Doorbell battery issue

The battery on my ring doorbell keeps discharging even though it is hardwired. The lines have power, I’ve checked that. I’ve removed the device a few times and charged it with a USB cable to 100%, but every time it starts a gradual discharge until it becomes unuseable. I don’t live in a cold climate, so the cold is not a factor in Phoenix. It was good until a few months ago. The firmware states “Up To Date”, and the wi-fi signal strength is strong.

Hey @skydude. Under the Device Health section of your app, does the Doorbell say it is hardwired or battery powered? If it’s showing as hardwired, then that verifies that the Doorbell should be getting a charge from the hardwiring as long as the power output is enough.The wiring must be connected to a transformer with a voltage of 8VAC – 24VAC and an internal doorbell or resistor, which is sounds like you have, but I just want to confirm!

If the device is showing as battery powered, then it is not getting the trickle charge to your device and you may need to ensure the wiring is still set up as it should be and is secure. In addition, you’ll want to ensure power is still coming from the internal chime kit to make sure this isn’t why it’s showing as battery instead of hardwired. Please note that hardwiring your Doorbell will help you get about a trickle charge into your device to help it stay charged or lessen the time in between that you have to charge it. How often are you charging the device? How many events (Live View, Motion, Dings, Linked Devices) do you have a day? As long as you do not have more than 10 events a day, your device is at standard (default regular settings) motion settings, and it IS showing as hardwired, you’ll probably find yourself taking down the device every 2-4 months to charge it up. This number is very variable for all neighbors as the day-to-day for each neighbor is different.

Hope to hear back from you soon. :slight_smile:

How many motions a day are you getting? The power is just a trickle charge so the change may not keep up with the drain if you have a lot of motions. That or the trickle charge is not sufficient to keep the battery charged.

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I was receiving about 7-8 motion detections each day. Something like that. The output to the doorbell wiring is around 16 Volts, so I imagine the transformer is still fine. The dorrbell works now even if the ring video monitor is not working due to it’s battery being depleted. We have no internal chime kit, just a standard transformer. In the status it does show the ring as being hardwired.

@skydude Thanks for getting back to me! It sounds like the setup you have is optimal for performance, and thankfully it is showing as hardwired in the Ring app, so we can verify there is for sure a charge doing into the device. The hardwiring of the Doorbell is done to help the battery life of the Doorbell, but it may still result in you having to charge the device. If you are having to charge the device every 2 months, then that should be okay, as this is how long I see on average for battery operated Doorbells. My Peephole Cam, which is not hooked up to a transformer and just battery powered, lasts me about a month or two, depending on activity of course. With hardwired, I would say you get double that and can see 2-3 months of not having to manually charge. If you find yourself charging the device weekly, it’s best to contact our support team at that point, as your device is not holding the charge well or at all.

If you need to contact support, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19. This has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support.

I followed your advice and charged it, inside yesterday, to 100%. It still shows hardwired and I can see live video again, but in 24 hours it has dropped to 58%. This only began happening a few months ago. Was there a firmware update that maybe changed a setting or is this battery dying a quick death?

@skydude Thanks for getting back to me! It sounds like this concern is more isolated with the battery itself, and should be the reason why this is happening. Could you please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here? We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19. This has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support. They can verify what is happening for you and address the concern from there. Let me know how this goes! :slight_smile: