sensored light bar (really cool) but I could not hear it from my upstairs office - now I get that recognizable ring chime on my phone when some one shows at the door... I miss the old door bell....
 
@dawnmarch You use yours like I use mine... to watch the dog! The guy that set mine up for me definitely recommended paying for the protection plan and he suggested the yearly option since it was cheaper than the monthly rate. I just consider it another form of insurance.

I spend the most time in the back of my house, away from both doors which is why I needed some kind of doorbells. It was a hassle for quite some time when I had none because I didn't always hear a knock on the door. And, with the video I can actually decide if I even want to answer the door. We gets lots of solicitations in this neighborhood and even with a no soliciting sign, they still come to the door. Especially this one company that I have told repeatedly that I am not interested. The summer of 2020 was fantastic since no one was doing door to door solicitation!

I was lucky in that I already had 2 wired lights at the driveway and the patio that I could put the wired floodlights on. I considered a solar for the front door only it would not get enough sunlight to be feasible so battery is it. One of the inside cameras is a plug-in but the other is battery. There is no way to hide a cord for one at the location I have it. So I just got 2 extra batteries and a charger that is plugged in at all times. When a battery gets low, I just swap them out.
 
I have never heard of a ring doorbell or video doorbell! I feel like I'm living in the dark ages over here. I actually don't even have a doorbell. People just knock. Haha. We do have motion sensor lights that come on at night. Of course, we do live in a very rural area and I have to give everyone very specific instructions on how to get to our house.
 
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