Video Doorbell not charging and bell not ringing

Products Video Doorbells
#1

Dear community,

a few weeks ago a group of kids was ringing multiple times (like 50?) and all was “fine” (hardwired bell was ringing as well). The next day, we first noticed that ringing again does show up in the app but did not hit the hardwired bell anymore. A quick “turn the Video Doorbell off and on again” seemed to make it work again at first.

However, a few days after, it happened again (hardwired bell stopped working) and I noticed that the Ring is not charging anymore. A reset did not work this time.

As the app works, we decided to monitor the situation a bit and saw that the Ring occasionally does charge (and than is able to hit the hardwired bell as well), but mostly does not.

Some facts

  • Bought Ring 2,5 years ago
  • Is since then installed in a new build house (so everything is new, including wires)
  • It was working without issues for 2,5 years after installation and doing its job hardwired and flawlessly activating the physical in-house bell

However, after extensive usage recently, it now

  • Does charge only very occasionally (mostly running from battery if I check via app)
  • Does not ring the physical bell anymore if its not charging
  • Resetting helped once (but not after that)
  • When it does not charge, I can bridge the contacts for the physical bell (like an analog ring would do) and the physical bell would ring as expected

Any tips on what might be wrong?

Greetings!

#2

Hi @Markus. Thank you for taking the time to detail what you’re experiencing and what steps you’ve tried to resolve this concern. Typically a reset and new setup are what I would recommend in these situations, but since you have already tried that and it was not successful, you may need to contact our support team. They’ll be able to take a deeper look at what’s going on as well as provide more advanced troubleshooting steps. You can 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, 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. Feel free to report back on what solution our support team recommends, as it may help others! :slight_smile:

#3

Hi,

thanks for the reply. I did not yet try to contact the Ring support team, but manage to bring it back to live on my own (at least it’s stable and working for a while now).

First I attached a power bench supply and set it to 12V (because the Ring mentioned something between 8 and 24V). However, no current was drawn by the Ring, which is the same behavior as on the bell wire.

Afterwards I started to disassemble the Ring (which is out of guarantee anyways). When taking of the back cover, I noticed two copper pins which are spring loaded and attach to the two copper “containers” where the contact screws are screwed in.
However one of the “spring pins” (on the mainboard) seemed to be slightly lower in hight, compared to the other one. While touching it with tweezers, the lower one felt much less “springy” that the other one.

To compensate, I put a big blob of solder on the corresponding screw “container” and put it back together.
Back on the power bench it started now to draw current , and after reinstalling at the front door, the physical bell worked again.

@Ring: is that a common known issue? Is it possible to get these small “spring pins” as a replacement part?

Greetings

Markus

#4

Thank you for sharing your experience, @Markus! Trying another power supply is a great step, and 12 VAC should be plenty for a charge. As this concern seems intermittent, please also ensure the chime kit in use is listed as compatible on our Chime Compatibility List.

We do advise, however, not altering or making any physical modifications to your Ring devices. Doing so can impact the intended operation of the device as well as void warranty. Our support team will be happy to help further if the above steps did not resolve this concern. 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, 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.

#5

I’m having the same issues. Installed Ring 3 yrs ago. Was working fine until 4 weeks ago. Then all of a sudden it no longer showed hard wired. Showed to be running on battery and slowly discharging. Removed the battery, fully re-charged it and reinstalled. Still showed to be running off battery. 90 min on the phone with tech support didn’t solve the problem. Their final solution was replace the now “defective” unit. But since its out or warranty, they offered a 35% discount on a new one.

Installed a new one today. Guess what…STILL showing its running on battery! Did resets, etc. Still on battery.

BTW Ring…If you read this…I’m in Houston. Temperature is not the issue.

Much as I hate to do it, I’ll be calling tech support tomorrow. What a waste of time. I really like this product. But if they can’t resolve this, I’ll be returning it and trying another brand.