New to the smart home integration. I have recently purchased the smart things hub and an Ecobee Smart Thermostat (which i love). I am looking at a smart door bell or camera for my next purchase. I have been doing some research on door bells with integrated cameras such as Doorbot or Ring but haven’t been very impressed with the reviews. Any recommendations? Or is the consensus to maybe go with an Aeon Labs Gen 5 Zwave doorbell and maybe a Kuna light? Any other suggestions?
Next on my list will be some motion sensors and multi purpose sensors for doors/Windows. Should I stick with the samsung units or are there better options?
Of the ones you mentioned, only the Aeotec doorbell integrates directly with SmartThings.
As far as the others go, as with many home automation project different people have different needs and different priorities, so they end up choosing different devices. Choice is good.
For example, I really wanted an option where I could check the video stream at any time, not just when movement was detected. That’s because packages come during the day, but it’s my housemate who will bring them in later. So I want to be able to check and see if they still outside.
Other people just want to check the video as soon as the motion detector goes off.
Discussion of the various doorbell options, as well as the Kuna, here: (this is a clickable link)
I’ve owned the Kuna since August, it works very well at my house. The Wi-Fi is no worse than anything else.
But it all comes down to local architecture. In my case, there’s a window right next to the front door. So it’s really easy to get Wi-Fi signal through there.
If your front door is metal and it’s set in a brick Wall, you’re likely going to have Wi-Fi problems right where your doorbell is.
This is very easy to test. You can use a Wi-Fi sniffer app, or even just hold up your phone on Wi-Fi and see how many bars you have in the place were you going to put the device. There’s no big mystery usually.
My wifi signal has to bounce thru the family room corner wall, travel the entrance hallway, penetrate thru front wooden door and then the storm glass door and them it is installed on a brick wall. No signal issues there. Wifi shows full strength and couple of blocks down the road as well. streaming is fine on 2 Kuna’s plus 4 drop/nest cams with no issues, plus music streaming on 3 Sonos, ecobee3, Rachio Iro, laptops, iPhones, iPads and what not… I do use two Airport Extremes connected via powerline - Ethernet on bridge mode…add echo. Fire stick, Roku 3, Apple TV…
streaming is fine on 2 Kuna’s plus 4 drop/nest cams with no issues, plus music streaming on 3 Sonos, ecobee3, Rachio Iro, laptops, iPhones, iPads and what not… I do use two Airport Extremes connected via powerline - Ethernet on bridge mode…add echo. Fire stick, Roku 3, Apple TV…