Two Things Needed To Keep Ring Alarm

I bought the Ring Alarm based on the feature list and reviews and videos, but now that I have it I’m a bit dissapointed by two things.

  1. I can’t get sensor chirps to play through the keypad. I bought a 2 keypad setup specifically so that I could hear chirps throughout the house. This is the only modern system I’ve ever seen where the keypad doesn’t do this, and it somewhat defeats the purpose of me having 2 keypads.

Furthermore, having the base unit near a keypad just so I can hear chirps, when you arm/disarm you get 2 speakers talking to you which is somewhat obnoxious. You can’t set the keypad to not play those sounds unless you disable all sounds.

  1. Z-wave integration. This was a big selling point for me, but I’m having difficulty geting my Z-wave devices to show up in the Ring app. I spent a lot of time and money putting Z-wave switches throughout my house and they are not GE, but I should be able to add them to the Ring app as something generic right? So far all my attempts have failed. I haven’t tried adding them as a “sensor” but if that works I’m not sure if the app is going to control them properly.

If I can fix either one of these issues the system can be a keeper.

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Both of these would be feature requests for now, as they are not currently available features. To clarify, the Keypads will only sound when arming, disarming, and alarming. This is a pretty popular request, so I’m more than happy to reinforce the desire for this with the team.

Regarding the smart switches, we are excited about our Works with Ring program and will share updates as we add support for other devices in the coming months. Many z-wave certified devices will connect to a z-wave hub, such as our Base Station, however complete functionality is dependent on the level of integration with those products. For the best experience look for the certified logo on products from Ring.com.

I was able to add GE Z-Wave switches to Ring, and was excited about getting rid of my Wink Hub. But all you can do from Ring is manually turn the switches on/off. There’s no way to integrate them with the alarm or other sensors. So I went back to running them through Wink. It would be nice if this functionality was better integrated though, so for example, you could turn on all your Z-Wave-connected lights when the alarm goes off.

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@wirikidor wrote:

I bought the Ring Alarm based on the feature list and reviews and videos, but now that I have it I’m a bit dissapointed by two things.

  1. I can’t get sensor chirps to play through the keypad. I bought a 2 keypad setup specifically so that I could hear chirps throughout the house. This is the only modern system I’ve ever seen where the keypad doesn’t do this, and it somewhat defeats the purpose of me having 2 keypads.

Furthermore, having the base unit near a keypad just so I can hear chirps, when you arm/disarm you get 2 speakers talking to you which is somewhat obnoxious. You can’t set the keypad to not play those sounds unless you disable all sounds.

  1. Z-wave integration. This was a big selling point for me, but I’m having difficulty geting my Z-wave devices to show up in the Ring app. I spent a lot of time and money putting Z-wave switches throughout my house and they are not GE, but I should be able to add them to the Ring app as something generic right? So far all my attempts have failed. I haven’t tried adding them as a “sensor” but if that works I’m not sure if the app is going to control them properly.

If I can fix either one of these issues the system can be a keeper.

Make sure you have removed any existing z-wave switches from any other hub before you try and connect to ring. I had an issue with a z-wave ge switch that was still connected to my IQ panel it was replacing. When I removed it from the IQ panel I was able to add it to the ring alarm.

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