How to get power to Ring 2 and get existing doorbell to ring?

Products Video Doorbells
#1

Installed a Ring 2 doorbell at my front door, but it isn’t charging and my bell doesn’t ring…

This is a newbuild house with a Deta bell. The doorbell chime is mechanical and powered on my light circuit and has a cat5 cable running to be doorbell button (using just 2 of the cat5 wires).

The Ring doorbell is working from battery, which is supposed to last 6 months, but is already flat after about 10 days!!

My questions:

  1. Can I install some kind of power booster or transformer onto the cat5 line (inside the doorbell chime box perhaps) to power the Ring?
  2. Can a cat5 cable take enough power for the Ring?
  3. Can I power the Ring AND get the house bell to chime when the Ring is pressed?

Thanks,
Gareth

#2

Hi there, @ContactGT! The use of Cat5 is a common culprit for resistance in power, as it can often be too thin and usually must be spliced or doubled up. For this reason we do recommend 18 gauge or close to it for hardwiring. Here’s our wiring gauge article for reference.

The best way to obtain an optimal charge from existing wires, is to fine tune your battery usage. There are factors which can drain your battery quicker than a charge can be applied, or noticed. Feel free to check out our Community post for tips on limiting battery usage, or drain. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

#3

So, I need to replace the cat5 wire with 18 guage wire, but what do I connect it to? My doorbell chime (Deta) is connected to my light circuit at 240v and it then uses the cat5 wire too connect to my old doorbell as a switch. Where does the power comes from for the Ring doorbell? And how do I make my house doorbell chime ring?