Ring vs Skybell vs Kuna vs?

Just chiming in here on how worthless the SkyBell HD is.

I bought it based on the great reviews I read and the integration with SmartThings. It installed easily, looks great and the night time video quality is exceptional. That’s where the good ends though.

The motion detection on the SkyBell is a joke. A delivery driver can walk up to our door, ring the doorbell, and drop off a package, then turn around and walk back down the sidewalk and get in their truck. The only thing the doorbell captures is the driver’s back as he walks the last 5 feet to his truck (and our house is a good 40-50 ft from the street). What’s the point of capturing the back of people who are up to no good - they obviously aren’t going to be loitering at my front door.

The quality of the microphone / speaker on the doorbell is questionable. Most attempts at a conversation with someone at the front door aren’t audible and ends up resulting in mass confusion.

The reliability of the doorbell is also terrible. Someone just rang the doorbell and my wife’s phone received a notification saying that someone pressed the button, while my phone didn’t receive anything. When trying to view the video “on demand” as SkyBell calls it, it often times results in a black screen and you have to restart the app.

And finally, let’s talk about customer service. I really wanted to like this product so after trying everything listed in the knowledge base, I contacted customer support to ask about the motion detection and the delay in recording. Below are their responses…seriously, what’s the point of the product if their own technical support teams says that you should buy a separate security camera!!!

All this to say that I’m returning the SkyBell HD and trying out the Ring Pro.

Responses from SkyBell HD Technical Support
"I understand that the motion sensor is recording video but is capturing the back of the delivery driver as they walk away.

Please consult the motion sensor settings and read each high medium and low description to choose the one that best suits your needs.

It does have a built in 10 second delay before going off as we do not want the sensor detecting you or your household members as they come and go as this would annoy most people."

AND

“Our SkyBell is first and foremost a WiFi video doorbell. Most people pair our device with NEST security cameras that have instant motion detection video recording. Our SkyBell works well with NEST products!”

I have the ring running on battery. It’s pretty much instant on all my devices when someone triggers the door bell. For motion one problem I ran into is that I had to install my door bell almost at shoulder height when standing beside it (otherwise at one point in the day the sun hits the camera just right that you don’t see anything…), and my door itself is a good 10 steps high… so unless you are at the top 5 steps it won’t pick up the motion. Its been great!

Well that 10 second delay is basically the reason I won’t be buying the Skybell now. So does the Ring Pro have any delay? Our neighborhood is having packages stolen from porches. I need something to start recording as soon as someone steps onto my sidewalk. Am I better off just buying a wireless IP camera if I want something to turn on as soon as it senses motion?

I don’t have the Ring Pro but rather the original. Haven’t really noticed any delays. You can also adjust the sensitivity to detect motion from as far as possible.

I had the Ring Classic (my term :slight_smile:) on my front door for a while. Worked great, but it uses IR for motion detection. In the middle of winter, everyone has thick coats and it’s often single digits-- so IR was questionable. I switched to the Ring Pro on my front door, which is motion detection by visual changes, not IR. Fixed the winter problem, but it introduced some problems with direct sunlight. So, I installed one of Ring’s new Wedge Kits to direct it more downwards, and that solved almost all instances of direct sunlight and also improved the overall video experience. My house also has a low approach (15’ above street level), so the Wedge Kit improved the video angle a lot!

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I made a make shift wedge to redirect it, but it could be better. I can’t switch it to a Ring Pro since it’s not wired.

I have the Ring Pro and love it. Easy to install and just like how thin it is and the features. I, also, have one chime. Plan on getting another chime.

I have a promo code for $25 off any ring video camera.
3michael3

Hi @zuperman4ever, I had one of these a couple months back but it just would not live stream, or stay connected to my wifi, or even ring the mechanical bell consistently. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it was a dumb device screwed to my wall. I had everything installed correctly, and even had their support involved. I even moved my router within a couple feet of the Ring, and still no luck.

I see there’s a firmware and app update so I’m wondering if that’s helped improve things?

Hi. Can anyone recommend the best doorbell available in the market at the moment? The one with most of the features… I have heard about ring, skybell, dbell but not sure which one to buy. Tks

I have the Ring Pro and the original Ring. Both are good, but I like the Ring Pro better. It responds faster with a clearer picture.

See for yourself: Front Porch Camera or Door Bell Camera

I’ve had one problem with the Ring Pro when it disconnected from my network a couple of weeks ago and wouldn’t reconnect. I went a few rounds resetting it with Ring support before it came back online. It’s been fine ever since,

My only reason for not getting a ring pro at the moment is because I want to stream the video to my dashboard and they don’t expose any api’s to do so.

Anyone has tried both (Ring Pro & Skybell HD) with SmartThings integration? Trying to see which of the 2 has more functions within SmartThings or is it similar?

I’m on my second Ring Pro. The first one refused to power up at all, in spite of correct installation and a steady 24VDC at the terminals. Ring support determined it was defective and told me to return it to the vendor…who didn’t have any replacement units and just gave me a refund.

After finding it on sale at another vendor I bought another one and installed it 11 days ago. This one came right up and connected to my router with no problems, and worked flawlessly (save for an odd delay of 3-4 seconds from button push until chime activation)…until today. When I attempted to use the Ring mobile app from work it informed me that the doorbell was unreachable. When I got home that situation remained. The unit was powered on, as indicated by the white light around the button, so I tried to go through the reconnect procedure. Pushing the button on the side to put the unit in connect mode did nothing. Do I tried a hard reset by pushing and holding the side button for at least 15 seconds…which also had no effect. So I turned off the controlling circuit breaker…and the light ring remained on. Then I disconnected one of the DC power wires…and the light ring still remained on for about 20 seconds or so. Apparently there’s a capacitor that needed to discharge.

So I reconnected the wire and turned the breaker on and…nothing. No signs of life at all, except that pressing the button still activates the chime, but still with that annoying 3-4 second delay. So now, after shelling out over $200 and going through the installation twice…and the hassle of uninstalling and returning the first unit…I now have the most expensize and slowest responding dumb doorbell on the block. Color me unimpressed by this particular product.

I was in the same boat as you with my first Ring Pro than I returned to Best Buy, but a few months later I bought another one from Ring’s store along with the Chime Pro. The Chime Pro is plugged in on the same wall as the Ring Pro (except inside and within a couple feet of the doorbell), and the Ring connects to it instead of my wifi network. It’s been rock solid ever since.

To say the Ring is finicky about a good wifi connect would be a big understatement.

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[quote=“johnconstantelo, post:337, topic:14908”]
To say the Ring is finicky about a good wifi connect would be a big understatement.[/quote]

I wish that was my problem…but as I said, it won’t even power on now (or at least won’t exhibit any signs of having done so). That said…I had a productive echange with Ring support on the issue and the diagnosis is an incompatible chime. The chime kit is a very basic, old fashioned mechanical unit, and I am at a loss to understand how it could possibly be causing a problem…especially given that it worked flawlessly for 11 days. But they’re sending me the bypass wiring kit with integral fuse, and if that solves the problem then I’ll be content.

Weird, so is mine, but I did mute it (in Ring’s app) since I have the Chime Pro now. For my first one, I did try the bypass (made it myself), but no luck. Hopefully getting an official one from them will help you. Keep us posted.

I suspect the in-line fuse they include is important.

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if only smartthings worked as well and as consistently as my ring pro

Does anyone got experience with Dbell HD live? and also with SmartThings integration, like Vera, Fibaro etc. I am looking for a new doorbell but not convinced with Ring pro and Skybell, so I saw Dbell. I am looking for some integrations with Zwave.

Zwave is a low energy protocol intended for tiny packets which aren’t sent very often. Works very well for light switches, but won’t support video. So you aren’t going to find a zwave video doorbell, they are almost all Wi-Fi.

That said, multi protocol platforms such as SmartThings may allow for some integration. Both Ring and Skybell have official integrations, for example.

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