Ring/Blink doorbell security systems

[smithers599]

I am probably the last person in Arizona not to have a Ring doorbell. Now I have a Costco gift card that's burning a hole in my pocket.

I know nothing about these gadgets. Those of you who are tech-savvy, which Costco product should I get?

I would like to have
- doorbell with camera and two-way talk
- camera on the back door
- motion-detector floodlights on the sides of the house

Costco offers two brands: Ring and Blink. Which do you think?

Thank you. Thank you verra much.

 

[XJThrottle]

I know you only mentioned Costco purchases, but I've left my Ring to just be a decoy. The battery charging just became a pain. My regular door bell button wasn't in an ideal location to hard wire it.

I've since gone to Wyze. They have all options you've listed.

 

[Doc]

Ring let’s cops access YOUR paid for data.

You do you, I’ll keep that crap off my house.

 

[rockbronco]

I am probably the last person in Arizona not to have a Ring doorbell

I have yet to get one yet either. I always get turned away at the battery charging thing, subscriptions, cloud storage etc

I do need to get something I can view the exterior without having to first step outside in the event of suspicious activity(IE middle of the night door knockers)

 

[cool arrow]

I have RING cameras and the RING alarm system, and don't really have any complaints.

I like the alarm MUCH better than the Cox system I had, and the yearly program is only $100/yr.

You are right about the battery operated cams. I switched to the floodlight cams and have been VERY happy with them. They connect quicker, alert quicker, and have much better resolution.

YMMV, but I like my system. I have cams set up at 3 different homes and 2 zip codes, and all monitor and connect with no issues in real time.

 

[knockonit]

i got rid of the ring, took way too long to connect and contact person at door, they were gone by time ring came up, ended up with reolink cameras, wireless, and have sound ability, and siren, am very happy with them,

good luck alarm and door items decision making sucks
rj

 

[87jeep]

Phone call from gate or a free "you will never get covid injection".

Now back to the city folk....

 

[338lapua]

Ring let’s cops access YOUR paid for data.

You do you, I’ll keep that crap off my house.

It also allows access to ANY police agency who wants 24/7 surveillance on the neighbors as well. Research a little and you will find systems that can do the same thing for you but without ring and amazon spying on you and your neighbors. I have seen the reports the police have access to. Not just on the user but the neighbors as well. Stupid people paying to be spied on

 

[smithers599]

Ring let’s cops access YOUR paid for data.

You do you, I’ll keep that crap off my house.

It also allows access to ANY police agency who wants 24/7 surveillance on the neighbors as well. Research a little and you will find systems that can do the same thing for you but without ring and amazon spying on you and your neighbors. I have seen the reports the police have access to. Not just on the user but the neighbors as well. Stupid people paying to be spied on

Is that true if you don't sign up for the subscription? Because I don't need to archive a lot of videos.

 

[338lapua]

Ring let’s cops access YOUR paid for data.

You do you, I’ll keep that crap off my house.

It also allows access to ANY police agency who wants 24/7 surveillance on the neighbors as well. Research a little and you will find systems that can do the same thing for you but without ring and amazon spying on you and your neighbors. I have seen the reports the police have access to. Not just on the user but the neighbors as well. Stupid people paying to be spied on

Is that true if you don't sign up for the subscription? Because I don't need to archive a lot of videos.

I dont believe the system works properly without the subscription.

 

[Doc]

Ring let’s cops access YOUR paid for data.

You do you, I’ll keep that crap off my house.

It also allows access to ANY police agency who wants 24/7 surveillance on the neighbors as well. Research a little and you will find systems that can do the same thing for you but without ring and amazon spying on you and your neighbors. I have seen the reports the police have access to. Not just on the user but the neighbors as well. Stupid people paying to be spied on

Dang. I didn’t realize it was moving into live surveillance already.

Slippery slope.

 

[YNOTAZ]

Look at the Lorex 4K doorbell/Cam. It records to a local SD card, has an App for your phone. It has an option so that when your mobile phone connects to the same WIFI network, you don't get notifications of someone at the door, because you are home. Notifications turn back on automagically when you leave home and your phone disconnects from your WIFI. This option is selectable.

No subscription required, no "neighborhood" app to hook you and all your neighbors together. Pictures are 4K.

The only drawback is in a large entryway that is shaded, the bright background washes out. You can get it from Amazon and return it if it doesn’t tickle your fancy.
.
.

 

[cool arrow]

It also allows access to ANY police agency who wants 24/7 surveillance on the neighbors as well. Research a little and you will find systems that can do the same thing for you but without ring and amazon spying on you and your neighbors. I have seen the reports the police have access to. Not just on the user but the neighbors as well. Stupid people paying to be spied on

Is that true if you don't sign up for the subscription? Because I don't need to archive a lot of videos.

I dont believe the system works properly without the subscription.

The cams will work for live viewing without a subscription, as will the alarm, but the videos won't be saved and the alarm system will not have professional monitoring.

A side note though, I have 11 cameras plus the alarm system on my plan. The cost is the same, no matter how many devices...OR where they are located. I had cams at my daughters house, my place up north, and my house in Ajo. All worked on the app as if they were all co-located yet they were all across the state.

You have to have wifi/internet at each location to run them, but for me they do the job.

 

[jrleen]

I like the ring product and have switched my alarm to them. Just returned from an overseas trip and had used it to reset my security alarm for cleaners and answered my door multiple times w/o any issues. The cams are exterior(solar) and interior. I just upgraded my set up so that I have battery backup on it plus wifi. Over the years I have had them replace exterior solar cams twice free of charge. Better made than the alarm.com products in my opinion.

 

[smithers599]

OK, the suspense is over. I had decided to go with the Ring product, because Costco only carries Ring and Blink, and I wanted to use the Costco gift card. (Which was stupid, I admit. I buy enough groceries and other things at Costco that I could have used the card for that, and bought the doorbell thingy elsewhere.)
Anyway, I went to Costco determined to buy the Ring, but when I got there, I discovered that the Costco Ring product can only be wired, cannot run on batteries. My current doorbell is on the side, so wiring to that would not have given me a good view. The Blink product is optional wiring or battery. In addition, the Blink product comes with a slew of extra cameras. So, I can wire it to the existing doorbell, and then stick up one of the extra cameras above the front door to get the better view.
There is no subscription with Blink, either. Apparently, the vids are saved to your phone and you can set it up to delete the backlog every X days.
Of course, it is still in the box. I am sure it will take me two weeks to get it up and running. I am not a handy guy. Changing a light bulb usually involves at least two trips to Home Depot.
Thank you all for the very useful advice -- seriously. It has been very educational.

 

[kenpoprofessor]

OK, the suspense is over. I had decided to go with the Ring product, because Costco only carries Ring and Blink, and I wanted to use the Costco gift card. (Which was stupid, I admit. I buy enough groceries and other things at Costco that I could have used the card for that, and bought the doorbell thingy elsewhere.)
Anyway, I went to Costco determined to buy the Ring, but when I got there, I discovered that the Costco Ring product can only be wired, cannot run on batteries. My current doorbell is on the side, so wiring to that would not have given me a good view. The Blink product is optional wiring or battery. In addition, the Blink product comes with a slew of extra cameras. So, I can wire it to the existing doorbell, and then stick up one of the extra cameras above the front door to get the better view.
There is no subscription with Blink, either. Apparently, the vids are saved to your phone and you can set it up to delete the backlog every X days.
Of course, it is still in the box. I am sure it will take me two weeks to get it up and running. I am not a handy guy. Changing a light bulb usually involves at least two trips to Home Depot.
Thank you all for the very useful advice -- seriously. It has been very educational.

I put up very spendy cameras on the campus we work at, high end PTZ with voice, but I don't think they have audio out speakers. All hardwired to the network.

Just put up three of these last week.

https://cookandboardman.com/axis-q6075-ptz-network-camera/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxveXBhDDARIsAI0Q0x2BihPjCNgc7NB9jb2xs57jfCjlxW1_16I5NCESVUuPWSD2IdXSK9IaAiikEALw_wcB


Have a great, gun carryin', Kenpo day

Clyde

 

[QuietM4]

There is no subscription with Blink, either. Apparently, the vids are saved to your phone and you can set it up to delete the backlog every X days.

I have a couple of Blink cameras, and they absolutely have a subscription if you want to quickly access your live camera/saved videos via their cloud service. If you choose not to pay the subscription fee, it takes a few moments to access the video. Also, if you want to save any video without paying the subscription, you must have the Blink Sync Module plugged in somewhere in your home with a large enough flash drive inserted into it.

It's not a bad system by any means, but the promise of "no subscription" is misleading at best. I think I got about 60 or 90 days free before I got prompted to start paying for a cloud service subscription. I use the Sync Module with a 64GB flash drive plugged into it...I've had weeks of videos of me going in/out of the house without running into storage limits. Using their cloud storage vs the Sync Module to store video has a very noticeable speed difference...it takes anywhere from 5-10 seconds for me to call up and view a saved video, where it was nearly instant while I had the free cloud service.

 

[smithers599]

^^^
OK, thanks. Good to know.

 

[BigNate]

I am probably the last person in Arizona not to have a Ring doorbell. Now I have a Costco gift card that's burning a hole in my pocket.

I know nothing about these gadgets. Those of you who are tech-savvy, which Costco product should I get?

I would like to have
- doorbell with camera and two-way talk
- camera on the back door
- motion-detector floodlights on the sides of the house

Costco offers two brands: Ring and Blink. Which do you think?

Thank you. Thank you verra much.

I don't know Blink - but I have a Ring bell (hard wired) and I've been pretty happy with it. The delay when I'm out of the home is such that if they ring the bell and walk away immediately (say, a delivery guy) I don't often see them before they are gone (can scroll back and see who it was) - but it is nice to be able to do so. It has worked well, been reliable, and the optional "cloud" service to store video is pretty cheap ($3.99 per month). As a vendor goes - they've been good.