Author Topic: Recommend a radio door bell.  (Read 2074 times)

Basil

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Recommend a radio door bell.
« on: 04 May, 2020, 07:42:51 pm »
A couple of years ago i bought two radio door bells from Amazon.  (Yes, we have two front doors) They must have been cheap Chinese crap. One lasted 6 months, the other has just given up the ghost too. On both occasions i wasted money changing the two AA batteries in the main unit and the button battery in the bell push.
Any recommendations for a brand I should be looking for?
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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #1 on: 04 May, 2020, 08:09:01 pm »
Anything made by Friedland.

robgul

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #2 on: 04 May, 2020, 08:46:35 pm »
Forget anything with batteries - we have a set up that came from Amazon where the bell units plug into a wall power socket. 

We've just moved - at the previous house we had 3 bell units (one on each floor) and 1 button, here we have 2 bells and 1 button - you can get various combinations with multiple buttons and bells.   Just need a battery in the button push unit(s)

Our previous experience with battery powered bells was poor . . . . and one of the neighboiurs had a car key fob that chimed our doorbell from time to time - presumably as it scrolled the frequencies one matched our door bell!

Rob


Kim

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #3 on: 04 May, 2020, 09:26:24 pm »
One that uses wires and mains electrickery, like Dog intended.

Those little 12V batteries the button units use are crap, and tend to become intermittent in cold weather.  Not to mention the inherent corrosion issues with DC voltages on something less than waterproof.  If you have to use one, make sure it's something you can get replacements for.

Intermittent doorbells train Shite Couriers and the like not to use the doorbell.  So they bang uselessly on the door.  >:(

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #4 on: 04 May, 2020, 09:28:38 pm »
Forget anything with batteries - we have a set up that came from Amazon where the bell units plug into a wall power socket. 

We've just moved - at the previous house we had 3 bell units (one on each floor) and 1 button, here we have 2 bells and 1 button - you can get various combinations with multiple buttons and bells.   Just need a battery in the button push unit(s)

Our previous experience with battery powered bells was poor . . . . and one of the neighboiurs had a car key fob that chimed our doorbell from time to time - presumably as it scrolled the frequencies one matched our door bell!

Rob
I would also avoid battery powered radio bells. The battery in the push button bit is fine, as it is only connected when the button is pushed. The radio receiver has to stay on all the time.

There is no such thing as a battery powered receiver that has to stay on a long time on a small battery, while having a fast response. It simply takes too much power.

Mobile phones don't last that long when turned on, and they do clever things to only turn on every couple of seconds for a really short time. As long as the cell tower knows where they are, it can accept a call on the phone's behalf and wait the few seconds until the phone turns on and responds. Cordless are similar.

Car locks use the 15 kg car battery and then only last a month.

Home heating systems with motorised valves only turn on the receiver every 30s or so, which is fine for the radiators but would be a bit tedious for a doorbell.

TVs etc have two power supplies. One is phone-charger sized, and runs the receiver for the remote, and that turns on the serious power supply when needed.

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #5 on: 04 May, 2020, 09:46:20 pm »
I was going to say I do have a recommendation, but it won't be any use as it has been working for about 15 years, so is likely not made any more. It is the Byron SX15, which I hacked into our wired bell system to provide a wireless repeater that works in the garden*. Not only does it appear that a similar model is still made, but also they have produced one that would have saved me the hackology - here https://doorbellworld.co.uk/product_info.php/100-meter-wirefree-wall-mounted-striker-bell-and-converter-kit-p-254?

The unit has a loud bell running off 2 x D cells that last > 1 year, and provides a few second ring even if the button is only pressed for a fraction of a second. The ringer unit sits by the back door and can be taken out to the bottom of the garden, or alternatively dropped onto stone from time to time, to validate its robustness credentials (those two activities are not mutually exclusive)

* I dismantled the push, hung it by the transformer and bell, and wired the normal push into it so the push operated both the bell and the remote.

robgul

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #6 on: 05 May, 2020, 08:36:08 am »
One that uses wires and mains electrickery, like Dog intended.

Those little 12V batteries the button units use are crap, and tend to become intermittent in cold weather.  Not to mention the inherent corrosion issues with DC voltages on something less than waterproof.  If you have to use one, make sure it's something you can get replacements for.

Intermittent doorbells train Shite Couriers and the like not to use the doorbell.  So they bang uselessly on the door.  >:(

Our bell push button (at the previous house) was sheltered under a canopy and the battery lasted about 5 years (perhaps we didn't get many visitors ?  ??? )

For most houses retro-fit wiring for a doorbell is going to be untidy

Have to agree on the courier issue - you can sympathise but if they banged on the door I'd always take my time in answering.

Rob

PS: I got very confused when I visited someone a few months ago . . .  .  what looked like a doorbell push that had  "RING" printed on it . . . pressed it . . . no response - turns out there was another button that you used and "RING" was the brand name for the gadget which also turned out to be a video camera lens.  Doh.

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #7 on: 05 May, 2020, 08:49:18 am »
Can you not still get those battery powered doorbells where the battery is in the actual bell housing?  We used to have one of those and it took one of those big oblong batteries (a lot bigger than a PP3 probably a small lead acid) that lasted years. Just a simple two wire (bell wire obviously) connection to the push button outside and loud as hell.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #8 on: 05 May, 2020, 08:50:28 am »
Couriers always seem to bang on our door as the default action. I frequently check the doorbell on front of them to make a point.

We've got a Siemens system that I bought n years ago that has a battery doorbell push with multiple sounders (mains) plus sensors that make the same sounders alarm (with a different noise) when they are activated - I've got one on the garage door and the back door. It also had a PIR in the range (AFAIR it eat batteries at an alarming rate though).
It all works very well although it's a bit of a pain to reset when the bell push battery is changed, and I can't remember when that last was - maybe two years ago.
I don't recall the system being expensive, but it's been reliable and will be a shame when it dies.
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citoyen

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #9 on: 05 May, 2020, 09:02:37 am »
(perhaps we didn't get many visitors ?  ??? )

Actually, you had a lot more visitors than you realised... ;)

We have a Honeywell system - I think they're now owned by Friedland, as mentioned earlier by Jurek. One button on the front door, one button on the side door, two chime units, both paired to both buttons, with different chimes (so we know which door to run to). The buttons take a CR2032, the chime units 2x D cells. Both seem to last for ages.

The battery on the side door button needed replacing recently but it's so long since it was last replaced that I've lost the instructions and have no idea how to reset it. It's an obsolete model and I can't find the instructions online either. Arses.
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ian

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #10 on: 05 May, 2020, 09:30:27 am »
Our handyman fitted us a replacement at his own behest. We had a Siemens one before, it was shit and I don't think it was Siemens unless they'd outsourced their name to Cheap-and-Nasty-Plastic-Things (China) Ltd.

Not that anyone rings the doorbell, couriers simply ignore the note telling them not to and dump stuff on the step and run off. To be fair, they're blocking the road which makes them paranoid.

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #11 on: 05 May, 2020, 09:58:39 am »
I have a cheapo Argos wireless one. It’s mean to take 3xAA but I cut the plug off a USB cable and wedged the black and red wires in the battery terminals to run it off the mains. It’s worked fine for years from two storeys away.

Kim

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #12 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:50:06 pm »
Have to agree on the courier issue - you can sympathise but if they banged on the door I'd always take my time in answering.

Banging on the door for belt & braces purposes is fine and reasonable.  It's when they ignore the bell push so we don't know they're there that's the problem.

Since this house had bell wire available I made the effort to use an illuminated bell push, which I retrofitted with a nasty blue LED I had lying around for that "look, I'm actually connected to something!" effect.  For added behaviourist training, I've programmed it to flash obnoxiously for a couple of seconds in response to the door vibration sensor[1] as encouragement to the bang-only brigade, and to flash slowly for ten seconds after being pressed as a reward to indicate that it's actually doing something (the sound of Rod Hull and his cast of drama students being barely audible through the double glazing, and the strobes only being visible when it's dark).


[1] Originally I'd hoped to be able to transduce knocking directly into a doorbell signal, but it false-positives on strong wind, hailstorms, thermal expansion of the door in hot sunlight, nearby car doors slamming and the like.

citoyen

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #13 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:52:40 pm »
the sound of Rod Hull and his cast of drama students

Your having this as your doorbell ringtone never ceases to amuse me.

Although it probably would cease to amuse me pretty quickly if I had it as a ringtone myself.
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ian

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #14 on: 05 May, 2020, 01:02:59 pm »
If we're expecting a delivery, I have an 'front door' setting on my security cameras – the one the peers down the drive pings me when it senses motion. This at least means I can go and collect my parcel from the doorstep. I don't think you can really see it from the street, but it's often a big box labelled BEER, which not unreasonably offers temptation to thirsty bears.

That said, the two deliveries this morning involved banging on the door and running off. I did catch a literally yodelled 'thanks' from down the road for the latter of the two.

Kim

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #15 on: 05 May, 2020, 01:12:27 pm »
the sound of Rod Hull and his cast of drama students

Your having this as your doorbell ringtone never ceases to amuse me.

Although it probably would cease to amuse me pretty quickly if I had it as a ringtone myself.

While that's certainly true (barakta was fed up with it by the second time it went off), you're only annoyed with it for the ten seconds or so it takes to drop whatever you're doing and run downstairs and answer the door.  After which you've either got an exciting parcel or scary legal letter to take your mind off it, or some chuggers or evangelists to direct your scorn onto.

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #16 on: 06 May, 2020, 01:41:54 pm »
I just bought a plug-in one for £15 from Argos that seems to do the trick. The door unit is CR2032-powered, natch. For a few quid more you can get one that incorporates a plug socket so you don't lose one.
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Jaded

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #17 on: 06 May, 2020, 02:07:19 pm »
We have a Friedland LIBRA+ which we got because it has a flashing light as well as a ding dong. My MiL was deaf, so a visual door bell was a good thing.

Anyway, I discover that they were discontinued in 2006, which means we have had it, working fine, for 14 years or so...
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PaulF

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #18 on: 06 May, 2020, 02:35:44 pm »
One that uses wires and mains electrickery, like Dog intended.

Those little 12V batteries the button units use are crap, and tend to become intermittent in cold weather.  Not to mention the inherent corrosion issues with DC voltages on something less than waterproof.  If you have to use one, make sure it's something you can get replacements for.

Intermittent doorbells train Shite Couriers and the like not to use the doorbell.  So they bang uselessly on the door.  >:(


Just get a dog. Ours hears a courier at a range of about a mile and starts barking to alert us of another delivery of hand ground hummous or premier cru mineral water or other essential. I'm not sure if we have a doorbell; it would be impossible to hear over the noise of the dog. Sadly she can't tell the difference between couriers coming for us or similar deliveries for our neighbours so we get a lot of false alarms.

Kim

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #19 on: 06 May, 2020, 03:09:21 pm »
Just get a dog.

Yeah, but then I'd have a dog.

Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #20 on: 06 May, 2020, 03:21:19 pm »
I got one from Lidl (£7) and it seems to work OK. Both the button and bell units take AA batteries, simply recharge when necessary.

The only problem I can think of is you never know if the batteries are flat, so needs to be tested occasionally.

citoyen

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #21 on: 06 May, 2020, 05:23:28 pm »
I got one from Lidl (£7) and it seems to work OK.

That's a pretty good price for a dog.
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robgul

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #22 on: 06 May, 2020, 09:14:16 pm »
I got one from Lidl (£7) and it seems to work OK.

That's a pretty good price for a dog.

Especially an electric one - does the tail wag?

Rob

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Re: Recommend a radio door bell.
« Reply #23 on: 07 May, 2020, 12:03:35 pm »
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