I had an old style push button door bell when I moved into my circa 1999 home six years ago. I quickly replaced it with a SkyBell which worked fine until about a year ago. It stopped consistently advising me of visitors and the microphone / speaker never really worked correctly. So I wanted to replace it with something a bit more up-to-date. My choice of brands would be something that worked with my existing smart home components and existing apps or something that wasn't going to clobber me with monthly subscription costs.
I am a legacy customer of Blink, meaning that I don't have to pay a monthly fee for cloud storage. And I have several smart plugs and light switches on TP-Link's excellent app so I pretty much decided that I would go with one of these two brands. TP-Link wanted a subscription fee, so when I saw Blink's doorbell camera at a good price, I jumped. It came the same day, so I installed it the next day.
Would it fit the current placement and cover the crude hole carved on my porch for the wires?
Would it be an easy setup and would the voltage in my 22+ year old home be sufficient?
Would it feel secure when mounted? Yes to all these questions.
The existing Sky Bell doorbell cam is pretty small and didn't protrude from the wall very much. The Blink is longer and fatter, so the mount, while secure, is a bit less solid than I would like - it seems to rock a bit when pressed hard. But the wiring was simple. Installation required that I drill one additional hole in my stucco, but it took all of 15 minutes to complete the installation job. Well, 15 minutes doesn't include:
- the time I spent undoing the mounting bracket because I put it on backwards (!) and
- the time I spent unmounting the whole doorcam to remove the sticky transparent plastic wrap that Blink puts on the cam to protect it from damage while shipping and handling. Funny - no where in the instructions did I see anything about this wrap and it's almost invisible - until you mount it.
One pro tip - there is a funny little tool that comes in the bottom of the package that you use to open the doorbell up from the bottom when it is time to replace batteries. A) Don't throw it out as it is perfectly sized to do that job. B) It comes in mighty handy to also force the doorbell on to the mount as well. I had trouble getting the body of the doorbell onto the mount and snapping into place until I used the tool. I put my tool on top of the chime box inside the house where I will completely forget it when I need it.
In operation, The Blink door cam works well in detecting approaching visitors and I love how it works with my existing chimes. One thing that needs work is that the app allows me to exclude areas of the camera view from motion detection. This app feature seems to work with my other Blink cameras but not with my door cam. I block out motion detection right next to my door, but it detects motion there anyway. Minor, but it should work better in this regard.
I'm very glad I purchased this tool for monitoring my front door. It was a great price and was easy to install. Anyone could do this!
Blink Video Doorbell (newest model), Two-way audio, HD video, motion and chime app alerts and Alexa enabled — wired or wire-f
4.2 | 154,829 ratings
Price: 59.99
Last update: 12-25-2024
About this item
Answer your door no matter where you are from your smartphone with 1080p HD day and infrared night video and two-way audio.
Experience long-lasting battery life, custom alerts, privacy settings, and more.
Get alerts when motion is detected or someone presses Video Doorbell. Connect to existing doorbell wiring or pair with a Sync Module (sold separately) to engage live view and two-way audio on demand.
Choose to save and share clips in the cloud with a free 30-day trial of the Blink Subscription Plan or locally with the Sync Module 2 and USB drive (each sold separately).
Designed for every home, go wire-free or connect to doorbell wiring to also sound your existing in-home chime. Without wiring, you can use your Blink Mini camera (sold separately) as an indoor plug-in chime.
Set up yourself in minutes with the two included AA lithium batteries then connect to wifi in the app.
Works with Alexa — receive alerts and answer with two-way audio. When wired or paired with a Sync Module, just ask Alexa to answer the front door.
Includes one Video Doorbell, 2 AA 1.5V Lithium Batteries, 4 Screws, 1 Case Opening Tool. Does not include Sync Module 2 which can be found in all “Systems” above (recommended for optimal use while on battery).
Experience long-lasting battery life, custom alerts, privacy settings, and more.
Get alerts when motion is detected or someone presses Video Doorbell. Connect to existing doorbell wiring or pair with a Sync Module (sold separately) to engage live view and two-way audio on demand.
Choose to save and share clips in the cloud with a free 30-day trial of the Blink Subscription Plan or locally with the Sync Module 2 and USB drive (each sold separately).
Designed for every home, go wire-free or connect to doorbell wiring to also sound your existing in-home chime. Without wiring, you can use your Blink Mini camera (sold separately) as an indoor plug-in chime.
Set up yourself in minutes with the two included AA lithium batteries then connect to wifi in the app.
Works with Alexa — receive alerts and answer with two-way audio. When wired or paired with a Sync Module, just ask Alexa to answer the front door.
Includes one Video Doorbell, 2 AA 1.5V Lithium Batteries, 4 Screws, 1 Case Opening Tool. Does not include Sync Module 2 which can be found in all “Systems” above (recommended for optimal use while on battery).
Top reviews from the United States
Marty B
Simple install and works with my indoor chimes
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2022
Debde
Pretty good
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2024Amazon Customer
MY BAD! - RE Audio at doorbell very weak and quiet.
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2024Gump
Hopefully a honest deep review that will help buyers
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2023