The Ring Video Doorbell along with their version 2 and the Pro versions have broken into the market quite a bit these last couple years. No doubt you’ve probably heard of them. If you haven’t bought one yet, you may have a lot of questions and hesitations.
Don’t worry, I’ve had mine for a while now and have some knowledge to pass on to you so you can decide about whether or not to buy it.
In this post, I’ll share 4 important things that everyone should know about the Ring Video Doorbell whether you’re a new owner or considering buying one.
You’ll Wonder Why it Took You So Long to Get One
I get it. It’s a pretty expensive piece of hardware that you might think is a bit frivolous. If you’re budget-conscious like me, you’ve probably been watching it for a while, but haven’t pulled the trigger.
Well, it’s been on my “nice-to-have” list for a couple of years before I finally pulled the trigger. The “Ring Video Doorbell 2 + Chime” was on sale at Costco for only $150 (normally $250 on Amazon).
Now that I got it, I’m really enjoying it. It’s so convenient to answer the door when you’re out of town. I’ve had some instances where I got to tell the package delivery person where to leave the package (instead of them putting it in plain sight, or worse, delaying delivery and attempting again later).
I also really like the Ring Video Doorbell because it has a good amount of Smart Home integrations, like an Alexa Skill and IFTTT integration.
Ring’s High Tech Neighborhood Watch is Awesome
One of the coolest parts of the Ring app is the ability to join your neighborhood using a radius around your home’s location. If your camera spots and records someone doing any suspicious activity, you can share that video with the neighborhood. The result is that you can browse a feed of videos of suspicious people caught on camera in your neighborhood.
There’s a Subscription if You Want Your Videos Recorded :(
Now that I’ve said some pretty nice things about Ring, it’s time for the bad news. There’s a monthly or yearly subscription.
It does come with a 30 day trial (and/or a 1 year included subscription in the case of the version sold at Costco), but after that, you will need to subscribe to the Ring Protect Plan for $3/month or $30/year.
Otherwise, all your videos will be deleted and your Ring Doorbell will no longer record the videos. The rest of the functionality of alerts and live view will continue to work, but you won’t be able to go back and watch something from before.
What if my Ring Video Doorbell Gets Stolen?
I can speak to this one from experience because mine was stolen already. It was one of my hesitations before I bought it. I mean, it’s a pretty expensive device attached to my wall outside. I imagine it’s tempting for criminals to just go around ripping them off, right? Well, actually it wasn’t too bad…
Here are some things to know about stolen Ring Video Doorbells:
- If you take a photo of the damage (or the spot where it was), and then call your local police department to get them out to file a police report of theft, then you can email Theft@Ring.com with those attachments and they’ll send you a replacement for free.
- Joke’s on the stupid thief because if you report the theft to Ring, they will deactivate the device from their end rendering it completely worthless. Note: Never buy a used Ring Video Doorbell out of the trunk of someone’s car!!!
What Are Your Thoughts?
Do you have any experiences or opinions to share about the Ring Video Doorbell? Let me know in the comments below.
This product if you live in Australia is a complete rip off, after your 30 day access to your video recording ends you don’t get the option of subscribing to a protection plan.
There is a long delay between asking for Alexa to show you the view and actually seeing it, I’d say more than 15 seconds. Delivery man has usually climbed 8 steps left the package and departed before I get a picture.
That’s pretty bad. Kind of makes that feature useless, huh?
Useless as far as Alexa goes. Ring says I cannot have a constant feed using a spare phone either. Best result is keeping Ring app up on my phone and select the proper device. Then I just press live view. Cuts response time to a couple seconds. I have a power recliner and media room is in back of house so MY response time is over 30 seconds so Ring is much better than me. Allows me to check who/what is there before I get out of my recliner. I love the Ring, picture is great and I have the one with customizeable field which allows me to screen out cars on street from setting it off.
Ring sucks. I’ve had numerous recorded break-in attempts. I shared the info with the local authorities and other ring users. Apparently the monitor is friends with the thief because now I’m banned from posting my police reported recorded vandalism.