Ring Video Doorbells

Ring Video Doorbells

I was originally in on the Ring 2 deal because I’ve been waiting on a good deal for some time, however I see that as of yesterday there is a $30 manufacturer discount on Costco. Yeah, it still costs $159 at costco, but it comes with a year of Protect Plus Plan. At minimum, I would want the Protect Basic Plan ($30/year extra), as it’s the only way you get to record anything. Because of that, that puts the price comparison to $99 vs $129 (or $129 vs $159).

$30 price difference for used vs new (especially when the new is at costco with no hassle returns), I think costco might actually be the better deal in the end.

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Worth noting that the sale you mentioned with the protection plan for a year expires on 6/16.

Also IF you buy MULTIPLE from Costco they extend the warranty. So if you buy 2 doorbells, both are covered for 24 months, not 12 months each.

So this is honestly a no-brainer on which is a better deal.

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the record function is overrated. I never used it

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Thanks for this. As a potential new customer of Ring, I am quite surprised that no mention of this is found (as far as I can tell) on the specs page.

Arfdawg, can you elaborate? Without recording, Ring doesn’t seem very useful as a security device unless all one cares about is a real-time view of who is at your door. Thanks.

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I’m curious as well. The recording feature is 95% of how I use all my ring devices. I’ve got two doorbells, a flood light cam, and a stick up cam. About once a month does anyone actually push the button on the doorbells. All the rest of the time, I’m looking at recordings of whatever triggered motion detection.

@arfdawg doesn’t know what they’re talking about. If someone steals your package, how are you going to know who did it without the recording?

I used to have a zmodo doorbell camera that offered free cloud storage for a certain number of days. I switched to a Ring because the zmodo was too slow to notify me when someone rang the doorbell. I was surprised and unamused to discover there was no free recording option with Ring. (not even a single day’s worth)

It’s more like insurance to pay for the recording ($30 annual). Without it, If someone breaks into your house you could watch it in real time, but wouldn’t be able to access a video of the person.

I was lucky with the cloud recording. I got a first gen doorbell right when they first came out. They were pretty buggy in the early days and I spent a fair bit of time troubleshooting with their engineers. They made me a part of their beta testing user group to test out various bug fixes and such before the wider rollout. As a ‘thank you’ for that, they gave me free unlimited cloud recording for life.

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idk i thought life of pablo was pretty good. also i used to have the ring 1 and i recently switched to the nest, it’s way better. if the ring 2 has HDR then I say that makes it an option. The nest with HDR and 1080p recording was night and day when I compared it to the ring

I got 3 months free with my purchase (HSN), but I bought a package deal with the inside chime. I use it as my actual doorbell also.

For a fair comparison you should look at the Ring Doorbell Pro and the Nest. They both have 1080P and Night Vision! I have a Ring Pro and I have been very happy with it! I did have to hire an electrician to increase the voltage going to my doorbell but it wasn’t that much.

EDIT TO DELETE – redundant comment.

Do these still come with the lifetime theft replacement bit? I’d hate to save 50 bucks to have to buy another at full price if it gets yanked.

Really curious as to the extent of “cosmetic imperfections” these may have. I purchased a phone here once, not listed as S&D (though I assume it should have been, because it looked like a dog’s chew toy when I got it), and I prefer not to have a Ring looking like it was seriously abused.

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I’m not sure you understand why the product exists. Seeing a live view of who is your door is not the main reason people buy this product.

I have 3 cameras, a Amazon cam, a Wyze cam and a RIng cam. The first two record and save the video for free, Ring does not. I feel the Ring is pretty much useless unless you PAY for the plan which i do not. Wyze is my favorite, i have purchased 3 of them. Only $25 to buy the camera and saves the videos free for 14 days. Amazon saves free for 1 day, but that is still good.

Yes, saving the video to the cloud is probably the most important point of owning a camera. But i do not own a door camera and i can see why some just want to see who is there.

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Can you apply the Costco 12 months Ring Plus subscription to an active account?

I’d like to get a battery doorbell for my back door, and if the Costco plan can be applied, it’s a way better option.

edit: Online support said no. Phone support said yes. -_-

How well does the battery life hold up?