Second Time's the Charm
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2024 | Rating: 4/5 | Best Sellers in Amazon Devices & Accessories
i first bought this in october of 2021 and my impression was its good enough for the price ive had two years and quite a story to tell so get comfy the short version is that id definitely recommend it especially if ring is a little too rich for your blood but there are some caveats to be aware ofthe first complaint i had with it was the sync module that it came with for storing the video clips put simply theres really no using this without the subscription plan blink had told me the doorbell will sync with the module without a plan but i never got that to work properly im not mad if i wanted a standalone cloudfree solution i had a myriad of other options besides blink just be aware you should get a plan for it its a service first a product second if you follow something else to be aware of before we move on is to keep that little tool they include with it for dismounting the doorbell from the bracket you can still remove the doorbell without it using a small screwdriver but its a pain whatever helps you hold onto that little metal key go for itmy second complaint was the motion zones feature where you set blind spots so it doesnt get set off by every passing car trouble is this never worked i just resigned myself to scrubbing the clips everyday of anything that wasnt someone coming to the door andor ringing the doorbell the clips automatically erase after a set period of time so you could simply wait it out rather than taking my proactive approach what did work in this menu was the privacy zone its like the motion zones only it puts a gray box over a designated area thats baked in to the video the way i had the doorbell positioned it was possible to see the keypad to my door i didnt like the idea of that info being on the cloud so i grayed it outmy third complaint is the most important one fogging this thing fogged up at the slightest drizzle it would clear up with the sunshine so i didnt think much of it about a year and a half goes by and not only did it fog up again but it stayed fogged up i took a look at it and found the fog was on the inside it looked like a mineral build up this left a big fuzzy blind spot in the center of the video which rendered it almost useless faces were clear so long as they stood close enough to the door but this was hardly ideal i couldnt find any teardowns or anything that would help me get inside the camera and treat the lens from the inside so i simply dealt with it keeping my eyes open for other optionsin december of 2023 i got another doorbell on sale for about half off my thought was id pop the old doorbell off its mount and put the new one in its place relegating the foggy one to another door better than nothing trouble is in the two years since i bought that first doorbell blink made improvements to the design for starters the batteries are no longer exposed theyre behind a panel and in fact i couldnt see any exposed circuitry like on the old one i guess enough people had complained about the fogging for them to do something about it though it remains to be seen if this one will have the same fogging problem its only been installed for about a week as of this writing unfortunately this redesign meant i couldnt use the old mount which angled the doorbell about 30 degrees so its field of view would encompass the whole porch my solution was to move the doorbell to the opposite side of the door since it was closer to the knob and you could still see the stairs and walkway leading up to the dooras for value im happy to say its reached a point where as far as i care  its paid for itself even if i had paid full price for the second doorbell it would be worth the peace of mind i caught a porch pirate the whole reason we got the doorbell in the first place 2 years ago was because our neighbors had the car broken into all was quiet thereafter until a few days ago when a package arrived from amazon i got a notification while i was on break at work so i scrolled through the clips and there they were pinching my package in broad daylighti wont share the screencaps but i caught this person redhanded walking awkwardly up to my front stairs leaning over grabbing the package and walking away i got three whole clips of their vehicle as well a very conspicuous looking red coupe with mismatched orange body panels i downloaded the clips to my ipad went to the police station a few blocks away gave them all the pertinent details and showed them the clips the officer asked me to email it to him and informed me that they might know the suspect apparently theyd gotten some reports of suspicious activity but couldnt prove anything had been stolen im still waiting to hear back from the officer but hopefully justice has been served if anything i hope the thief found a good use for the parchment and foil pans