Video Doorbell 2C (Battery)

OP, I have hade great success with Pro 2C homebase doorbell and cameras at home and a remote location. It is a aolid product.

Eufy ... hands down the best ... I have tested at least six manufacturers. With Eufy, I have expanded and now have doorbells and cameras at two locations, units in stock for other uses and in case I have to replace, and the phone app is the best...hands down. I use ProC2 homebase and cameras. You will need to have internet.

I have a Eufy battery doorbell. Stores on an SD card that's on the chime inside the house.

If you want *no fees + battery power*, you’re kinda limited, most battery doorbells don’t do true 24/7 recording without a subscription. **Eufy battery doorbells** are one of the closest matches: no monthly fees, local storage, and human detection. **Reolink** is also solid if you want local SD recording. Just know battery models usually do **event recording**, not nonstop 24/7. If you end up wanting real continuous footage, wired with local storage is almost always the way to go.

Honestly, at £128, the Nest Doorbell (Battery) is a really solid piece of kit, but the chime situation catches a lot of UK buyers out. ​Here is exactly how it works so you don't waste your money: ​The Chime Situation To answer your question directly: No, it does not come with a plug-in chime module in the box, and it does not have a loud chime built into the actual unit that you will hear through your walls. ​You essentially have three options to actually hear it ring: ​The Smart Speaker Route (Easiest): If you own a Google Nest Mini or a Nest Hub screen, you can set them to act as your chime. When someone presses the button, your smart speakers will announce "Someone is at the front door." If you don't own one, you can usually pick up a 2nd hand Nest Mini on eBay or CEX for about £15. ​Hardwiring to an old chime: If you currently have a traditional wired UK doorbell on your wall with a chime box in the hallway, you can actually wire the Nest Battery directly to those existing wires. It will trigger your old mechanical "ding-dong" chime box. (Just check your transformer voltage first). ​Third-Party Chimes: You can buy third-party plug-in wireless chimes on Amazon (like the Wasserstein one) that sync to the Nest, but they are expensive and buying a cheap Nest Mini speaker is almost always better value. ​Is it worth the £128? Yes, mostly because Google gives you 3 hours of free event video history without forcing you into a monthly subscription, and the package/person detection is brilliant. ​Should you look at other brands? If the lack of an included chime annoys you, definitely look at Eufy. Their battery video doorbells frequently come with a dedicated chime plug in the box, the video quality is excellent, and they store the video locally on a base station inside your house so there are zero monthly subscription fees. ​Avoid Ring unless you already have Amazon Echo speakers in your house to use as chimes, and be aware that Ring essentially forces you to pay a monthly subscription just to watch back your videos.

Ubiquiti for DIY, Eufy for plug and play

This is my second Aqara battery doorbell because I want something that supports HomeKit natively, since Eufy does not offer this for their doorbell. I previously had the G4 for a few days but returned it due to battery drain. I'm trying again with the Aqara doorbell and am looking for the right linger detection setting. I already own Aqara sensors, which have been reliable, so I expected the cameras to perform similarly, but it has proven to be a bit more complicated. In addition to HomeKit, I have it connected to Alexa and Google Home. In Google Home, the only option available is voice notification, which Eufy doesn’t have. The model number is CH-C09E/CH-C09D, and it cannot be viewed as a camera. I’ve seen another user report this issue, and I would like to receive notifications when the doorbell is pressed, but voice notification is currently the only option available. In Alexa, it appears correctly as a doorbell with all the proper options. In HomeKit, it shows up, but the timeline feature is not available. In the Aqara app, it is displayed correctly with all the doorbell options, but I dislike that they are pushing their AI and cloud subscription on me. My Homebridge Eufy plugin stopped working, which is why I chose this option, but I’m not 100% satisfied. The pros of the Aqara doorbell include native HomeKit support and the battery option. However, my cons include its large design, the screw position, non-rechargeable battery, lack of true motion detection, the layout of the Aqara app, absence of a timeline in HomeKit, and needing the chime. The Eufy battery doorbell was almost perfect, except for the lack of full Google Home and HomeKit support. I will give the Aqara doorbell a shot over the weekend to decide whether I will keep it.

Thanks for the feedback! I feel the same way and I'm thinking about returning it. I mainly got it for the Homekit video feature, which kinda works but isn’t as reliable as the Aqara app. Eufy gives a heads-up that if you use Homekit, you can’t also use Google or Alexa, but Aqara doesn’t mention that. Maybe that’s why Alexa videos are hit or miss, but I’m not sure since I’ve seen other reviews for Aqara. The video did load for me in Alexa, but it was pretty inconsistent, sometimes it took forever or just wouldn’t work at all. Like I said before, I might just switch back to my battery-powered Eufy doorbell and see if I can get Homebridge going. Really wanted a solid experience like their sensors, but it just didn't live up to my hopes.

I agree. Most users without issues using this camera are https://preview.redd.it/hy2itv7svwof1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b71914b3eee9b5f283a512dbd3369a6a9038487a Apple users, like myself, who may not even use the Aqara app and prefer the Apple Home app instead, which is much better designed. If I relied solely on that app, I wouldn’t have a problem either. In my home, I use multiple ecosystems, so I appreciate when my devices work with all three smart home platforms, something this device was advertised to do but didn't. As a result, I am returning it today and going back to my Eufy battery doorbell, which works properly. Yesterday, my Aqara doorbell went offline, but it didn’t provide a reason why. I only noticed the issue on my way to work. When I got home, I discovered that the chime was unplugged. The Aqara app should be smart enough to identify such issues. All the points you made about the app are valid, and I really want to like the device, but I doubt we’ll see significant improvements. They are more likely to release another doorbell rather than make the necessary software updates to enhance this one and deliver the experience we expect.

I only have single-sample experience and am not sure its "good". I have a eufy model. 1. Read on for latency details below - ring is immediate, recording might miss a few steps of approach, as with any 'motion triggers' vs always-on recording. They have a wired version that might work better but you have to be able to get it power. 2. Very good camera quality. The unit I have has a top/main and lower "package view" camera. 3. Local storage available thru (required) home base unit. Some onboard storage, slot for a 2.5 HDD (\*or\* SDD also works - that's what I installed). This might be a dealbreaker for you given original comment about 'sync module'. 4. Basic homebase video storage/access/management and app movement notifications all free, with entirely optional upsell to a premium service that does more. (I have not opted in.) The latency seems ok if you set the sensitivity high so it catches movement early enough to record the door approach; that might be architecture dependent. Downside is you might get more motion triggers from moving foliage, insect flying across the camera view, that sort of thing. If you have multiple cameras, you can set one to auto-trigger another to start recording as well. (IF driveway cam sees movement start recording on doorbell cam, sort of thing). I have not attempted that with the doorbell cam as the secondary myself, but I don't see why it would be specifically ruled out. It works on two we have looking 'back to back' so to speak....the one facing the initial detection approach might show a little latency (person is mid-to-exiting frame when recording starts) but then the second one triggered catches them full outward bound field of view. The doorbell button press rings indoors immediately on the homebase speaker (the eufy 'no wire' doorbell cam model requires their homebase hub as the wireless and recording interface) but the app notification sound/popup on your phone has to route from homebase to cloud to app, and is delayed JUST enough half the time people have already turned away before I can launch the app to respond, when I've tried. You can set an automatic (record yourself or pre-canned robotic) voice response to rings that would be more rapid and maybe fill in the gap ('wait a second - paging the human') The battery life on the camera we have is fair (at the heightened sensitivity settings, we go about 40-60 days between needing to charge). Camera has been in use about 2 years now so some battery life degradation has probably already occurred. These days, I think porch pirates aren't even deterred by cameras anymore, if your primary goal is theft prevention vs. just "having a video doorbell to respond to" for legitimate callers. They just hoodie up, hunker down, grab quicker.