Amazon is having a big sale today (July 15, 2015), Prime Day, which is billed as bigger than Black Friday. I figure we can start a thread here to post deals as they are uncovered by the ST community.
As someone else just posted, there is a SkyBell doorbell up right now.
I passed on the Skybell and was able to grab a Ring Video Doorbell through Amazon Warehouse. I got it for $152.40.
Warehouse deals also have an extra 15% off today.
The current generation of Wi-Fi video doorbells all runinto the same thing: your local architecture will make a huge difference in how well you like it. So some people will like it a lot (usually in the four-star range), and some people will say it just never works.
In particular, if there is a glass window, not tinted, near your front door, these doorbells will probably work much better for you. It’s just a matter of signal strength.
There are a few differences between ring and Skybell. Motion detection at the short range, within 5 feet, appears to work a little better on ring. Skybell works better where it’s very very cold, with ring going down to -5° F and Skybell going down to -40. Skybell has an “on demand” feature which lets you tune into the video feed whenever you want. Ring has more of an intercom model and you may miss the opportunity to view the video when someone rings the doorbell and then not be able to restart it. Ring can be battery operated, Skybell cannot. Skybell’s mounting design is a little more waterproof, so you may need to do some additional caulking with ring.
But the most significant thing seems to be local Wi-Fi strength, and that would affect both devices the same.
It’s also important to note that both devices work only on 2.4 Wi-Fi, not the 5.0 band, which also means you must have your phone/tableton the 2.4 band in order to sync them.
A lot of people add a Wi-Fi booster in order to improve the video from the doorbell, but doing so can then interfere with nearby zigbee devices.
So Many people have either skybell or ring and like it better than not having it but there are also still a lot of returns on both devices. It just depends on the exact set up at your house.
Really not impressed with the deals in any category except a few of the sell-out-in-a-nanosecond Amazon hardware deals. No way this is a Black Friday equivalent. Target does much better with their big summer sale going on now.
Terrible experience with Skybell. Was great while it was working but didn’t last very long. Dealing with customer service was a nightmare to. Was hoping someone could tell me about their experience with Ring?
I would have loved to buy the Wemo maker at a discount. It’d be nice to have a “deals” forum thread where you just subscribe once and get notifications anytime anybody posts…
I have tried a pair of bluetooth headphones and now this lens but can’t get alexa to understand me. I even tried Alexa, order ASIN number xxxxxxxxxxx. That was completely mis-understood.