Ring just keeps releasing new video doorbells. There’s now several versions on the market including hardwired ones, and battery powered options. One of the newest versions, released earlier in 2020 is Ring Video Doorbell Wired. I recently received a sample version to install outside my house for testing and review. I’ll tell you what set this version apart from other ring doorbells, what it’s like to install, how well it works, and whether it might be lacking in any important features.
What is Ring Video Doorbell Wired?
This doorbell is slimmer, narrower and otherwise lower profile than Ring’s typical video doorbells (see photo below). It’s a little more discrete, and fits in smaller spaces too.
What you need
With this version of ring video doorbell, you must have existing doorbell wiring. If not, check out one of Ring’s many battery powered versions.
It’s probably also important to point out here that you need Wi-Fi, and the Ring app.
What’s in the box? You get just the bare bones here; the doorbell, and a paired back installation kit. . You can opt to connect the Ring chime which is an audible doorbell ringer, if you don’t want to keep your phone beside you 24/7.
Installing Ring video doorbell Wired
How do you install Ring Video Doorbells like these? They’re actually quite easy.
You can watch my step by step how-to video (posted soon at YouTube.com/ErinLawrenceTV) to see how I did it, but in essence, You just kill the power to the door area from the electrical panel/breaker, disconnect the old doorbell, connect the two low-voltage wires, and then screw in the doorbell to the wall or trim. In most cases this will be a simple and quick installation or swap.
Video Resolution & night vision
A Video Doorbell is only as good as its camera lens, and the video resolution is all about the sharpness and clarity of the video feed from your doorbell camera to your phone. Most doorbell cameras you can buy today are HD (1080p) and provide a crisp, detailed video view.
The Ring Video Doorbell Wired has HD video with night vision.
Using Ring Video Doorbell Wired
While some other Ring versions like the Pro 2 have slight improvements on that resolution, and a head to toe video view option, in my opinion that’s probably unnecessary for most users. With the ring video doorbell wired, you’re getting all of the resolution and visibility you need in a much less expensive and smaller package.
There’s two way talk so you can interact with whoever’s at your door, motion detection and alerts, plus smart home and digital assistant compatibility so you can ask Alexa to show you who’s at the front door on a video-enabled Echo Show device.
Snapshot Cam will record images of your property throughout the day. This allows you to review what’s happened in front of your devices in between events.
The images taken by the snapshot capture feature are added to your timeline along with the videos taken during motion events and Live View. That way you can scan through a single timeline and get a good overview of what’s happening around your home.
Ring Video doorbell wired also has Pre-Roll video which starts recording before you get notified of motion or before someone Rings your doorbell. It essentially extends the length of your recorded videos, watching for early motion.
I have followed Ring through several iterations of video doorbell, starting with the original several years ago. The ring ecosystem and interface works stunningly well. The device is absolutely simple to set up and get connected to your smart phone using the Ring app, it’s easy to install despite the wiring, and it works really really well.
You’ll get alerts on your smart phone for both motion and actual rings of the bell, meaning if someone is snooping around your porch and doesn’t ring the bell, you’ll still know they’re there.
How fast do Ring alerts come to my phone?
The alerts for the video doorbell seem to come to my phone fairly quickly after the button is depressed; I timed it out and it really takes less than a second, which you can see for yourself by watching the video review.
Communication is clear; it’s pretty easy to see, hear and speak back and forth with whoever is there.
Adding Ring Chime to the doobell
With the added Ring Chime, you get an audible bell that you can hear throughout the house so you don’t meed to risk missing a delivery if your phone isn’t nearby.
The Ring Chime is a handy gadget all its own, and I’ve opted to pair it with my video doorbell wired in my own home installation. The chime simply plugs into an AC outlet where it draws power and also emits it’s own Wi-Fi signal. This means the chime can double as a Wi-Fi booster in case you’re having difficulty getting a signal to your doorbell. You can place the Chime anywhere you like, but it works great in a central area of the home. You can also place different times on different floors of the house if you have a bigger space.
Naturally the sounds played can be adjusted or configured so you can get everything from the traditional rain wind chime sound or barking dogs if you prefer.
Ring Price + monitoring costs
Ring Protect Plan
A video doorbell may be only as good as those recordings you can—or can’t access. While you get limited access to snippets of videos with a free Ring cloud recording plan, if you want full access to full length recordings, going back more than a few days (I do recommend this), you need to subscribe to the monthly cloud recording plan. Ring Protect starts at $3 month and go up to about about $10 per month.
With that Ring Protect plan though, you do get the option of visitors being able to leave a video message for you to check later. This feature is called Quick Replies, and you can think of it as an answering machine for your door. That’s kind of a neat idea. I hate checking voicemails personally so I’d rather not get video porch-side messages, and as a result I chose not to enable this feature.
For those just entering the video doorbell market, price may be a major consideration and with Ring Video Doorbell Wired there is a substantial difference in price from other Ring devices.
Ring Video Doorbell Wired sells for $59UDS/$79CAD while something like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 sells for $249USD. I think the Ring Video Doorbell Wired is absolutely the best value—it has all of the features you need at a fraction of the cost. Plus, no batteries to worry about charging every few months, or replacing after a few years.
Overall review: Ring Video Doorbell Wired
Overall review: Ring Video Doorbell WiredOverall, when it comes to overall value for money, you can’t go wrong with the new Ring Video Doorbell Wired.
Downsides?
I suppose that if the power goes out, the motion detection stops working and you won’t get notified if there’s a ring, so places with intermittent or unreliable power would probably be better off with a battery powered or solar version.
But this low cost video doorbell has almost all the features you could want, it works well and is a great way to add another layer to your home’s security and supervision.
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