Now that we have had the Ring doorbell for a few weeks, I will post my review.
Something this popular should be very easy to unbox and setup. We expected that this would automatically work the first time it was synced with the app and that isn't exactly how it went. We tried using the easy instructions, but for some reason that didn't work. We couldn't get the ring to send out the signal it is supposed to send in order to work properly. After a restart and a few times, then trying a different phone, another restart of the network, and putting the doorbell right up against the phone it finally worked. Something that should have taken about five minutes took us about an hour or so. Part of that is user error and the other part is that maybe it should say it needs to practically be touching when you try to link them for the first time.
We charged it up overnight and installed it the next day where our old wireless doorbell had been. The ring is much larger and actually hangs off of the shingle. Now that I am used to it, I don't notice how large it looks, but initially I wasn't too happy. Before buying we did take a piece of paper, cut to the size of the Ring doorbell to test. So we did know how large it was going to be. If there was a smaller one available on wireless, we would have considered it, but the smaller version has to be hard wired.
The first few days we adjusted the sensitivity a lot, since we were constantly getting motion alerts. Now we get one every hour or two all day. Usually it is a large truck driving by. The shingle angle has it facing up instead of down, so we are not capturing people walking up to the door, only walking away. There is a solution for this: a wedge to change the angle. It is on the website for $19. We had some leftover shingles from replacing some of the rotted ones when we painted last. We cut one down and made our own fix. Unfortunately, that looked awful and didn't change the angle enough to solve our problem.
The battery does start to deplete quickly with a lot of motion alerts, since it will record when it sees motion. That isn't a Ring issue, that is an issue that we need to address by buying the wedge.
The doorbell gives us a peace of mind that we didn't have before, but it's also one more thing to check and one more piece of technology to break and fiddle with. We like the function and the idea behind it, but there are a few things we would like to see improved. Perhaps some type of heat sensing detection rather than just motion would resolve the trucks setting off the motion sensor. We'd also like to see the wedges included with the doorbell itself. Or some type of adjusting installation (longer screws or a wedge base of some sort. Overall, we would recommend it, but just realize that there are limitations.
