ecobee - Smart Doorbell Camera (wired)

Ecobee shows up on my Appletv, and I can view live HomeKit, but no secure video storage. Might swap out for Eufy, my other eufy cams have been pretty solid

Have the ecobee doorbell cam with integrates the HVAC and Home Security. Having everything right in HomeKit is super convenient .

My Ecobee doorbell can work with my existing mechanical chime, I tested it when I hooked everything up and it worked fine. I ended up turning it off in the settings of the ecobee though because it rings my phone and both my up and downstairs thermostats which is plenty of alerting, and the mechanical one was very loud.

I’ve been researching and trying to decide on a HomeKit friendly smart doorbell for almost two years. I was close to buying the Logitech one as I heard that while it’s a bit basic, it works and is reliable. I decided to shell out a bit extra for the Ecobee one that was on sale on Amazon at the time, but before it arrived on my doorstep I realized that it requires a subscription service for the best features. I immediately returned it when it arrived. I researched the Aqara G4 and found that most people like it but also learned that the G410 had been announced and was expected to be much better and remedy many of the annoyances that G4 users had with the product. I became excited for this product. I waited months and months and finally the G410 became available. Unfortunately the upgrades were less than satisfactory. The doorbell still does not integrate with your existing chime and requires you to use their own chime box. The doorbell hardware itself is huge in comparison to most other smart doorbells. The video aspect received a bit of an improvement but the quality, especially in low light is still lacking. I decided to pass on buying the Aqara G410 after waiting so long for it. I won’t get Ecobee due to its paywall. I might settle for the Logitech doorbell, as simple as it may be, but honestly my excitement and appetite for a worthy smart doorbell has diminished. I guess I’ll keep waiting for the day the perfect one is released.

I picked an Ecobee and I’ve been pretty happy so far. Haven’t tested it with my ATV yet but HK pairing was quick and easy and it pops up like any other camera. In fact it has the fastest click-to-view response of all my cameras.

I know it doesnt have HKSV but i got it because of how it deals with detection range using radar. My front door faces a side walk about 25 feet away and the homekit camera I had pointing to my front step was constantly go off when people walk by. If Homekit activity zones actually worked (eufy) I might have considered one of the homekit doorbells with HKSV. So as it stands I have homekit notifications for movement/people detection disabled on my phone for this doorbell and just have it alerting me to button pushes via the apple tv and homepods and am using the ecobee app on my phone for seeing whose there. Biggest complaint is that it needs a subscription for the radar to work. I knew I would need to pay for video storage, but didnt realize they paywalled this feature. I wish apple would step up their camera features in homekit. Edit Looks like radar isn’t paywalled. That’s some good news.

Just passed through button presses and live video feeds. I have it set up to show on the Apple TV but manage the camera via ecobee app.

Can you move the slider without a subscription? I’m still on the trial so I’m not 100% on what’s included etc. the description made it sound like the radar was paywalled

Hmmm. Maybe I don’t need to sub then. Thanks for the info!

Have the ecobee door bell. Only in HK as a camera and only the Apple TV is set up to get the pop up of who is at the door….. and it’s great. The ecobee app has more features around how the videos are recorded such as a radar sensor to prevent detection of people on the sidewalk in front of my house. Only thing I’d like added is facial recognition in HK.

Also have EcoBee. Used to have e Logitech which just bricked itself. Spent hours with support and eventually just gave up and went with EcoBee. Happy with my choice.

The Ecobee thermostat, when paired with their front doorbell camera can trigger a regular doorbell chime, as well as generate a ring through the thermostat. Ecobee also supports their own security cameras too. They’re my most stable set of home security cams.

I went with Ecobee years ago and never regretted it. When we moved to a new home a couple years ago, I bought one of their indoor cameras too. It works well and seems to be more solidly built than Aqara's. I tried a couple of Aqara locks with built-in cameras, but the housing is made of plastic, and they just seem like they'd be really easy to smash. Ecobee's doorbell camera and indoor cameras, by comparison, are made of a metal body with tough plastic around the camera lens. The picture quality is good, and the camera can do a "virtual swivel" by changing the camera's focus without needing to physically move the entire camera. It's a really clever feature. You may pay a little more for Ecobee, but they're high quality products.

Just switched to EcoBee from Aqara. Loved the Aqara minus 2 things: Didn’t work when it was super cold cause the batteries kept freezing, even though it was hardwired. 2: lack of portrait view. Have to pay for video recording on ecobee which sucks but the camera is better already.

EcoBee has been the best solution for me. My G4 froze every winter and ate batteries. Wired an EcoBee up and it has been perfect. It has live view and rich notifications for HK but recordings go to the app and you have to pay for sub. The sub is $5/month which isn't terrible. Most importantly, it is portrait view. Also will livefeed to an associated Ecobee smart thermostat premium.

The doorbell cam is hard wired to the bell and transformer. But since it’s an ecobee, the ecobee thermostat can also get a signal to play a sound. So technically, the thermostat is not triggering the physical doorbell.

you don't need the thermostat to have the doorbell cam. It will ring the physical bell and provide live video in the ecobee app. If you want to have the doorbell notification and video in homekit, the thermostat acts as a hub. I have a second ecobee camera and both show up on my tv/home app.

I have one in the UP of Michigan and it’s never stopped due to the cold. Not a fan that a lot of the features are behind a paywall but I hardly notice the $5 monthly charge.

My experience of Ecobee’s doorbell camera: Connectivity to wifi was a constant problem (Bell); The video quality is a bit grainy but I can make out faces; The notification is delayed by at least 45 seconds, which has had people in my livingroom by the time I receive notice on my phone; The charge of $7.99/mo and I only use the photo storage/notifications & live view, but no alarm (I don’t trust the alarm), is too expensive (imo); Technicians at Ecobee’s, they try. I’m looking into better cameras.  Note: I’m in Ontario, Canada

I like my ecobee doorbell

Also no issues with our ecobee

Switched from Nest doorbell camera to Ecobee recently. While the camera itself has been fine. I don't like that it does not continuously record like my Nest did. If I had it to do over again, I would probably go a different route.

+1 for ecobee. The only issue I had was the chime adapter failed, probably due to a short in the wiring. Ecobee sent me a new one, free of charge because they don’t sell the adapters separately. If you’re watching tv on an Apple 4k TV box and the doorbell rings, the doorbell camera comes on instantly through the Apple TV.

I really love my ecobee doorbell cam! It has been dependable and have had zero issues over 2 years so far!

Canadian here. It does well in the cold if wired. I paid for subscription but have since cancelled since I’m not sure it’s worth it. I wish it had recording to iCloud + but right now it just shows a screenshot of the person who triggered the alert.

I have the ecobee door bell and it’s been great.

ecobee, and Netatmo, are indeed HomeKit doorbells that do not support HKSV. It’s been over a year since I switched from the Netatmo to the Logitech, but I *think* it did appear on my Apple TV. Apologies for not having a clearer memory. ETA: here is a video review of the Netatmo which shows Apple TV support: https://youtu.be/ZPA1FgW95rg So my takeaway is that any HomeKit compatible doorbell, even without HKSV, will work with the Apple TV.

I've had an ecobee doorbell for 1.5 years and the thermostat for 4. As a camera, my ecobee doorbell has been 95% solid, but compared with my previous Nest doorbell it detects less reliably and has needed two reboots in a year (not a big deal). I do love the previews that natively popup on my AppleTV. The Nest (wired) obviously wasn't native and Homebridge was often falling apart in terms of using a tolken to pass it through to Homekit. As a doorbell, ecobee is amazing, it uses my ecobee thermostat as the chime and it is 100% reliable

Tried it for a bit, returned it after 2 weeks. the reason being that the feed was super laggy in Ecobee’s own app compared to the feed in HomeKit. When I checked with customer support they said that this was normal as their storage was cloud based, whereas the apple home app was just checking in live on WiFi. It’s a real shame because it’s most definitely the best video quality I’ve seen in the segment under 2K resolution, legitimately great. Will prob grab some of their indoor cameras too tbh. If they’d patch in HSV it would be an instant purchase again. until those rumor’s of apple’s doorbell materialize, or unless they update/require the standard in anyone who wants to play with their software, I worry that we’re gonna be stuck with no great option homekit doorbells.

Simpleton here who only uses direct to HomeKit devices. Ecobee has been a smooth experience functioning as an integrated smart doorbell should IMO

I absolutely hated my ecobee doorbell. It would constantly drop connection, turn off, miss events, etc. I sold it and got an Aqara g410 and it’s been rock solid, so much happier with it.

Ecobee doorbell has worked great for me

I think ecobee will do this. We have 2 doorbells and 4 thermostats. When the doorbell rings, the thermos turn into video doorbell pep holes and you can see talk to the person. I think if you have the door locks you can u lock also, we have Schlage locks instead. And the doorbells and thermostats are HomeKit compatible also.

Don’t know if you got one or not, my has been absolute garbage. I have the correct transformer and had to install a wired access point within ten feet to keep it connected on WiFi. My biggest issue is that when someone rings your doorbell, if you try to look at the feed to see who is there, you have to wait for twenty seconds for it to connect as it routes the video feed from the device through their servers then to your phone. When it is recording the interaction, their side of the video handling is not up to the task, so you get a very shitty video feed ten seconds late. Hard pass on ecobee, their products have been enshitified since generac bought them.

I had the ecobee for about 8 months. It missed a lot of events. It would often start recording when the delivery person was already leaving. I switched the the Aqara g410 and get a lot more accurate recordings, it also supports continuous recording to an sd card so if hksv misses an alert or you need to see longer before/after you can do that with the sd card. Also I think you can fit the Aqara in your space, you just install the bracket on an angle not completely flat. That’s how have mine and it works perfectly fine and is very secure.

I just removed my ecobee. Had it for a year. I’m here in Canada so it handled cold fine. However, it would constantly miss events. If someone delivers a package it would pick them up once they were at the end of my entrance and only show the back. It was borderline useless for that. It worked well as the doorbell, to answer etc. the speaker/mic were good. The concept of seeing who was at the door in my ecobee thermostat was cool. But the event detection was really bad. I also paid the monthly subscription through them and wasnt any better through their app either. I’ve switched to the Aqara G410, had it for about a month and it’s great. Picks up everything right as you’d expect, and even supports continuous recording onto an sd card as well as HomeKit secure video. My only complaints with the Aqara: - doesn’t connect to the built in home chime. Have to only use the provided chime box - the aspect ratio is 4:3, so for my situation it can’t see the package placed in front of the door. The extra bee was 3:4 so it would show more vertically. Otherwise it’s been perfect.

Yes, the chime is a nice feature of having both the doorbell and thermostat. When we moved into our 100-year-old house, it still had doorbell wiring but the chime box (and wiring) were gone. So the Ecobee thermostat paired with the doorbell worked out great. Also love the Apple TV integration.

We’ve also never had an issue with our Ecobee doorbell or thermostat.