A friend of mine decided that he will get the Ring doorbell and because of limited space on his current doorbell setup, he decided to get the Ring video Doorbell Pro version which has a smaller footprint than the original Ring doorbell.
So, I’ll show you the unboxing and we will do the setup and installation at my friend’s town house.
I have reviewed the original version which I currently have and also the Ring Doorbell 2 which is an updated version of the original.
Now, the main difference between the original Ring doorbell to the Pro version is the size first of all. The pro doesn’t have a battery so it has a smaller foot print and it needs to be hard wired. It also can connect to 2.4 and 5 Ghz Wifi which the original can only connect to 2.4 Ghz. It comes with 4 interchangeable faceplates and has 1080p video. The original ring is 720p and the Ring 2 is 1080p. Also the pro version uses a different motion detection which is the same as they use on the Ring floodlight. You can customize the motion detection zones which is better than the original one.
Setting it up should be pretty quick so let’s open it up.
We have some information card, a decal, a pro power kit installation instructions. Now you have to install this on your doorbell chime and it gives you clear instructions on how to do it. A numbered installation and setup instructions.
We have a retrofit kit. If you want a wider and clean looking setup. I will not be able to use this because of the limited space on the doorbell that we are going to replace.
On the main box, we have the doorbell itself which already has the silver faceplate on. It looks pretty nice and on the back, we have the 2 screws where we are going to hook up the doorbell wires. The camera is on top of the push button.
We have the tools, a phillips head driver and a small torx head on the other end. We also have a masonry drill bit if needed.
Next, we have the installation hardware kit and inside we have extra wires, wire connectors and an extra terminal screw. Ring always comes with extra stuff and everything that is needed for different types of install.
We have mounting and security screws and the anchors.
And we have the pro power kit that we need to install on our doorbell chime for the Ring Pro Doorbell to work properly. It comes prelabeled so that it is easy to connect to the bell chime unit. We just need to tap to two connections on the chime unit and we use these easy connectors to connect the wires.
Lastly, we have the remainder of the face plates… there are 4 in total and the silver is already attached to the doorbell unit. We have a black one. BTW these faceplates are plastic and the paint are matted. We have a brown one and a cream one. So, you can easily swap them out and compliment it to your house colors.
So, we are ready for the installation. The first thing is to make sure the breakers are off and then we can hook up the pro power kit to the door chime. We have a mechanical door chime and we just need to open up the cover, unscrew the wires…
Hook the front wire as indicated to the wire connector. We just need to flip up the tab, insert the wire and lock it back in. Connect the other end to the front labeled screw. We just need to unscrew and re- connect 2 wires. I don’t know why I’m holding the phillips screw on the other hand sorry about that…
Then do the same thing in the transformer labeled wire.
Then you just need to tuck in the wires making sure it doesn’t hit the mechanical and moving parts of the chime and you can use the double sided tape to install the pro power pack itself to the side. Then just put the cover back on.
Now, we are ready to remove the old doorbell and hook up our Ring Pro camera. Just unscrew it from the wall and unscrew the wires.
Next, we need to hook up the 2 wires to the back of the Ring Pro doorbell like so.
Before we secure it in place, let’s download the Ring app from the app store and set it up. Click ok to allow the app to access your microphone and ok to allow notifications to your phone. Click on setup device and then signup if this is your first time setting up a Ring product.
Click on the Ring Pro doorbell and name the device, allow to access your location and click continue. We need to select mechanical doorbell on this install and then click on the setup button on the right side of the doorbell then click continue…then go to the wifi settings on your phone and choose a network that has the Ring name on it followed by some numbers, then go back to the app to finish the setup, click yes, then choose which Wifi you need to connect to which in my friend’s case it is the ” not working” SSID which is pretty smart…that he named his network that…type in the password and click continue and the doorbell is going to connect and setup is complete.
We just need to put on the faceplate and secure it with the security screw.
Now we are going to check out the user interface on the app. On the top right corner the gear icon will take you to device settings where you can change the name of the camera, change location and change doorbell kit settings which is basically you select if you have a mechanical doorbell or an electronic one.
There is a toggle switch to turn on/off the ring alerts or motion alerts. Sometimes you may want to turn this off if you are around the area and will be triggering the motion detection.
We have the event history which shows you all the videos that were recorded from motion being triggered or a missed and answered rings. You will see the date and time so that you can easily find the video that you will be looking for.
Device health will show the the ring doorbells power connection status and also the signal strength. It says here good and it can get to Very Good if the wifi router is closer to the doorbell.
We have here linked chimes if you purchased and installed a Ring chime.
We have the motion settings which you can see a slider where you can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor. Sliding to the left will make it less sensitive but definitely will pick up people.
We have the motion zones which you can adjust the sensor area by clicking on the blue area. This way, you can specify zones where the camera will detect motion and also areas to avoid like the street here in my case.
You can even add multiple zones if needed. To adjust, just drag the dots to any specific areas to customize a given zone. Click save when you are done. And you can easily delete zones too if needed.
Then we have motion scheduling if there are days or times that you don’t want to be notified if there is motion. Just click on the days and the pick on the times, Name you schedule and save.
Then we have shared users if you want to share your Ring doorbell access to anyone. Just type in the email and they will get and email and instructions so as to be able to access the camera and get notifications.
We also have live view to check out the video feed in real time. You can digitally zoom in and move around using finger gestures.
To listen, just push the speaker icon and if you want to talk and activate 2 way communication, just click on the green phone icon and red icon to hang up and close live feed. Also, as you can see, Live view footage are also recorded automatically in the cloud.
Let’s check out some video footage.
This is during daytime and the motion has been triggered by the yard guy. As you can see there are occasional lag on the video but I think it is partly because of the Wifi signal. My friend has his router upstairs and his wifi is being shared by multiple devices at his home. He just have the router that was included in his internet and cable service and is planning to add an extender or upgrade his router eventually.
Now this one is at night with night vision. This guy knocked late at night and didn’t push the doorbell button. The camera was triggered by motion. Night vision quality is pretty decent.
Lastly, this is a demo of the 2 way communication which is pretty decent. Both parties were able to hear each other.
Overall, my buddy liked his Ring Pro Doorbell and it definitely gave him and his family security knowing that anybody that comes around the area of their door and anybody that rings their doorbell will be recorded.