replace doorbell

[grodenhiATgmailDOTcom]

We recently moved into our first home (built in 1950's). We are looking to replace the door bell (well the chime part hanging on the wall). Everything works fine, we just don't like the look of the original one and want to replaqce it with the simple white chime box. I have removed the cover (to the original) and it consists of just 3 terminals, front, terminal, and rear. I figure these are for front door, power, and backdoor. These three wires are simply coming out of the wall (with a wire nut). The original chime appears to be a NuTone from 1956. My new door chime says to ensure I'm hooked to a 16V transformer. I don't see anything there now as there are just wires coming out of the wall and a wire nut. Looking at the new chime it doesn't appear doorbell technology has changed much (as it has the same

3 terminals), can I assume there's a 16V transformer in the wall somewhere? Is there a way short of buying a voltage meter to tell? Thanks!!

[John McGaw]

Or you might find it in the attic or in some strange location in the basement. My present house has the attic location right above where the ding-dong-box hangs in the hallway. My last house had it in the basement mounted right next to the transformer that operated the zone valves for the hot water baseboards. Confusing...

[RBM]

I wouldn't worry about the transformer, most are 16 volt, Just make the connections the same

[Doug]

"grodenhiATgmailDOTcom" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

You can try to find the transformer and see if you can read the label. It's probably a good idea to know where it is anyway. The transformer shouldn't be buried in the wall since they can go bad. It's probably attached to an electrical junction box somewhere or the main fuse/breaker box. They're usually hunks of metal that have a couple of wires like the ones at the chime location under screw terminals.

Doug

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Do you have multi meter? Does new chime has mechanical gongs like the old one? Probably new one is digital chime generator with small speaker or buzzer? Usually tranny is 24V and 16V sounds odd. I think you can measure the voltage from those 3 wires; one is hot and one for front door button one for the rear door. between those wires you'll see open circuit voltage. Then you'll know. Good luck. Tony P.S. Couldn't you just spray pait the old one's cover with your color of chice? color?

[nospambob]

[nospambob]

Without considering when built?

[RBM]

Most standard chimes operate on 16 volts.

[RBM]

I don't know how to make it more clear. MOST standard electromagnetic coil type doorbell chimes no matter when they were made, use a 16 volt AC transformer.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

And if it does not right properly, they look for the transformer. 99.9% sure RBM is correct so just hook it up.