Ring doorbell not charging

Jennifer I am not buying this it’s been in the upper 40s the past 2 days, if this is considered extreme cold you have a serious problem. My unit is hard wired and only gets up to a max of 16% charged. I’ve never experienced this in the past 2 years.

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I spoke to Ring support last week and they told me this:

at 0C the battery will not charge

at -3C the battery may discharge quicker

at -20 the unit may stop operating.

My issue with this is that when they sent me this my unit was reporting 87% the next day it was reading 96% even though it had been below -5C all night and day, then over the weekend when it was in the low “pluses” it started discharging again. So right after talking to support the device started charging again even though the temp was below the “charging” temp of 0C.

They offered me a replacement but I think that is a waste of time and effort, I don’t think the issue is hardware.

Li-Ion batteries are not supposed to be charged below freezing becuase it can permenantly damage them, but there doesn’t seem to be any rythme or reason to why this issues is happening. A lot of people are having similar issues when well above freezing and some are seeing charging at below 0.

What Ring really should do (other then fix the issue) is add a battery temp reading into their app, maybe in the device health with an option to update it and maybe some sort history. Even better, along with that some sort a note that shows up when the battery drops below a certain temp alerting people that it may not be charging. This way if people are having problems with charging they can see exactly what the battery temp is and has been and prove to Ring that the problem is not weather related.

I suggested something like this to them a few years ago but of course it was never done, probably because this would then take away their primary method of brushing customers off.

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Same here Peter_B running flawless for 3 years and suddenly I’m on battery. I’m hard wired and had to change the transformer , just in case. Since day one that I installed and never had problems. I till late 2019!

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Also having the same problem. Was fine and showing hardwired all the time until after Xmas. Now running off battery. Spoke to ring who frustratingly kept telling me the same thing and basically saying it wasn’t and never was hardwired and that the charge would last months. I’m not in a super cold place at the moment so definitely not that. I’m now having to charge the battery once a week which wasn’t what I wanted. I paid someone to hardwire the doorbell and have a picture of it saying hardwired.

They don’t seem to know what they’re talking about and just repeat the same script all the time until you hang up. It’s not much of a security thing when you have to take it off for hours to charge and you’ve no doorbell at all.

Sorry for the rant but it’s so annoying thatRing won’t address the problem. At least say we’re aware of it and we trying to find a solution.

Even on this forum they’re answering the same way. It’s the weather!!

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Well, I fixed it. I hardwired it and it wouldn’t charge and my inside chimes wouldn’t work. Short story; the screws on the back plate are not electrically connected to the circuit card where the contact strips are for the doorbell unit. It’s possible to put wires under the screws and not have them contact the contact strip that touches the doorbell once it’s installed. Fix; 2 small #4 flat washers under the screws and it’s fixed !!! I reinstalled the doorbell and the charge light came on. I pushed the button and the inside chimes work ! The ‘device health’ screen now says that it’s ‘hardwired’. I’m waiting to see if the charge % goes up…fingers crossed. I feel that this is a DESIGN FLAW and that ring should take appropriate action.

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bobbetts, I’m glad you were able to fix your issue, but when you already had everything working fine for you, for 2.5 years and suddenly doesn’t charge anymore, without touching anything, what’s your solution? They changed something on their end. Look how many people have the same issue… this doesn’t make sense…

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I agree it doesn’t make sense. Charged up doorbell, connected it, said hardwired until I went out of the app, now back to saying battery. All was perfect before Xmas. Come on Ring take some notice & sort it out. Will certainly not be buying any more Ring products til this is done.

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If the weather is cold the battery will NOT take a charge from the hard wiring according to searches I have been doing. As far as I am concerned this is a fault of Ring for cold weather climates and is TOTALLY unacceptable. I have spoken to 4 people with cheap imitations and their doorbells are working find and dont need charging and dont stop in -20 weather. Ring should have an update so the batteries will charge in ANY weather. Sorry the reply is kind of negative to the user but I have complained and am totally fed up. Will not buy another Ring product and will NOT recommend to anyone. Thanks for listening Neighbor as they call us.

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That also doesn’t make sense , because I used it for 2.5 consecutive years and I had 0 issues. They changed something on their end! After Christmas 2019! That’s all. @Ring, fix it!

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Hi . Has there been any response/update from Ring with regards to this prob. I was just about to purchase one with the intent to hardwire.

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Not really, at least no solution. They keep saying they will refer it to their design people. It is extremely annoying. Everyone else can make it work but not Ring. What is the point in hardwiring if you still have to remove the battery to recharge all the time in cold weather. Very unhappy to be honest and would NOT buy another Ring product. There are others out there without the same problems and cheaper.

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Just got a notification of three new features. Then I find out I have to pay for them I don’t care about new features I want my doorbell to work the way it was supposed to when I bought it.

What do I have to do to get a replacement I’ve only had it a few months.

Same issue here. Ring 2 been working fine for past few years. I noticed it went offline a month or two ago. Finally got around to looking into it today and found the battery completely dead. Measured the wires on the back and get 20V AC. _ _

Charged the battery inside for an hour or so, put it back in and the doorbell powered up. I had to reconnect it to WiFi. It started getting a firmware update, so hoping whatever problem that happened with previous firmware is fixed in this version. However, the power status says its losing power.

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I am told that anything under 0 degrees Celsius the battery will not charge. This is total insanity, and definitely a design flaw of major proportions. Many things charge at any temperature when hooked up to external power source. WHO THE HELL INVENTED THIS CRAP.

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Been about 60 here most of the past few months so my particular issue is not temp.

IMO they screwed up something and are not fessing up, presumably due to all the other bad press

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Absolutely right and they do not want to admit! Good part is , I Have bought extended warranties on all my rings! I paid yearly, so screw it, I’m changing my products as much as it takes :slight_smile: I’m calling support everyday and keep getting new products.

Dear ring,

Let’s go ahead and and make an effort to test people’s claims that the Ring doorbell is not charging and stop with the scripted responses. I am sure that the admin responders have made no effort to at least test the claims or at least follow with R&D on this. I’ve had my ring for a year and I can tell you that it’s worked great until recently. First of all, I understand that you can’t change the chemistry of lithium via a firmware update and that the Ring 2 is designed for simple installation vs the Ring Pro which can require additional hardware at the transformer end. I get the logic behind the wiring scheme and you can’t have a direct short circuit to the doorbell without some circuit board logic behind that. With that said, I can assure you that ring is fully capable of a firmware update that can either modifying the code that controls the charging circuit, or fix the firmware update that’s milking more power than the ring is capable of replenishing.

I’ve had ring for the past year. I live in North Dakota and I can assure you that it gets cold here and I know the limitations of the Ring in this weather. There are several rings in this neighborhood and I’ve never heard any complaints about it’s functionality during winter. First of all, my ring will shut down when it’s -5 F. I get this and I’m ok with that. It’s not uncommon for me to reach -20 to -30 F. I installed my ring when it was -20 and I’ll tell ya…it’s a challenge when you don’t have gloves on. When it’s that cold, ring just doesn’t work and it’s understandable. You know it’s cold when all fluids including the steering fluid in my vehicle get stiff and the foam in the seat is harder than usual. But I have never once had a problem that caused my ring battery to stop charging. In that time it has always maintained a charge no less than 98 percent. However, last week I noticed that my ring charge was at 10 percent. This seemed highly unusual as there has been no unusual weather, use, or activity beyond what I have experienced in the past year. It’s been cold, but no more than has been in the past. I ended up removing the battery and charging indoors. After several hours it was fully charged and and I replaced it into the doorbell. The next couple of days we had 40+ degree weather (a whole 60 degrees warmer…heatwave!). In those couple of days and with no unusual activation of the camera, I observed 2 or 3 percent battery loss per day. 40+ degrees and I’m losing battery. That is far from typical and normal behavior outlined in the product specs and I would appreciate if somebody would take accountability and at least follow up on this. Also take some time to read the book QBQ. You might learn something about accountability and going above and beyond like we do in my part of the country. Thank you for your consideration and time.

The End.

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I wonder also if all this crap has happened since Ring sold to Amazon. I bought my unit long after the changeover and have only had it a few months. Perhaps Amazon is trying to recoup their purchase cost by scimping on value of the units and the circuitry. Just a guess.

Add another to the list of affected people. I’ve been using it for over a year through the winter, no issues. Tried to tell someone at my door it was open and to just come in and discovered it wasn’t working. Looks like the last notification was Jan 30, 2020 and the battery was completely dead!