Ring Pro delayed mechanical chime

Products Video Doorbells
#1

I just installed my new Ring Pro.

When I push the button on the Ring Pro, it takes 2-3 seconds for my mehcanical chime in the house to activate.

I have the Ring Power Kit installed correctly, and the Ring Pro will actively record, but the mechanical chime delay is annoying.

I do have two internal mechanical chimes (one upstairs and one downstairs) powered by a 20-year-old 16V transformer.

My questions:

  1. Is a mechanical chime delay normal?
  2. Will increasing the transformer size to 24V help at all, especially since i have 2 chimes?
  3. My RSSI flutuates between -50 and -70 (which is good to poor), so I can reposition my router closer to the front door, but does that have anything to do with the ring delay?
  4. I saw a post from a user who swapped the transformer/front wires on the mechancial chime and resolved some different issues, but will that help here?

Thanks for any advice and suggestions. Two of the main reasons I got the Ring Pro were sp that I could continue to use my internal chimes and becuase I was tired of my Arolo camera delays, but maybe I just traded one delay for another.

#2

I have the same issue. Just installed my Ring Pro and have the 2-3 second delay before the mechanical chime rings. I’ve reversed the power kit cables, removed it completely and result is the same.

Ring Pro support chime in (pun intenteded)

Thanks

#3

Sadly… no answer from anyone associated with Ring.

So far, here is what I’ve done:

  • Installed a new transformer (16v / 30va)
  • Installed new mechancial chimes from the Ring Approved list
  • Swapped the transformer/front wires
  • Installed a resistor (this stopped the buzzing on chime #2, but it comes with other issues, such as there is no longer enough power for the solonoid to fire both hammers).

The reamining issues are:

  • Major delay from when the doorbell is pushed to when the mechanical chime fires.
  • Chimes still buzz at night when the doorbell is drawing more power for the infrared.
  • Cannot ring the doorbell a second time within 30 seconds

Still to try:

  • Swapping the Ring Power Pack from doorbell chime 1 to doorbell chime 2.
  • Installing a smaller resistor in hopes of minimizing chime buzzing but still giving the mechanical chime enough power to fire.
  • Moving the router closer to the doorbell (does this possibly have an effect on the Ring delay???)
  • Installing a second Power Pack on chime #2.
  • Dropping the mechanical chime all together and going with an electronic chime.
  • Throwing the Ring Pro in the trash and re-installing my old analog doorbell.

I had no idea this would take so many hours to troubleshoot with only vague information available.

#4

Just some logical speculation from all I’ve read and seen with my Ring Pro, but I also see a couple of seconds delay between pressing the button on the Ring Pro and hearing the “ding / dong” from the mechanical chime. I don’t believe this can be avoided as it seems common and is probably the nature of the beast. In order to ring the mechanical chime, a connection of sufficiently low resistence must be made between the “TRANS” and the “FRONT” terminals of the chime and that connection is going to short out the power supply to the Ring Pro. But the Ring Pro also needs power to “wake up” its WiFi connection, start uploading video, send a signal over WiFi to any Ring Chimes you may have and maintain the data stream. It seems that this power is supplied by a small battery in the Ring Pro - not large enough to run it for very long - just long enough to ring the mechanical chime. By delaying the mechanical chime ring for a couple of seconds, the Ring Pro uses the power from the transformer long enough to “get ready” to handle an interuption of its power and run off its battery while it powers the mechanical chime, rings it, and then re-acquires full power.

The Pro Power Kit is an integral and important piece of this process. One thing it appears to do is pass power from the transformer to the Ring Pro without routing it through the mechanical chime solenoids - important because without the Power Kit the solenoids would always be passing power (and might buzz or get warm) AND any power lost by partially energizing the solenoids would reduce the power the Ring Pro needs to run, causing it to drain the small battery all the time, eventually wearing it out and leading to a possible early demize of the Ring Pro itself. I believe this is one reason why Ring says to install the power kit before installing the dorbell itself.

Your installation of a second mechanical chime complicates things a little as I have read where Ring says to only install one Power Kit per transformer. If you removed that second mechanical chime from your installation and added a Ring Chime (probably not needing the Ring Chime Pro) in its place you would basically duplicate what I have done - I use an existing mechnical chime (with the Power Kit Pro) in the front of my house and a Ring Chime in the back of the house (far enough away that I can’t hear the front chime).

This doesn’t solve your issue with the delayed chime I know, and I have a delayed chime from my mechanical doorbell but no delay from the Ring Chime. I think if I wanted to remove that I’d add a second Ring Chime in front and let the Ring Pro activate both Ring Chimes and just ignore the mechanical chime altogether.

#5

Did you ever find a solution? Just installed the Video Pro and the chime delay is over ten seconds.

I don’t understand why this happens as the doorbell is hardwired into the chime, same as the old mechanical doorbell I just received. Wi-Fi/network should have nothing to do with it.

#6

Hey @dwhitehead. A delay of about 2-3 seconds from when the Doorbell Pro’s button is pressed to when your internal chime kit rings is to be expected. However, with a longer delay like you’re describing, there may be a power concern at play that is causing the long delay. I’d recommend checking out our Help Center Article on troubleshooting insufficient power with the Ring Pro here. If that doesn’t resolve your concern, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. They’ll be able to take a closer look at your device and help narrow down the cause of the concern. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so 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 hope that helps! :slight_smile:

#7

I’ve had a consistent 2-3 second delay on my Ring Pro for the 3 years I’ve had it. Interestingly, in the last few days, the internal chime now rings immediately on pushing the button. I wonder if new firmware has been rolled out?

#8

There is like a 7 second delay between chimes of my mechanical doorbell since installing my ring doorbell. The first “ding” is immediate, but then “dong” seconds later.