Ring Video Doorbell 3 – enhanced wifi, improved motion detection, easy installation

We recently bought a Ring 3, and it’s AMAZING. Setup was super easy- the app walks you through every single step. We wired ours in with the old doorbell wires, which was also really easy (the app gives step by step video instructions for that, too). The picture clarity is fantastic, and it was really easy to set the sensitivity and block out areas I wanted the motion detection to ignore, like the tree next to our walk-up. The cars passing by on our street don’t trigger the motion detection alerts, and we can pull in and out of the driveway without triggering the alert. That’s the way we want it- we only want alerts when there is motion on the porch- but it can be easily set to detect motion that far out if you want it to (the default settings were that way, and it worked perfectly). When someone rings the doorbell, it very quickly shows the live feed on our phones, and it’s easy to have a two-way conversation with the person at the door. The app setup also asked me if I wanted to make our old doorbell chime- the one in the house that’s been here for 40+ years- continue to chime as it always has when the Ring doorbell button is pushed. I said I did, the app was like “ok cool, give it a try!” I pushed the Ring doorbell, the old chime chimed (and the alerts popped up and chimed on our phones), and the app said, “did it work?” I said it did, and it said, “great, you’re all set!” (Note: we can use this function because we wired our Ring with the old doorbell wires.) That’s how good the setup instructions are. In a matter of hours we had it wired and mounted and working perfectly to detect the motion we want it to detect for our specific needs. There is essentially no lag time in the feed- maybe the tiniest fraction of a second, but certainly nothing that makes the two-way live talking feature a problem. I’ve had plenty of cell phone conversations with a longer lag than this. The whole system is exactly what we hoped it would be.When I bought the Ring 3 I noticed there was a drop down menu to choose just the Ring 3, or the Ring 3 with a free Echo Show. This seemed crazy to me- I could add an Echo Show and it was the same price as just the Ring 3?- but indeed, that’s exactly what happened! The Echo Show showed up a day before the Ring, which gave me some time to figure out what it can do. It’s far more useful than I imagined it would be, and it works seamlessly with the Ring 3. The second someone rings the doorbell, the live feed appears on the screen.We’ve only had our Ring for a few days, but it’s working flawlessly. We do have a really fast WiFi connection and the router isn’t far from the front door, so maybe that’s part of why it’s working so well for us.

The Ring Video Doorbell 3 delivers sharp video quality, improved motion detection, and reliable two-way audio. Setup is straightforward, and the WiFi connection is stable. Smart alerts and integration with the Ring app enhance security and usability.

This is one of those "great when it works" devices, sadly it almost never works.First off, my area had a couple of micro-power outages recently and ring needed to be completely reset each time.They sell you on the Doorbell 3 being battery powered, but don't warn you that the batteries hate the cold, meaning 1/3 of the US is going to have trouble for 1/3 of the year trying to use this. Had to reset the device again when temperatures dipped. Flat out replaced the battery after the first below freezing night, ring wouldn't connect. Reinstalled the battery, oops, that made it work.There are supposed to be several ways to access it except, depending upon the day, either my Android (phone) or Microsoft (PC) app doesn't work.Thought today was going to be good day when both (!) my Android and Windows apps chimed, except when I tried to activate the camera, a NEW error message - Gateway Timeout.I bought this because my Zoom room/home office is on the second floor of my house, but I've spent more time RE-installing, rebooting, rejiggering this thing - it is a waste of time.Of course, it is installed ON my house now so removing it (and throwing it out) is problematic in and of itself.UPDATE 12/02/20 - Ironically, after the Great Outage of 11/2020, my connection seems much more stable. Notifications via Android and Win10 apps are consistent. Not sure if they made some changes when things were down, but I am closer to enjoying the cool "when it works" status more regularly.Battery life may still be an issue, but knowing it relied on a battery, I already purchased a backup so I just might have to swap out a bit more frequently than expected.UPDATE 12/17/20 - OK, yes the battery life is a bit annoying. But, we've now dipped into sub-zero overnights and I got about a month's charge. As mentioned before, I did order a second battery (which is an investment they should warn winter weather folks about) and the swap out takes < 10". Also, to its credit, ring started alerting me to the low battery at about 30% and took about a week to drop to 20% so there was plenty of warning to get the battery swapped. Now, things have apparently settled so a battery swap is just that, a 10" quick fix, not the start of a resetting cycle. Everything came right back on.The only lingering issue - the Win10 app doesn't always connect, but the Android app has been 100% consistent.

Overall, I’m very pleased with my Ring Video Doorbell 3! It looks beautiful and modern next to my door. It was relatively easy to install and only took 5-10 minutes. The Ring app is intuitive and easy to use. The app walked me through simple, step-by-step instructions to connect the Doorbell to my Ring account and my WiFi, and adjust the numerous different settings, which took another 20-30 minutes. The camera is very high quality and you can zoom and adjust the angle as needed in the live feed to get a closer look at things. The sound and microphone quality are also good—people on the porch can clearly hear me when I talk to them through the app, and I can hear their responses clearly, too. The size of the doorbell is perfect. My only complaint is that if you change your WiFi network or password, you have to manually reconnect the doorbell to WiFi, and you can’t just change the password in the Ring app. This is a big annoyance, but not a dealbreaker. So make sure you have a very secure WiFi password before you set up your doorbell to avoid having to do this later!

Love my ring doorbell. I use it all the time and it works great. Definitely will be purchasing more items