Reolink - Battery Video Doorbell

Don’t get the battery one. I bought it and returned it. It doesn’t have ONVIF, RTSP, or any of the things that would make integrate with HA or Scrypted, and the battery constantly goes dead even though I had it connected to my transformer. Just sucked all around for this purpose. I replaced it with the hardwired wi-fi version and it’s 100x better. I use it mostly with Scrypted and Homekit, but it is added to my HA instance as well. The difference in image quality is negligible to my eyes although the battery version did have a wider FOV.

Thanks for asking this question as I’m looking into options. I think you’re actually asking about the battery doorbell or the wired variants (as they all have AI). As others have said the battery doorbell doesn’t have 24/7 recording, and has a wider 1:1 view. (P.s. I don’t fully understand the 24/7 recording so if someone wants to explain to me that would be great. Do we literally mean 24/7 recording, or does this enable the whole “the doorbell caught some movement so this video recording will also show 10 seconds before the event rather that showing after the event happened”?)

Great thank you! Thought as much… unfortunately we’re struggling with a few aspects that are making the battery doorbell more attractive: 1) very difficult to run wiring for PoE, I am going to try to look into a power cable at least 2) the doorbell is in a porch, and faces the sun so HDR is required and 3) a head to toe view is required. I think it looks like the battery doorbell is the best option…

Thanks for the information! Just need to look into if I can get a wire out now… I bought the battery one but the battery life is pretty poor (we’re talking days, forget months).

The battery doorbell cannot do 24/7 recording. The wired doorbells can. Both have the same AI detectors as far as I know. (But the wired black doorbell (landscape view) don't do packages detection the the white wired ones (portrait view) due to the different camera views. If you want 24/7 recording get the wired doorbells (wifi or poe), and if you want package detection get the wired white doorbell. If you don't care about 24/7 recording the battery should be fine

I enjoy my Reolink doorbell

Were you able to integrate this into google home system to use their speakers as a chime ? I've been back and forward with Reolink support currently with this wifi battery doorbell as there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off sound notifications being sent through to the nest speakers within the house  for motion/people/packages etc unless you disable all push notifications for those items full stop which defeats the purpose of a doorbell giving you notifications when someone approaches.  The google doorbell works well by ringing when pressed and simply sending silent notifications to my phone if the postman walks to the front and just drops off a package without ringing the doorbell. This reolink doorbell however is currently just sending constant sound notifications for every motion.  I've even tried making all notifications " silent " which still doesn't help the situation. 

If I uncheck everything except visitor then when someone approaches the doorbell but doesn't press the button, the camera won't send me a push alert. Google does it well where it sends me the notification, but doesn't play a chime in the house. The only time it plays a chime is when someone actually pushed the doorbell. Reolink however is chiming on all alerts through the google hub. The only way as you mentioned is to turn off everything bar visitor in push schedule, but I want to get alerts when someone comes to the front door but doesn't press the doorbell.

Skip the ring, grab a [Reolink doorbell camera](https://amzn.to/42pUJsa) Has everything you need and zero subscriptions.   Wired (poe) is always best, but they have wifi versions as well.   Been using them for 10 years and extremely happy with Reolink.  Their other cameras blow ring out of the water, and they don't allow anyone you don't want to access your cameras, unlike ring with it's backdoor access.  

I just installed this camera. Learning a lot about the battery on here but have so many questions.  When I installed it was at 29% and maintained on a an 18v transformer, then the cold hit at -5°f and battery depleted quickly and I got a low battery alert.  I then popped the camera out, leaving the bell connected, used my Apple 35w USB charger, the bell gained zero charge in an hour.  I then disconnected the bell, brought inside, same charger and in about 10 hours it only made it to 55%.  Questions on the battery: Does disabling the mechanical chime allow the unit to pull more juice to stay fully charged? Can I leave the camera doorbell wiring on, and charge via USB-C at the same time? (Going to design a custom mount to better fit my situation, owning if I could hid a charge USB-C port in the bottom? What’s the absolute fastest way to charge this via USB-C?  Turn off, leave on, wattage, any other tips?

I created a new post to better understand the battery.  I moved the camera to my BaseUS USB-C charger and I appear to be now gaining over 10% an hour. 

Reolink Doorbell Battery. Records to an SD card, battery lasts up to 5 months between charges, and you can wire it up later if you choose to

I'm having an issue with this thing charging. It randomly charges the battery and it doesn't do it often enough so the battery just dies. I even lowered all my setting to the lowest to reduce battery life and it's still not charging the thing fast enough. I even upgraded my doorbell transformer from 10v to 24v and it helped a little but still not enough. My next step is to redo the wiring to some better ones. If that doesn't work I'm throwing the doorbell away.

I have the same “slow to load”, “audio” and slow to notify issues. With the Reolink Chime the notification is close to instant, but it takes 8 seconds before it notifies my iPhone. Then it still takes multiple seconds to open the stream and start a 2 way conversation, which is barely audible. This really renders those functions useless, if the person is even still at the door by the time I start a conversation we can’t talk because I can’t hear the other end. That really just makes for an expensive doorbell. I really wanted to like this product because I have no wiring but I’ll probably end up pulling ethernet towards my front door and go POE.

I am having similar charging issues. It gained like 1 or 2% overnight, on the bell wiring. Does the USB connection charge it more quickly on yours? It is slow as f\* on mine. It's been on a charger for like an hour and hasn't even gained 1% yet.

I stuck it on a 100W fast charger, which got it up to 20% in like an hour, but now seems to be stuck. If it doesn't move to 100% over night, it's going back.

Just checking back in. I finally found a charger that was able to get the doorbell up to 100%. Now to try it out by the door again....

So, even after charging to 100%, my battery still doesn't last more than a day. I don't think the trickle charging from the bell transformer actually works. I even put a new one in that is the max supported voltage/amperage, and it still just drains away through the day. I've got PIR turned off now to see if that helps.

I'm still working through it it managed to charge off the bell circuit, but only after I disabled the PIR sensor. That let it last a few days, but it eventually dropped down past 10%. Since I only started at 24%, I've got it hooked up over USB now. I'll post back after I know more.

I am getting slammed by the cold weather as well. I just pulled my doorbell inside this morning, as it was not charging outside. Answers: You can disable the mechanical chime and charge, but it doesn't seem to gain you anything. It just won't chime the bell. I'm not sure about charging while on the chime wire. I was attempting that yesterday, but it was so cold that I can't say for certain that it was the chime wire preventing it from charging.On it You CANNOT charge the bell over USB-C chargers. You MUST have it hooked up to a USB-A charger that supplies no more than 2V to get it to charge.

I installed two battery doorbells at my house. Installation was very easy, and I am very happy with the video, as well as being able to use my traditional doorbell chime. What I am not happy about is learning that you need their home hub for recording. All of my other reolink cameras we're fairly easy to hook up to QVR Pro for recording on my NAS. I think it's a real Mistake by Reolink, which seems to be very popular in the DIY community, to make a product that requires proprietary equipment to work fully. While I am disappointed, in my case I also installed a dome camera at the front door, and a Duo 3 at our garage door to get wider coverage, so I will be able to record from those. But for anyone who is hoping to use this product with a nas, be aware you are out of luck.

OK, but I guess that means my hopes of a firmware upgrade to fix the issue are not realistic. I may break down and just buy some SD cards. Just wanted it all centralized with my NAS, which is working out great for the wired cameras. I have had no trouble getting that up and running, but it does mean I have to switch back and forth between the reolink app and the qvr app if they are not consolidated. But thanks for your reply, now I understand the issue and at least I won't be holding my breath for a fix

I've got a bunch of reolink cameras, almost all running on POE to a ubiquiti setup then to a larger ups. I have their wifi doorbell battery camera too because I have one door (commercial glass) and nowhere to run wires (leased space). It's been great tbh. Specially compared to the nest battery door bell I had before. Battery lasts much longer and i can actually answer the device before ppl leave unlike the nest.

The poe and plug-in wifi models come with a chime whilst the battery model does not. Part of the reason for that is the battery model is likely to be used with an existing chime mechanism, however you can purchase a chime if required.

It depends which powered wifi model you purchased. The black model is 4x3 aspect ratio and the white is 3x4. The white supports package detection but not the black. Both support people or vehicle detection when running the latest firmware level (i.e. the one recently withdrawn due to "problems") plus of course "visitor" which is someone pressing the button. The battery model has a 1x1 aspect ratio but does not support timed recording. However it does work with your existing chime if you have one. As you can see there are many variables in deciding which is better for your circumstances. The battery model is 160x48mm (height/width) whilst the wifi/poe are 133x48 and I believe all are 29 depth. The battery looks slimmer but is just that bit taller

*so with my basic understanding my existing mechanical chime is not going to work with the newer transformer and needs replacing anyway even with the battery version.* Not exactly - with the powered model your existing chime is bypassed whatever you do. With the battery model you would be ok as your current transformer is 10V which is in the 8-24V range allowed for. *I have a Synology NAS for RTSP recording, so continuous recording is important to me. I don't have other cameras installed.* Then battery model does not meet your requirements. And yes, probably best to stick with the powered white model.

Right now I have a reolink battery doorbell thing drains faster than hell and only lasts 6 days. Returning sucks since it's good at detecting

This one arrived for me about 3 days ago and I will return it. 1. Just now I realized it does not support RTSP, ONVIF... 2. Will not continuously record video, not even plugged in. 3. By the time the camera detects a person or a movement until it fires up and start to record you lost a few movements from that person already, since I live in a apartment complex, that means however pass by my door triggers the camera but it will not record the person because He/She is gone already. Potentially someone can steal an amazon package and don't be recorded at all. 4. Its receives very little power when connected to AC that when you are live streaming the video it will drain power from the battery so you can not connect to HA and make it live stream 24/7 (my goal) because you will run out of battery. Good Things 1. the 1:1 aspect ration is amazing and with a 165º field of view Horizontally and vertically you can see a lot. if you 3D print a base angled down a little bit you can see any amazon package at your door step. 2. The image quality is amazing. 3. Sound quality is also amazing.

May I add that it takes between 7 to 11 seconds to log on and that we still do not have the calling feature. It's a push message notification.  In order to prolong the battery life, I have only activated the visitor detection. I have another 2 cameras on the front.

I have them both and I recommend you to go for the white wired WIFI model. The battery doorbell needs a recharge every month (average 8min usage daily)  and being a battery cam it takes time to get to the live view. I would say a delay of 7 to 12s by that time the visitor might have left. Sometimes I have to click twice to log on the camera despite it is 3m away from the WIFI extender. It seems to be a protocol issue. Camera doesn't recognise the preamble message immediately.  Note that this cam can be connected to existing chime. In this setup, the doorbell is charged from the transformer feeding the solenoid of old chime.  But again it depends on your taste and requirements. So ensure what you require and read carefully the specs of each.

I'm a fan of Reolink. Their battery powered one has head to toe viewing plus package detection built in. I also like that it supports RTSP/Onvif so you are not isolated to their app and can integrate into home assistant in the future if you wanted. https://m.reolink.com/us/product/reolink-doorbell-battery/ edit: the linked battery powered one does not support RTSP/ONVIF unless you go with the HomeHub model. If you don't need battery powered the standard WiFi or POE support RTSP/ONVIF without issue. https://reolink.com/us/product/reolink-video-doorell-battery-hub-kit/

\+1 for the Reolink PoE doorbell, I love mine. The Reolink battery one also stores to local MicroSD.

Watch Youtube LifeHackster reviews of Reolinnk cams including their doorbell cam models, POE, wired wifi and battery. The wired versions cannot use existing chimes, they use a plug in one that comes with the cam. Also Reolink does not have pics with notifications, just text, but you can buy an app the adds that if you want called Pushover for $5. You can recod to card in the camera, no subscription. For advanced recordings you could buy the Home Hub or an NVR.

My doorbell cam does not have very many false alerts. In top post "welcome to the official..." there's a section how to reduce false alerts, helps a lot to turn off "others" in recording and notification schedules.

Thanks mblaser, good in-depth review. I like my Reolink battery doorbell cam for being able to use my existing chime and seeing packages. It's typical battery PIR detection, works better with objects across field of view than straight toward it. Mine can detect cars driving across the field of view about 70 feet away. But people walking straight to cam it usually won't detect until about 8 feet away. Person detection is set at 100. See pic. Maybe my narrow entryway and the sun has some affect on this. The battery model is longer than the wired ones. I used the 15 degrees wedge. I wanted more tilt so bought a 30 degrees printed wedge on eBay without realizing it's too short, made for the wired models. Printed wedges may not be available for the battery version yet. At night I get IR reflection on the siding with doorbell IR. I have a 833A above door so just use it's IR, https://preview.redd.it/6sk8t9y1fspd1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9efd08ec0cdd76285ba4b903920a3ef612aa972f

Specifically the Reolink Battery Doorbell, if you want a doorbell. It has no subscriptions, has all the alerts you could want, local storage so it can record even without Wifi, and it's not crazy expensive. If you already have a wired doorbell, even better - you can wire it directly into that and use that for the chime. If you would prefer a more capable and versatile camera, the Argus Pro 4 is ideal. Super wide range of vision, comes with a solar panel so no need to ever charge it, and has all of the features of the doorbell except package detection and chime compatibility. It's not exactly cheap though.

If you can possibly manage the wiring, Reolink PoE is easily the best value performance/dollar and among the better choices overall. Pick the black model if you want landscape picture, or the white model if you want portrait picture and package detection. If PoE is out of the question due to wiring, the Reolink battery WiFi version (portrait only from memory) has the same performance but is more expensive. Pair with a Reolink Hub for the easiest out of the box solution, but can be used standalone with just an SD card. Either option is fully local out of the box, and the Reolink integration is probably the most complete and comprehensive camera integration available in Home Assistant, and it has heaps of options for customisation with automations.

>I was set on the G4 Pro but seems like Reolink is heavily preferred here. Not only is the Reolink doorbell less than 1/3rd of the price of the G4 Pro, but in side-by-side comparison the Reolink also has better picture quality in every scenario. The only sensible reason for choosing the Unifi doorbell is if you already have a bunch of Unifi cameras.

Oh okay. I tried the Reolink battery doorbell, but wasn't happy with it. My issue with it was, that I use Alexa in my home and chimes and video intercoms. The Reolink would take forever to load, where the Tapo works much quicker. I do however use the Reolink security cameras around my home with the NVR, and for that, they're perfect for me. If you want to go with the Reolink, look into the [Home Hub](https://www.amazon.com/REOLINK-Home-Hub-Expandable-Encryption/dp/B0CZRS318K) for recordings, it's much cheaper than the NVR

Yes, I'm pretty happy with the Tapo. The Reolink for some reason, took over a minute to notify my phone that a person was detected. But on r/reolinkcam most people seem to be happy with theirs though.

Yeah, a few of us have been testing these for a few months. It's supposed to come out officially around the end of this month. The things I like about it... * It supports existing mechanical chimes * The large vertical FOV is nice, it allows me to see most of the foot of my door for packages (it has package detection also). I would still prefer a 2nd downward pointing lens though. * It has HDR (the original doorbells don't), which helps a lot because doorbells often have a lot of the sky in view. Of course being a battery camera it can't record 24/7, even if connected to the doorbell wiring. That's not a big deal for me though, as I have 2 other cameras watching the front of my house 24/7. I wish it were higher than 4MP. It kind of sucks that it's lower resolution than the original doorbell *and* has a larger combined FOV, so therefore the pixel density is even less. However, I didn't keep the original doorbell, yet I am keeping this one. That should tell you how I feel about it overall.

As you saw [yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1fjr248/battery_doorbell_preorder_starts_now/), Reolink opened up preorders for their new battery doorbell camera. [https://reolink.com/product/reolink-doorbell-battery](https://reolink.com/product/reolink-doorbell-battery) I was one of the lucky ones that received one as part of Reolink’s 15th anniversary celebration earlier this summer, so I’ve had a few months with it. Let's get right to the pros and cons: # PROS **-MECHANICAL CHIME SUPPORT:** This is huge. One of the biggest complaints we saw here about the original doorbell was it not being able to work with existing mechanical chimes. Well, since this one has a battery in it, it can now work with existing chimes. [Here](https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/30032490437017-How-to-Connect-Reolink-Battery-Doorbell-to-Existing-Wired-Chime-System/) is their support article about that if you want to read more. **-VERTICAL FIELD OF VIEW (1:1 ASPECT RATIO):** This one is huge for me personally. *My* biggest complaint about the original doorbell was that it couldn’t see the foot of the door (for packages). 50% of the reason I wanted a doorbell was for that reason. This one mostly addresses that. [Old on left, New battery doorbell on right](https://preview.redd.it/zs0zzreyfrpd1.jpg?width=1915&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ff5c73ae14c05d9bd27d670c3d24eb04faf43b6) Both wider and taller. It now allows me to see most of the steps in front of my door so I can better see if there's a package. I would have liked the larger field of view to be even taller, but it's at least much better than the original doorbell. I’m still holding out hope that the V2 of the powered doorbell will be dual-lens, with the 2nd one pointing downwards, like some other brands already have. **-HDR:** The original doorbell sure could have benefitted from HDR since a doorbell usually has quite a bit of sky in its field of view. Well, this new version has that. You can see the difference here: [Left: Off - Right: On](https://preview.redd.it/2dyydk5wcrpd1.jpg?width=1903&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e92a9fea011407f96ed9614f133a90569f1655c) With HDR on the dark parts (shadows, steps, and bushes) are brighter and the bright parts (clouds) aren't overexposed. **-PACKAGE DETECTION:** This is pretty self-explanatory. It’s worked very well so far. You can see that there’s now a package filter option in playback. https://preview.redd.it/x1r6qqhedrpd1.jpg?width=432&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=070e8935193a21548d9db66082233e9e36d54f02 # CONS **-RESOLUTION:** I really think they should have at least made this the same resolution as the current doorbell, if not higher. Since this has a much higher total field of view the pixels are stretched even further. So I think to get an equivalent clarity to the original doorbell this probably would have needed to be at least 6MP. **-SLOW CHARGING:** When you have this connected to your doorbell wiring it uses the trickle charge method, so its charging is quite slow. About 1% every 1-2 hours. And then when it gets to 90%, the last 10% takes about 1% per day in my experience. I’m no expert on electrical matters, but I’m guessing they had to compromise on this to get it to work with mechanical chimes. **-NO CONTINUOUS RECORDING:** It would have been nice to have continuous recording capabilities when its powered by doorbell wiring, but I’m assuming the trickle charging I just mentioned wouldn’t be enough to keep it charged while continuous recording. This isn’t a big deal for me since I have two POE cams watching the front of my house that are recording 24/7, but it will probably matter to some of you. **-SLOW TO LOAD:** Battery cameras of course take a few seconds to open since they have to wake from sleep. Usually 3-6 seconds in my experience. However, this one seems to take about 8-10 seconds. For a doorbell that’s kind of a big deal. However, I have hope that this isn’t a hardware issue and can be fixed with firmware. The reason I believe that is because when the camera detects motion, it doesn’t take 8-10s to wake up and start recording and send a notification. It does that rather quickly. So we know the hardware is capable of waking up much faster than 8-10s. So hopefully it’s just a software issue. **-AUDIO:** This isn’t a big one for me, because I never use 2-way talk with mine, but the mic on mine is very very low. Like a person has to have their face 6 inches from the doorbell for me to be able to hear them at all. I’m curious if anyone else that has one has experienced this. *UPDATE Oct 8th, 2024: After working with support they replaced my doorbell and the audio is perfectly normal on my new one. So either mine was just bad, or the initial batch of doorbells they sent with the 15th anniversary bundle in June had bac mics. Either way, if you buy one now the audio should be fine.* **-CALL BUTTON PRESS NOTIFICATION:** Speaking of 2-way audio, I know a lot of people are wondering about the status of getting a “call” screen when the doorbell button is pressed. Nothing has changed, it’s still the way it is with the current doorbell. This isn’t an issue for me, but I figured I’d mention it since I know some will ask. # CONCLUSION So I know my list of cons is longer than the pros, but for my personal use case the pros are major and the cons are minor. So I’m keeping this over the original powered doorbell. At least until a V2 of that one comes out and hopefully it’s dual lens. Now let’s see some pics and videos... # SETUP/INSTALLATION [The 15th anniversary box it came in and the contents of the doorbell package.](https://preview.redd.it/vx40mpz5orpd1.jpg?width=1804&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b9dbba49e74ec7f9730b6cbe24b95bd921e4457) [The back of the doorbell](https://preview.redd.it/hnhy2q1corpd1.jpg?width=820&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=404f6e8d785c6f77e46c769d7d1a48c3c0a42e84) [The bracket and doorbell mounted. Ignore my old broken down siding, trim, and caulk, that’s all going away next month lol. I left the top screw out a few mm to get the doorbell to tilt down a little bit to try to get more of my front step. I did fill that gap with some foam backer rod and then caulked over it, so no need to get on me about water intrusion.](https://preview.redd.it/fypgxqa9orpd1.jpg?width=1588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f60bc8e7c4dbb3197d948be98775135cabe18255) [The process when setting up an existing mechanical chime.](https://preview.redd.it/fjezcsa9orpd1.png?width=1449&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c63465b312547681e6c932e3fdbd6b1a8fc4a01) # VIDEO SAMPLES [Time lapse just for the fun of it - https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=70okMu6pVlU](https://reddit.com/link/1fkljco/video/4xdg3pbporpd1/player) [Mailman delivering my Altas PT Ultra - https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZxtB2mWdOdU](https://reddit.com/link/1fkljco/video/icmylfhaqrpd1/player) [Standard daytime example - https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WObZ65gQq20](https://reddit.com/link/1fkljco/video/oj0oqnicqrpd1/player) [Night example - https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bLGnmbKk4gs](https://reddit.com/link/1fkljco/video/us07d8xcqrpd1/player) So that's about it. If you have any questions feel free to ask. *Disclaimer: I was sent this camera free of charge by Reolink for testing and review purposes. I have not let that affect my opinions stated in the above review.*

It mostly comes down to whether you want continuous recording or not. That and the slightly lower resolution are the only negatives to the battery version. I prefer the battery version because it can work with my existing chime, the larger vertical field of view (although I still wish it were larger), and it has HDR. Not having continuous recording isn't a big deal for me because I already have two POE cams watching the front of the house that are recording continuously.

>A few other drawbacks inherent to battery powered doorbells.... Yep, for sure. And I cover all of that in my [review](https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1fkljco/battery_doorbell_review/) of the battery model. >Vertical field of view should be the same on the white wired WiFi model as on the battery powered model since it has a 3:4 portrait orientation. It's not. The battery doorbell is 1:1. It's 150x150 vs 100x135 of the white powered model.

I’m having issues where everyday it goes down 1% of battery. It’s hard wired into the transformer and chime. My home is a new construction home too. It doesn’t even get that many motion triggered weekly or daily to drain battery. I get a motion event maybe twice a week at most. So I don’t know what the issue is. I really love the video quality compared to their old WiFi version, and would prefer to keep it and not go back to the older model. But I can see it can be annoying if I have to remove it once every other month to charge it and re-install it.

I reached out to support and they also mentioned something about the PIR sensor as well. I think it is at default, which is 100, maxed out. I’m not sure. I’ll try what you recommended and disable the PIR sensor for a full day and not go into the app to see if it goes back to 90-100%. What would you recommend for the level of the PIR sensitivity? I was thinking as a Plan B to get those plug in 24V wall adapter and run it through to the doorbell or a long USB-C cable. I really love the doorbell and wouldn’t want to get something else so I’ve been searching for alternative solutions so I can keep using their doorbell.

I'll run some tests and give that a try, it's just crazy with this doorbell and the trickle charging. their other battery and solar panel cameras don't have this issue with PIR being maxed out, but the trickle charging is killing this product.

at first, I thought it was the transformer and chime, so I bought a new one, 24v 40 vac, same with chime. that didn't fix it, so I thought it was the wiring since I wired it straight from the existing wires instead of using their included wires, so I changed it and used theirs, and that didn't fix it. so now I guess it's just PIR and trickle charging combo that I need to figure out. that, or plan b and run a USB c cable in there or some wall plug adapter.

But I would hold on the Reolink Battery. I have it and it has some issues that I can’t recommend yet. Mainly the motion sensor sensitivity vs battery consumption.

I have this, but I’m unable to get this working with my existing mechanical chime here in the Uk. Has any one been able to get this working with an existing mechanical chime with the recommended DC voltage?

I have recently made the switch from Eufy to Reolink and found that the integration with Home Assistant is far easier and stable for my simple needs. You do appear to need the hub. I have the Reolink battery doorbell (with hub) which is working great and now thinking about some solar cameras and if I can get some cabling sorted even POE. I would love to have a POE doorbell but making those kinds of changes to property not possible.

A few other drawbacks inherent to battery powered doorbells are slower load/buffering times when accessing the video feed since the device has to wake from sleep and you may occasionally miss the beginning of motion events (again the device has to wake from sleep to conserve battery). Vertical field of view should be the same on the white wired WiFi model as on the battery powered model since it has a 3:4 portrait orientation. You’re correct, the view is not as wide vertically on the black wired WiFi model.

I am testing with a beta hardware version now and integrating it with HomeAssistant through their new Home Hub. I like the Battery doorbell, I think it will be a very cool product. It has a nice sturdy feel and some pretty cool new features. Unfortunately I don't know what I am allowed to say about it, so I will not go into the details.

The battery ones are working just with the reolink hub

If just tried, while setting up the camera and found out it's not possible to hook up with HA directly from the doorbell. Might just keep it with the Google Chime for now. See: [https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000621783-How-to-Set-up-Reolink-Ports-Settings/](https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000621783-How-to-Set-up-Reolink-Ports-Settings/) Should have done more research instead of the blunt assumption.

The battery one doesn't come with a chime though, since it can use the existing chime wiring. That's how I installed it.

I added the doorbell to Google Home so I could use my Hubs as a chime, but there's a lag of several minutes. I blame Google for this. My Nest Doorbell experienced delays as well, which is why I switched to Reolink among other things. The Reolink Doorbell is much quicker with notifications with about 3 sec delay. Very good for a battery doorbell I gather.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYGVPLLT?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_fed\_asin\_title](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYGVPLLT?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title) Reolink 2k with ratio of 1:1 for full view.. normally $145 for the battery one, but they are selling for $22 off right now. I have 5 of their security cameras all over my house and they work great.

I just bought mine yesterday and has a 1:1 ratio.. they have a few options out there. This is their 2k version that goes for $145 but they are doing $22 off right now. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYGVPLLT?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_fed\_asin\_title](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYGVPLLT?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title)

I just got one yesterday but I have to stick to the battery as I have no way of getting power to a doorbell. Wonder how long its going to last, took an age to charge it yesterday and it's at 96% now.

So just to confirm, I can buy the 2k wifi version, this can be wired in with my existing wiring that I’m using for the nest hello and then use the SD card for storage?

Perfect thanks We’re getting there So, I’m going to pull the trigger just now on the reolink 2k wifi doorbell. I’ll sort out a 256gb card for it Cameras wise, I could see from my post the other day that there was some negativity towards using a bundled kit. I’ve been hovering around a Costco bundle which is currently a hundred quid off and uses the P334 cameras which (according to Costco) are legit cameras AND have the SD card slots! SO Would I still be able to run the config you’ve suggested with the PoE switch? Is there any limitations cos I’m using Costco reolink bundle? Still not entirely sure if I can rotate the image 90 degrees if I mount those cams on a vertical wall to look down the side of the house. Some say you can, others claim you can’t. Some even say it’s not required, as the whole camera lens itself can turn to point the right way. Never thought this would be so tasking but have to get it right I guess.

FWIW I just made the move from a Gen 1 Nest Hello to the 2K wifi Reolink yesterday. Everything works as it should. I have it linked to my Google Home for notifications via my minis and my hub. I also have it hooked up to Blue Iris recording 24/7 locally in addition to whatever the SD is recording. My 24 hour review of the WiFi doorbell is that it is excellent and presents tremendous value. The internal battery on my Nest was failing after 5 years and the cost of the Reolink was about the same as a 1 year subscription to Nest but I get way more functionality from the Reolink.

Yes. Make sure the one you get comes with the wireless chime, although I think they all do at this point. I didn't have to remove my Nest chime wiring either. I just installed the Reolink and plugged the wireless chime into the wall and it worked.

The clips are indeed 5 mins long, so a bit different than the Nest setup. However you do still get 24/7 recording albeit in the 5 min chunks. You can sort by notification (person, car, button press) to help narrow down which specific clip you are looking for. I don't find the 5 min clips to be a deal breaker at all. I have the doorbell recording 24/7 to my non Reolink NVR so I can go through that if I feel the need to. As long as the notifications work reliably and the video works then I'm more than happy. I've got 3 other cameras near the front door, all with much better resolution than the doorbell.

Reolink unless you already have a unifi protect console. I swapped from amcrest to unifi, it wasn't really needed but I wanted the finger print reader.

Reolink was already recommended but I’m here to second it. You can do local storage on your own wifi or store video in an sd card in the camera. Got it because I didn’t want a subscription and wanted exclusive access to the video, not stored on someone else’s servers

All Google Assistant doorbells do this. Open Google Home app, go to live view for the doorbell, ‘…’ icon top right, Settings, then turn on Voice Announcements. It explains exactly what what this option does on that page, which is produce visitor announcements on GA speakers which of course includes the Google Home Mini. Not really sure what the point of “proving” this is but here are some screenshots of this setting for the Reolink doorbell. It works exactly as OP wants, ie chime on a Google Home Mini when the doorbell button is pressed. https://preview.redd.it/ljjk8i5ddp8e1.jpeg?width=2358&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7adfd732599ad20e40fb70566a177af3b821aac0 I also have Arlo and Aosu doorbells on other properties which work in exactly the same way, also chiming to one or more Google Home Minis. This has worked for many years.

Home Assistant + Frigate & my Reolink Doorbell do this perfectly.

Home Assistant is a smart home platform which handles the UI of all that stuff. Frigate is the NVR software that the camera connects to. I get doorbell press events, 2 way audio etc. All while the Reolink doorbell only has LAN access and is connected via HTTP FLV and RTSP/ONVIF.

Feels like I'm the lone warrior here recommending Tapo 😅 I have the D235, and it's great. It does cover head to toe, but you need to be strategic with placing it to ensure it covers the toe area you need. I like the ring-to-call feature — instead of just a notification, I get an actual phone call. A doorbell press is important, so I think a call demands immediate attention, unlike a pop-up that you might miss. The lag is mimimal - it was the fastest among the ones i compared (Eufy e340 and Reolink). I did a similar test like you've done - i bought all three and returned the Eufy and Reolink. Reolink seems to have a lot of fans but it performed so poorly compared to the Tapo. It was significantly laggy and the app was bad. Tapo's app is so much more refined and polished. A few reasons I didn't go with Eufy are 1. No 24x7 recording (You'll need it sometimes if you don’t have a dedicated camera in the front) 2. No RTSP support and 3. Eufy has a history of lying about it's encryption. You can read about it online

I have no problem with the reolink app. It works and is pretty straightforward. It usesy Synology as an NVR which is great. I haven't done much with it inside HA so far.

I have the reolink doorbell and cameras. With home assistant I am able to trigger my home speakers with a chime, and don't need the included one

so far they are really good for no subscription, but be aware, compared to some other options, their person detection is a little lack luster.

the reolink camera is poe and wifi. the black one is 16x12 while the white one is tall at 12x16 (i might be wrong and there may be a wifi only option)

I'm just using a third party NVR with my Reolink doorbell and it's working fine. I installed it the other day, I haven't yet found out how to make the notification of the doorbell more prominent on my Android phone.

Worth contacting reolink maybe as you might have a detective unit, I've never noticed our chime fail in the year we've had ours. It's pressed most days.

Reolink has been great. Never tried Ubiquiti. Would love to know what makes Ubiquiti worth the cost difference. I can still return my Reolink.

I'm strongly leaning at getting one of these. I just bought a Reolink two weeks ago and the thing absolutely just will not pair to the plug-in chime. Anyone know how they compare aside from a basic install flaw?

The chime pairing thing was my own dumb fault. I didn’t initialize it through the UI. After that it has been working flawlessly. It’s responsive, great quality, great audio. Haven’t played with motion detection settings yet but overall I’m very satisfied. Also got it and all my other Reolink cams working with Protect through my UDMP using unifi-cam-proxy. Using the UDMP as my NVR now so I was able to eliminate my Reolink nvr from my server closet

I went with the Reolink. I added an SD card and it’s hardwired. I love it. Quick to alert. Super clear. Loads quickly.

So far I really like the reolink we just got. Before this we had the amcrest doorbell because we have their NVR and other cameras. It was never a smooth functioning doorbell and completely gave out after a little over a year. Reolink has been very easy to use and responsive. I just haven't figured out the wiring stuff for the chime but quite frankly I prefer just having it alert my phone anyway.

Reolink cameras do not need a subscription. The function beautifully without it and in fact if you add their NVR or home hub it even makes less sense to get a subscription. The cameras can also record directly to FTP for example if you have an Nas setup pretty much anywhere in the world. Very versatile cameras with great performance. I've had the doorbell for about a year and a half now and it's been excellent. The beautiful thing about it as well is it has Wi-Fi and Poe options built into the same device. Presently using it with Wi-Fi but this summer I'm going to use its Poe capabilities.

Reolink is fantastic

Home Assistant is the way to go. I setup my Reolink doorbell feed to have a door lock toggle via the lock icon on the bottom left corner. It will lock/unlock my deadbolt (Kwikset) by just tapping the icon. The icon changes to indicate the current lock status. This is a screenshot of my custom dashboard on my phone. This will work for any doorbell video feed and smart lock that you have integrated into Home Assistant. That's the beauty of Home Assistant, as you can pretty much customize any device to display and control however you like. https://preview.redd.it/jlvr5bs3ua5d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52dd347136a53853dcb1e77ae7ce1149a1a0610f

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

I’ve just got the Reolink (swapped from a gen 1 Nest), it’s hard wired and I have it recording to a SD card 24/7. The notifications are spot on, it sends a picture and the person is always in it (so far!). It doesn’t do the face recognition like the Nest though

Reolink + Scrypted has been great for me

You probably want the wire to be hidden so an electrician might be best. As for the doorbell. If you are going through the trouble of having a wired one, ring is a bad option because it does not support 24/7 recording or have a sd card for local storage. Personally I use reolink which has both and does not require a subscription, but the downside is that you need to use a workout for rich notification since that feature *is* locked behind a subscription. In any case. I would at least avoid Ring. The notifications are either too sensitive, not sensitive enough, and the fact that it isn't always on means it's super prone to lagging out and missing stuff whenever the motion sensing is slow to react or the camera isn't 'on' when you try to view it.

You won’t get notifications on Unifi either. I have a Reolink doorbell and when Unifi came out with ONVIF support, I added it out of curiosity. Works. Records. Nothing else.

The Reolink doorbell is very good. Had mine for two years, I use mine in HKSV through Scrypted

For what it’s worth, the problem is not scrypted. The problem is ring due to its cloud based stream. HomeKit native will obviously be much better but something like Reolink or Amcrest doorbell will work much better with scrypted as they both support ONVIF and RTSP which are local feeds.

\+1 to the Reolink. Has an excellent integration and has been really reliable for me so far.

Same. I've had my up since December and it hasn't skipped a beat plus it has excellent image quality. The only downside for some that it doesn't have the ability to connect up to any existing doorbell chime and you can only use its own plug-in type (which has been working perfectly for me).

Reolink can be stored locally. If you set up your netwerk correctly it’s also safe

Reolink is basically plug and play with an NVR, but if you’re worried about privacy, you need more knowledge to set up VLANs

Dedicated doorbells normally have apps that have notifications that instantly start a two way call when you click on them, so that is the advantage. My Reolink Doorbell supports RTSP which I feed into Frigate. When someone enters my porch it triggers my Apple TV (using homebridge-ffmpegcamera), sends a Telegram message with a photo and if they press the doorbell, I get a notification with the Reolink app. So I’ve got the best of all worlds.

The Reolink Doorbell isn’t PeE. It’s got Ethernet and wireless but not PoE. The app lets you do two way calls when someone rings the bell without a sub and without their official NVR. The Reolink Doorbell also supports RTSP (with two way audio) so there are tons of options for NVR. I personally use an open source project called Frigate NVR which is hands down the best option out there. If you want HomeKit support you can use Scrypted on top of Frigate. Edit: I got this wrong a bit. The Reolink Doorbell WiFi has wireless and Ethernet, but doesn’t support PoE. The non-WiFi model does support PoE.

The only thing that might be needed additionally would be a home hub IF you want to be notified in the home without carrying your phone with you. The home hub functions as a "chime". It also acts as another sd-card expansion.

Interesting. Mine didn't come with a chime.

This isn't directly helpful but I refuse to have any Ring products in my home. The whole using my doorbell to give the police my own footage without my permission really turned me off from ever using ring, despite them ending it at some point.  I use Reolink based on a ton of recommendations and I'm incredibly happy that I went with Reolink. 

This isn't directly helpful but I refuse to have any Ring products in my home. The whole using my doorbell to give the police my own footage without my permission really turned me off from ever using ring, despite them ending it at some point.  I use Reolink based on a ton of recommendations and I'm incredibly happy that I went with Reolink. 

I tried one of the reolink models but decided to return it and wait for this new model that supports mechanical chimes since I have all of that wiring. I did connect it to protect over onvif and it really worked fine. I will said I liked how much more responsive the reolink was to doorbell presses and also usable 2 way conversations.

Reolink. Hands down.

Reolink. Hands down.

Doorbell works perfectly fine with Frigate. I've had mine going for 2+ years. There were some reolink issues historically (and I've had some issues with my Duo 2) but the doorbell is not an issue in Frigate or BI.

Eufy is not intergrated by default, you need to install the eufy addon for intergration. I had a battery doorbell and it can trigger automations (has binairy sensors). The doorbell i had was a bit slow on updating the sensors in HA, and the live stream was not working (p2p). The doorbell i had was supported by the addon. Not all eufy devices are supported by the addon. Look into the addon if your doorbell is supported: https://github.com/fuatakgun/eufy_security. For great intergration with homeassistant i advice to buy reolinks doorbell, got that recently and it has a platinum intergration on HA, and it all works great :-). Good luck on the doorbell journey Edit: I dont recall having any settings for the chime with eufy. Again Here, Reolink can do this in HA intergration.

The only real reason to go with Amcrest over Reolink is that Amcrest can integrate with an existing doorbell chime. It sounds like that isn't a requirement for you so Reolink would be the way to go.

This! Love all my Reolink gear

I've got reolink poe cameras and very happy with them. Whenever my ring doorbell breaks I'm getting the reolink doorbell.

Negative. I have the reolink doorbell and record everything locally to my synology. I don't use their cloud, no subscription, no other Reolink gear. I really like the doorbell. The feature set is nice and it was very easy to set up.

I’ve been super happy with my reolink doorbell. I had an amcrest before that was meh. Which surprised me. My other amcrest cameras have performed really well.

Personally if I had my time again I'd invest in Reolink over Ring. The increases on Ring Protect pricing has been a bastard.

Reolink all day every day. Works great with HA and doesn't require a subscription, and doesn't save to their cloud by default. I don't think I even set up a Reolink account at any point.

I just switched from Nest doorbell (slow, cloud based, contains a non-replaceable battery that fails after a few years, and worst yet is the disaster of Google software…) to Reolink. I think it meets all your requirements … had it for a few weeks and really liking it.

\+1 It has an SD Card slot and can also stream on the popular protocols to a local server/NAS Edit: Oh one thing you may not expect is that it comes with a wireless chime you plug in to an outlet. This is because the low voltage line doesn't have enough power to run the reolink and the traditional bell on your wall. It has a dozen or so "ring tones" to pick from though so that's kinda cool and adjustable volume.

Using reolink with frigate. Works great. 2 cameras and door bell

Get Reolink doorbell. It can use existing chime and reolink’s chime(included) if you like. Works via WiFi or Ethernet. It can record to SD card or you can record stream from computer/server. Works great with HA. Only useful thing for me that is behind paywall are rich notifications (it can send a picture within notification when someone rings a bell), but you can achieve the same with HA.

Reolink for sure

I think the newer cameras are more flexible. I'm using my doorbell and the floodlight duo with frigate to record 24x7 and it's working fine. But I have heard of incompatibilities in some cases

You can do this with Scrypted by itself and a reolink doorbell. Scrypted provides an NVR. https://demo.scrypted.app

Reolink doorbell is solid, been working reliably for about a year no issues. Regularly updated firmware (they just added hdr for example). But I've not tried any others to compare it to.

Reolink is the best one in my opinion. No subscription no account.

The reolink doorbells come with a chime. It's wireless but not hooked into the smart home world per se so i wouldn't say you're relying on your smart home any more than any other non smart wireless doorbell

I agree having an old school chime is the most reliable. I think a lot of new homes don't even come with that wiring, and a lot of old homes have lost it over the years (my 100-year old home had the transformer but everything downstream of that was gone).

And even the reolinks that come with the chime, if you have a front and back door bell, they can't share the chimes, so you have to have two of them. Stupid design imo.

This is why I went with Reolink after everyone else started charging a subscription fee

The best OEM Homekit experience youll get is with an Aqara doorbell, however if you can deal with some tinkering a Reolink or Unifi doorbell combined with scrypted is absolutely rock solid, I've been running the Reolink Doorbell via scrypted for over a year as well as 8 other Reolink cameras and you wouldnt even know they weren't OEM, everything works such as facial detection, onvif , HomePod and Apple TV announcements

Reolink

Nope I bought a 4 pack of their new e330s had to return all 4 , switched to reolink way better

Yes I have my reo link doorbell in frigate. No voice response yet though I just haven’t really worked on it

I have a Reolink one, swapped from Ring about a year ago and never looked back. Like you I refused to pay the subscription and it wouldn't let me hook it up to a nas drive so I binned it. Compared to the Ring camera Reolink is far better response time meaning I can actually answer remotely when someone presses the bell. The app is a little basic compared to the features in ring, but still functional. You can add an SD card to give you playback rather than paying for their cloud, or you can point it at a nas drive locally if you're a bit more tech inclined

Reolink, I also added it to annke nvr to record. Flawless

For what it’s worth, I ended up going for the Reolink + scrypted route. I’ve only had it set up for one day, but so far so good! No drop outs and responds quickly.

Aside from asking for features that don't exist such as your preference in battery (that wouldn't even fit in the device). I like my Reolink. It's available in battery wireless and POE.

My Logitech circle view doorbell just died on me after 2 years. I decided not to purchase another one, I instead got a Reolink doorbell and hooked it up to HomeKit through scrypted. It was free and easy enough for me to do, but I understand not wanting to have to do that! If you’re in direct sunlight like I am, expect your Logitech to overheat and go offline often! Mine also delaminated pretty quickly. Good luck in your search!

Honestly - I ended up doing everything through Reolinks app - I popped in an SD card and called it a day. Scrypted was great but my HomeKit kept going offline and I would go in and fix it and it would work for like 4 days and then go back to being offline. If it helps I really like the Reolink doorbell and app🤷🏽‍♀️

100% agreed. Have a situation where I don’t have regular internet and using a hotspot with limited data but still want cameras. Reolink was pretty much only good option where it only needed the internet when it sensed movement.

It depends on the doorbell and how it is added to Scrypted. Reolink are one of the brands that work really well in Scrypted with everything ported over as you’d expect, and motion detection is done on the doorbell so you won’t have to process all motion locally on your Scryted hardware.

+1 for reolink!

You don’t need a home hub - the Reolink doorbell comes with a wireless chime unit that you plug into any power outlet. If you have a larger home, you can buy additional chime units.

The Reolink doorbell is a great option, just know if you plan on using it with Frigate it'll be a crazy ride. The basics are about normal but if you want two way audio learn from me and just use NGINX to force https. WebRTC which is required for two way needs https in order to capture your mic. I fussed around for hours until I found that bit of info and the corresponding fix. Or you can get the reolink hub and all you're problems will be much simpler but I wanted to save $80.

I have got my 3rd Reolink doorbell, after the first two fogged up within one year. No reolink doorbell anymore for me, next will be a ubiquity. All other reolink camera’s I own work well.

My take is Chinese IOT is fine to use — if it’s on a VLAN and can’t access the Internet. That’s how I use my Reolink doorbell.

Love my Reokink ~ it’s their first attempt at a doorbell and does a good job. I love the local storage and the responsiveness.

FWIW I had a Unifi G4 doorbell since they released it. It died a couple of weeks back. I didn’t feel like I got my money’s worth. It worked fine for a while but eventually I was always fighting signal issues and dropping out. Eventually it stopped being able to activate the chime, so I just bypassed the chime box. It lasted 4 or 5 years, but I felt it should have lasted longer. One day I noticed that it was offline. I tried other transformers and power supplies, it was toast. So, I replaced it with a Reolink and brought it into HomeKit with Scrypted. So far so good. And it was on sale for $80 on Amazon for pre-BF sale. Works every bit was well with motion detection, and seems to perform a lot better in low light vs my old Unifi G4 doorbell. 

Reolink. The easiest way with no existing wiring is to run network cable and use POE to power it.

Reolink is probably the main one. No subscription, full RTSP support so you can just pull the raw video feed if you want.

How do you quantify garbage? For me, it works fine. I rarely use the app as I have it going in to Frigate and Home Assistant. The app is used for setup and initial configuration, which it does well. Once it is online I can use the built in web server to do a lot of the work. I don't really think anyone can answer that question, because what would seem garbage for you and your needs will be fine for someone else.

Reolink hands down. I have an automation that does exactly what you are looking for.

This is true for cameras but less so for doorbells. An awful lot (almost all) of doorbells are 'smart home' products, that don't just have a basic web interface but rather force you to use some shitty app. Take the amcrest one- it'll work locally with a NVR, but you still have to configure it with an app, and if you cut off its internet connection to Amcrest cloud the LED blinks differently. Cameras there's plenty of options that are happy to work locally. Doorbells, not so much. Ubiquiti UniFi is one, I think Dahua also has one. Reolink too although you may need an app to set it up.

Good point. I actually helped someone set up the POE NVR version with their reolink NVR. Worked great.

Reolink has the best doorbell for home use currently.

Get a reolink imo Nest is good, as long as you have good wifi. But without the nest aware subscription, you are limited to event playback in a 3 hour window. With a reolink you wont be tied to a subscription

Reolink is my first option. I had a google nest doorbell and replaced it with a Reolink. The nest was slow at warning me when someone was at the door and pressed the bell. I would get a notification 30 seconds to 3 minutes late and could not interact with the person at the door. I’m in Europe and I feel the google/nest servers are lagging enormously. With Reolink and its HA integration things are local (no laggy google server) and it works great.

I have a Reolink doorbell that’s isolated from the internet. I can access the doorbell video feed from the Reolink app no problem when I’m connected to my home network. For push notifications I have it set up through home assistant- not sure if the Reolink app itself can send notifications with the camera being isolated from the internet.

Reolink, very decent.

I’d recommend against it personally. I’ve got mine setup with a Reolink doorbell cam and I either lose connection regularly (closing home app seems to get it back for some reason) or lose the ability to scrub recordings and that’ll just randomly reappear. I’m seriously considering swapping to a native doorbell setup.

Cannot stress the affordability and flexibility and reliability of reolink enough