Ring 2 / Hardwired - Bait & Switch

I feel so cheated! I have a Ring Doorbell 2 and the box is in front of me right now. The box says, and I quote “Battery or Hardwired Power”. It does NOT say that hardwired power is basically just a trickle charge to the battery and is not even enough to keep the battery topped off at 100% with minimal usage. It does NOT say that I will still have to remove the wiring myself to charge the stupid thing when it finally drains completely, which by the way doesn’t look like it will get anywhere near the 6-12 months usage advertised even when hardwired + battery. I bought this device less than a week ago and I already feel like I’ve been stitched up. The only reason why I haven’t sent it back already is because I invested in a transformer and paid a qualified electrician to install it so either way I’ll be out of pocket. Why should I pay over £100 more for the Ring Pro just to get the functionality that was ADVERTISED to me in the first place? What kind of bait & switch racket are you running here? I checked these forums and see this is a well documented issue that seemed to appear after a firmware update some time late-2019. If only I’d checked the forums before I bought it! So… Mods… Please tell me there is going to be a future firmware update that fixes this issue? It looks like it’s been going on for nearly a year at this point.

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Thank you for sharing your experience with us, @_Billy! All of our battery powered Doorbell devices operate primarily, and only, from power supplied by the battery. The models that allow the use of existing wiring for a charge can certainly be hardwired to a 8 to 24 VAC power supply for the use of a compatible chime kit, and a trickle charge.

The way this works is the Video Doorbell will operate using the battery and then will use the connected wires to trickle charge the battery, as you stated. That is the intended operation for all of our battery power Doorbells. Check out our help center article about hardwired benefits, for more information.

In order to benefit the most from this trickle charge, it is important to avoid common battery draining variables. Too many events per day, cold weather, frequent long live view times, and even poor wifi signal strength can drain your battery quicker than the trickle charge can apply effectively. If you are wanting a completely hardwired Video Doorbell, check out our Doorbell Pro at Ring.com. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

No i will certainly not checkout your Ring Doorbell Pro! I will never buy another Ring product again. The reason why I paid an electrician to hardwire my device was precisely so that I could use at as often as I like without having to worry about battery drain. It’s ridiculous. My device is barely a week old and you’re trying to upsell me to the Ring Doorbell Pro. Look, the box in front of me says “Battery or Hardwired Power” so I expected to use it on hardwired power. In the UK we call that false advertising and it’s illegal.

The ring doorbell pro does the same thing. I have one.

My pro doesn’t do this. It has no battery and is plugged into an outlet with the Ring power adapter. No issues at all. My Ring 2 did have this issue. I sold it and bought the Pro. Problem solved. I’m not a fan of the Ring 2. Even using the same adapter it slowly drained my battery. I got tired of it. It makes no sense why it discharges like this. I have an outdoor cam too. It has a battery in it and is plugged in. When my power was out the cam continued to work off a full battery. So, if that can work without draining the battery why can the Ring 2 not? I love my Ring devices but this doorbell has issues.