Camera doorbells without contrat

Our old doorbell has succumbed to the weather and I was thinking of getting a camera one to replace it. They seem to start at about £80 !?!?!

I am considering this one : EZVIZ EP3X

It is solar powered and has 32GB of internal storage so seems hassle free. I guess I need to buy a compatible chime unit, right?

I want a doorbell that rings indoors, allows me to see who is there from my phone, records people when motion sensors triggers it and doesn’t have a monthly contract. Any useful features I have missed?

Any other suggestion?

The Guardian just had a comparison of some of the most obvious brands/ models.

https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2024/nov/14/the-8-best-video-doorbells-tried-and-tested

Eufy was always the one that popped up for me when looking for contract-less ones, but I could never work out what each model offers

Have a look at Blink – you can buy one with a sync module. This means you can record the footage on a usb rather than the cloud. So no subscription required. Owned by Amazon in the same way as Ring.

I just bought and installed a Eufy unit.

As @nico74 says their model range can be quite hard to work out, but they are genuinely contract-less – you pay up front once and then you’re done.

Been using a Eufy battery doorbell cam and a Eufy 2c camera for probably 3 maybe 4 years now. Both are in full Australian, melt ya face off sun. Both give great clear images. My only niggle is triggering detection can be a bit flaky – sometimes people are almost right in front of the cameras before they kick into life and start recording. I’m quite surprised how well the little batteries in them have lasted.

I’d more than likely go for Eufy again if I was to upgrade to another home user camera system.

Tapo also have a subscription-free option. Don’t have any experience of their doorbells, I really like the cameras in general though (have a few as wildlife cams in the garden!) as they’re decent quality & always on offer on Amazon!

They’ve just brought out a wired (power) doorbell which I’m tempted by.

I like Tapo stuff.

It’s good value and it seems to have less connection issues than other brands I have used.

Reolink. POE or Wifi. Local storage (card in the doorbell) or storage on your DVR. Integrates perfectly with my Reolink CCTV system too. Good app, notifications, some useful functions (like timelapse!) etc. Works brill – always very happy with all our Reolink equipment.

There will undoubtedly be a big Black Friday sale coming on the Reolink amazon  store too.

Thinking of going with the Tapi https://uk.store.tapo.com/products/tapo-d230s1-smart-battery-video-doorbell
There is a cheaper one at £50 instead of £85 but the more expensive one has better night vision and video quality. Both come with an indoor chime and easy to add a solar charger for £15 thanks to Black Friday silliness. The EZVIZ EP3X is £110 on Amazon

Have a look at Blink – you can buy one with a sync module. This means you can record the footage on a usb rather than the cloud. So no subscription required. Owned by Amazon in the same way as Ring.

This is what I have, just bought a cheap USB storage stick to go with the sync module and it’s been fine.  Black Friday soon so they’ll no doubt be half price (that’s when I bought ours).

We’ve got a eufy one, it’s ok. First one worked really well, but died literally a few days after the warranty ended, I emailed eufy and they sent a new one which annoyingly doesn’t work quite so well. But it does ding when someone presses it, so I’ll probably replace it with another one when this dies, which it shows no sign off a couple of years down the line.

watching this with interest.

i assume most of these are wireless so rely on radio signals?  we dont have one atm as i had to bin it due to going off when people werent at our door.  it was obviously getting interference from a neighbour somewhere but we could never find anyone at a nearby door when it went off so just considered them more trouble than theyre worth.  for us anyway……i dont hear of any of our friends having the same issue.

might look at wired jobbies altho annoyingly i think i i went up into the loft and stripped the wiring from our ancient doorbell to ‘tidy things up’, thinking that wireless is the future  *roll eyes emoji

Our old doorbell has succumbed to the weather and I was thinking of getting a camera one to replace it. They seem to start at about £80 !?!?!

ours recently did the same, its replacement was <£5 and will probably last another 30+ yrs.  what’s the chances that your camera and everything that goes with it are still working in 30 yrs? In technology timescales mobile phones didn’t have cameras never mind apps, most houses didnt even have dial up internet, never mind wifi.  USB hadn’t been invented, floppy disks were order of the day – fancy people were using CD-ROM.

It is solar powered and has 32GB of internal storage so seems hassle free. I guess I need to buy a compatible chime unit, right?

wow so 80 is not the whole lot, you need to make your old working chime redundant.

I want a doorbell that rings indoors, allows me to see who is there from my phone,

why?  Are we not too sedentary as it is? Are we not too screen focused already?  Is this not like asking Alexa if it’s raining rather than look out the window?

records people when motion sensors triggers it

is your front door really the optimal position for a security camera if you need one?  What threat is your property under that you suddenly need one because your £5 door bell failed – had you needed one “last week” you presumably would have bought one then?

Any other suggestion?

I am aware that these things are incredibly popular but though it might be worth a suggestion of the cheap easy direct replacement.

We have a Ring doorbell. It’s been in place for about 5 years. Was easy enough to do the initial install as I recall

The inital battery charge lasted about 3 months, then we recharged it. We did notice though that there as a lag between someone approaching or even pressing the doorbell, and us receiving a notification. We also found that video was blocky and poor quality. Conversations with the Ring support team followed and they showed us the network logs, demonstrating that the camera was losing connectivity. We added a wifi repeater that helped with that, but it still wasn’t ideal. Further conversations revealed that the doorbell essentially shuts down to conserve battery so it was having to fire up and reestablish a network connection when it detected movement, which was adding to the delays. I hardwired the ring unit to add power and attached an internal chime at the same time. That improved things quite a bit as obviously it means we no longer need to charge the doorbell unit, and it’s connected to the wifi at all times.

Moving from a wifi router plus a repeater to a mesh system made another improvement, but I’ll be honest, it’s still not perfect. I’ve turned off the motion alerts on my phone as they were  really annoying, especially in summer when it seems that the reflections of clouds on the car sitting in front of the front door would cause the doorbell to think that there was movement. Remember, this is the same doorbell that would STILL allow someone to appraach, ring the doorbell and leave our driveway before the alerts would  fire on our phones.

Personally, I’d be happy to get rid. Mrs NBT is still convinced it offers a benefit as she works in the attic workroom. As it’s usualy me who hears the external chime and answers the doorway on the occasions that I’m in my first floor workroom, I’m less convinved –  the network lag means that Mrs NBT doesn’t get the phone notification quicly enough, and she can’t hear the chime from the attic (or the garden). At £50 a year, it’s an expensive watse for me. I’ve been looking at  reviews of the replacement options and am as yet undecided.

<£5 and will probably last another 30+ yrs

I’m with you. Despite wife asking for one several times, I’m not convinced by them.

Similarly, I love mechnical shifting, despite everyone telling me how good di2 is.

It just works.

Eufy.

Very easy to install and setup, I’ve added 2 additional cameras too to watch the front and the rear of the property. The doorbell was handy when I worked nights to see if I had to get up or not. The bell and the camera have been handy to see where parcel have been left as they don’t always say where.

You need the base to record the data and can be bought as a pack. Should be some offers on for them just now.

is your front door really the optimal position for a security camera if you need one?

@poly is obviously Grandpa from the Simpsons but he’s inadvertently stumbled across a reasonable point. All of these off-the-shelf doorbells are a compromise – you would actually be better served with a boggo standard doorbell, connected to a WiFi relay to provide notifications, with better quality cameras (featuring 2-way comms) positioned more optimally providing 100% coverage, all tied into a home automation system.

REOLINK

you can get this one, either as PoE, or battery or just plugin job with wifi

https://www.screwfix.com/p/reolink-2k-wired-smart-ai-wifi-video-doorbell-chime-64gb-black/847RC?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAi_G5BhDXARIsAN5SX7qN5CTLosXhkdMpSXwwoeWv6qde3koIen7x_rRfolpTMevsP7COrSsaAp6TEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Works well and as i already have the REOLINK cameras on the house, it’s all on the same app.

Also, i was reading the EUFY stuff has some questionable chinese govenment data gathering issue -same as their robovacs.

I have just installed a Eufy one after it sat on the dining room table for 2 months and missed the neighbours van getting raided.

The first thing the police asked my FIL was “do you have a video door bell” when he got scammed on his doorstep so the police obviously see a value in them. Needless to say his £5 bell was no use to them.

I have recently purchased a Reolink doorbell (£43), outdoor moveable camera (£53) and Home Hub (£72). Yet to install the doorbell but looks good. Main point of the hub is to store footage inside, don’t see the point in having a memory card in your camera as they are dead easy to steal.

Also, i was reading the EUFY stuff has some questionable chinese govenment data gathering issue -same as their robovacs.

I wouldn’t even be considering them based on that dumpster fire. They knew about the issue and did nothing about it, until someone does the same with the doorbells it’s not unreasonable to assume they’ll treat them the same way.

I’ve got the blink and don’t pay the subscription. It takes about 20 minutes between ringing the doorbell and getting a notification on my phone

Was instant during the free subscription trial period.

We got a Blink one in the last Black Friday sale. £39 from memory with the module thing and another external camera. Seems just the job tbh.

Also, i was reading the EUFY stuff has some questionable chinese govenment data gathering issue -same as their robovacs.

Where did you read this?

@Poly – Camera vs tradition doorbell. I agree with 90% of what you say but:

We are out often enough to miss parcel deliveries and had one delivery guy leave ~£200 of stuff on top of the bin, in plain sight of everyone, on a Thursday when the bins are collected and ignoring the ‘Please leave with neighbour’ message.

Security camera, like the ones around the side and back of the house reassure MrsWCA when I am away and let me check inside the garage without going out in the rain to see if I left the XXX on the side.

The trad doorbell with ‘wireless chime’ only allowed the chime to be located in the house before it ran out of signal strength. Will the wifi ones use mesh and allow coverage in the garage/garden as well? Not sure but will check no you have made me think of it.

Is it necessary? NO
Does it have benefits? YES
Cost vs Benefits seem to lead to the purchase.

Been very happy with our Reolink PoE doorbell. Didnt have a powered doorbell before so needed to run a cable anyway. Came with a mains chime, app works quickly, an update added ability for a button press to trigger a video call type interface on our phones so one tap to see video and talk back if needed. Does decent person detection so you don’t get false alerts from moving trees or car headlights.

No subscription unless you want recording on their cloud service. Without you can record to any combination of local microSD, email, ftp, or a network recorder.

I have a Ring doorbell, so not what the OP is asking for WRT contracts, but I’ll chip in in case it helps others. My experience isn’t wildly dissimilar to nbt’s but with a few differences.

Out of the box, it rinsed through the battery. To be fair to it though, my front door opens straight onto the pavement, if I had a driveway then the motion sensing wouldn’t be triggering every five seconds. I ended up hard-wiring it. You can get a doorbell power supply of finest Chineseium for not much money, it doesn’t have to be anything specific to a video doorbell despite Marketing. You can get a solar panel backplate for the Ring but my door is North-facing in Lancashire so there didn’t seem much point for me.

The phone alerts aren’t as bad as some are reporting, but they are… let’s be kind and go with “lethargic.” You couldn’t rely on it as a primary source, the knock-a-door-run approach of some delivery drivers would have them in the next postcode by the time you’d made it to the door. But I have it hooked into a battery of Echoes and in this it excels. Ringing is instantaneous and I have full control over whereabouts in the house it rings. Without the Alexa infrastructure (or Googley/Appley equivalents I suppose) you’d really need a dedicated chime box.

Connecting to Wi-Fi was painless and is solid. You need the subscription to record and review video, but if you just want to relay a video feed to a display (I have a cheap Echo Show on my desk) then it’s not required. Recorded footage can be exported sensibly, you’re not tied into some stupid proprietary format.

Video quality is hard to fault. It’s better than a lot of CCTV footage I’ve seen which looks like it’s been recorded on a potato, and night vision isn’t perfect but way exceeded my expectations.

Would I buy another? That’s a guarded “yes,” it’s not bad but I expect there’s better out there. I’d have to create a thread like this one and start hoovering up Paul Hibbert YouTube videos before making another purchase.

Re the eufy system.

Doorbells: mine has a battery backup but wires into the existing doorbell cables to take its power. This means it also rings the existing chimes when the button is pressed as well as ringing the eufy base unit.

Range: the cameras/doorbells don’t use WiFi, it’s a different wireless standard. The range is good though, and they mesh (I believe). There are also ways to help boost this signal using power plug adaptors that can also be used to automate lights or anything else with a plug on it.

As said before the range of cameras is wide and can be difficult to spot the technical differences sometimes. But some time spent should get you what you need for your application.

Range: the cameras/doorbells don’t use WiFi, it’s a different wireless standard. The range is good though, and they mesh (I believe). There are also ways to help boost this signal using power plug adaptors that can also be used to automate lights or anything else with a plug on it.

Very useful to know. So the camera communicates with the… base station? And is that hard wired to your router, or using WiFi to communicate to the network?

Range: the cameras/doorbells don’t use WiFi, it’s a different wireless standard.

thatll probably be why we were getting ours ringing when there was nobody at the door then?  if we had a neighbour who had the same doorbell on the same frequency, then that could be why ours would ring when someone pressed their doorbell.  we never found out who it was, we’d be going out into the street looking for someone at a door somewhere, but never got it sorted so binned it.  surely it would be better if they were tied to your own wifi so there could be no chance of this?  or am i missing something?  and surely this must be very common as a lot of people buy the same doorbells?

I just installed a Aqara G4 (currently 30% off on Amazon) which offers:

Use without any Subscription fee

The G4 offers cloud storage of up to 7 days: short event-based clips will be sent to the cloud immediately and without any hidden fees*.

Additionally, the indoor chime provides the local MicroSD card (not included) storage option, which is safer and more convenient. Local NAS storage is also supported using the Samba protocol.

Additionally if you have an Apple ecosystem you can use their ‘Homekit Secure Video’

Very useful to know. So the camera communicates with the… base station? And is that hard wired to your router, or using WiFi to communicate to the network?

Yes, sorry, should have mentioned that. I haven’t looked for a bit, but there was talk of the base station being able to use WiFi but mine is hardwired to a router.

thatll probably be why we were getting ours ringing when there was nobody at the door then?

Each device on ‘your’ eufy network is registered to it, so other eufy devices shouldn’t be able to do that.
More likely it was a change in shadow or some other movement or change in the image that was triggering it. There are movement thresholds that you can choose as well as zoning area of the image to focus on for movement. Having said that I also do get some false positives in my doorbell. Some time spent fiddling with the sensitivity and zones helped to reduce that.

More likely it was a change in shadow or some other movement or change in the image that was triggering it.

sorry, this was a normal wireless doorbell, not video.  we bought one, got too many false rings so binned it.  a quick google search reveals its a common problem with other nearby devices on same frequency.  we then tried a cctv/video doorbell setup that my mate was selling, but it wasnt best quality so gave it him back and thought we’ll buy something better/more modern.

ideal set up for us would be a couple of wifi cctv cameras, one to pick up the driveway/front door, and one for the back garden more as a wildlife/hedgehog camera.  plus a doorbell, which wouldnt need to be video if we had the cctv camera.

if we didnt go for the cctv cameras we’d probably get a wireless video doorbell, but that early experience of false rings put us off buying another in case it happened again.

@sadexpunk

ah, gotcha.

the term ‘wireless’ covers a huge multitude of different methods of connection. Some conform to standards e.g. WiFi but some can be completely proprietary and other use a weird mixture of both.

The door bell you tried could well have had interference from practically anything that used that method, other doorbells, toasters, vibrators, music widgets, anything..

There are some decent offers on Amazon in Black Friday, so might be worth another go and if you still have issues send it back.

I find these are a good blend of cost/benefit…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C5Q1S213/?ref_=pe_128543671_1189371891_AGH0200IMG_pd_ot_dealz_dotd_BFW_ASIN_GRI&th=1&psc=1

Just remember to add a 3.5 hard disk for £30-40

It really doesn’t have to be a large capacity hard disk as it’s not recording constantly only in activation.

the Blink is on Amazons black friday deals just now.  £29.99.

the Blink is on Amazons black friday deals just now.  £29.99.

is this any good if you dont have an alexa?  can it just be used as a standalone doorbell with no monthly sub?  and i see that if you click the ‘full system video doorbell’ instead of standalone it includes a ‘sync module 2’ for an extra tenner.  is that the chime?  i have nothing at the moment, no doorbell nor existing chime and would just like something cheap(ish) that doesnt get interference from elsewhere.

I find these are a good blend of cost/benefit…

@peterno51 thanks.  not quite ready to spunk out £200 yet until i know exactly what i want but watching this with interest and may end up doing so.

cheers

Just remember to add a 3.5 hard disk for £30-40

EDIT – It’s a 2.5″ SATA drive NOT a 3.5″.

is this any good if you dont have an alexa?  can it just be used as a standalone doorbell with no monthly sub?  and i see that if you click the ‘full system video doorbell’ instead of standalone it includes a ‘sync module 2’ for an extra tenner.  is that the chime?  i have nothing at the moment, no doorbell nor existing chime and would just like something cheap(ish) that doesnt get interference from elsewhere.

I’ll let you know – just bought the doorbell & sync unit but i already have an alexa – will see what it takes to get it working.

I’ll let you know – just bought the doorbell & sync unit but i already have an alexa – will see what it takes to get it working.

cheers.  just been googling and it looks like that ‘sync module 2’ isnt the ‘chime’, id need another camera for that apparently, so price is rising rising rising when all id need really is just a doorbell and chime that doesnt go off all the time for no reason 😀

thanks