Extend doorbell to back?

[Ungeschickt]

I often do not hear the doorbell when in the back of the house or in the garden.

How complicated would it be to "extend" the doorbell to those areas? (I am not very handy).

Or install a different doorbell that does ring in back as well?

Any suggestions, references, etc. welcomed.

[marks542004]

extending the doorbell is a matter of running some extra , fairly light wire to the new location.

An easier alternative is one of the wireless doorbell kits , the bell plugs into any outlet , or can be battery operated. Simply move it to wherever you want, but you have to remember to move it .

[RBM]

The battery operated wireless chimes are OK, but I've found that most of them require a person to not only push the button, but actually hold it for a second before it activates the chime. In your situation I'd recommend a chime extender. It hooks up to the existing chime and works wirelessly from that location. Here is a link to one:

[mm]

I wish the OP had said what kind of doorbell he has now. Is it mounted to the front door? Is it electric? Does it have a button, a separate bell and a tranformer in the basement? What?

[Ungeschickte]

Oops - right. A little short on detail

Mounted to stucco wall beside front door.

Electric.

Has button.

Connected to *something* mounted inside the house, on the wall over the kitchen door. That's where the ring sounds, so bell must be in there. Dunno where transformer might be. How big would it be?

Have my hand in cast right now, so can't pop the top off the "something". It is a white metal box, about 5-6" long and 3" wide. Has been there forever.

I could post a picture...are photos allowed?

Does it sound like I could open that box eventually and run a bell wire out to the back?

Nothing in basement. No basement. Would there be any reason for the original installation, before my time, to run anything under the house?

Thanks for all input.

[RBM]

Not important. You have a wired system. If it "ding-dongs", its 16 volts, if it rings like an old phone, it's 6-12 volts. If you can and want to run a two wire thermostat cable from that unit to another location, you can install a similar unit, provided the existing transformer is strong enough to handle both units

[aspasia]

Doesn't "ding-dong"; rings like "old phone", so I guess it's 6-12 volts.

How do I ascertain whether the existing transformer * is strong enuff to handle both units?

• Where do I *find* transformer? Could it be (I hope not!!!) buried in the stucco on house front? Or is it with the bell in that white box?

[RBM]

The transformer could be in a number of locations, but most often it's hanging off the side of your circuit breaker box. To know if it's strong enough, you have to know the wattage of the transformer and the total combined wattage of the two bells you're going to attach

[mm]

What I did was: I found a nicer ding-dong doorbell than what I had at a really cheap price, so I put in my hall, and put the original ding-dong doorbell in the basement, replacing the really cheap r-r-r-r-ring bell I had there. (So I would hear the doorbell when I was in the basement.)

I ascertained that the transformer wasn't strong enough when one or both bells wouldn't ding-dong right.

Of course not.

I don't know what the white box is. My transformer** is attached to a ceiling simple ceiling junction box that is there to hold one of the basement lights. In the laundry room. I mounted the r-r-r-ring bell and then the ding-dong on the same piece of wood.

**Doorbell transformers are about 2x2x1 1/2 inches, and are usually designed so that the 110 volts wires come out a short thrreaded pipe (not included in those dimensions) but you don't see that pipe, becuase it goes in one of the round, pre-made holes in the fuse box or a junction box. The part that shows has 2 or 3 metal tabs with short machine screws going into them, to which the wires for the doorbell are attached.

When my 12-volt xformer wasn't enough, I got an 18 volt one iirc, and it had 3 screws, because it puts out 6, 12, or 18 volts ac.

So I used the 18. Then what happened that I didn't know about was when anytime anyone rang the doorbell when I wasn't home, usually the mailman, the main floor doorbell was so loud that it tripped the glass/wood breakage detector. Rather than make that less sensitive, I used rheostats to find what sort of resistor would lower the volume of the main floor doorbell. When I determined a value, I put in a fixed resistor of that value I have hundreds of them of all values cut out of radios and tvs, plus a couple collections of other guys who gave theirs to me. But you can buy approximately what you want at Radio Shack, and exactly what you want at a good store. Under a dollar for

2 at radio shack or for one elsewhere.

Where I really got good was when I wanted to do the third floor (curses on this computer). I should have run more wires when I first moved in, but now it was going to be a lot of work for just a doorbell. But my mother had cement walls in her apartment building, so installing a wired doorbell would have been much too hard, even if we coudl have gotten permission (which I certainly wouldn't give if I were the landlord and there were cement walls.) and I had bought her a really cheap ($3, I think, at a place like Sunset House, if that mail order place still exists) wireless doorbell. She wasn't using it anymore.

I think it looks tacky to have two doorbells at one door. With no sign which is for what is stupid, and signs usually look worse.

So I 1) took the battery out of the "button" box, 2) found the two connections on the printed circuit for the pushbutton part of the "button box" and 3) soldered a little jumper wire across those. Then where the 9 volt battery went, I 4) connected to two wires from the current doorbell setup, such that when someone pushed the button at the front door, my first two doorbells were given 18 volts AC and so was the "button box" via the 9-volt connector that normally connected to a 9-volt battery. Except that I put a simple diode in one of the lines to the button box, so that 18 vac turned into about 9 volts DC.

I plugged the receiver/beeper into a receptacle in the upstairs hall.

I works great. One does have to hold down the button for almost a full second, but my most common visitor, the mailman, always does that. I think they train them to do that at mailman school. (I was a mail man for a summer 40 years ago, but I don't quite remember)

Others might ring quickly the first time, but if they think you are home, they'll probably hold the button down the second time. Or you can put a sign. (Yeah, I know, tacky, unless well done.)

If you are interested in this sort of thing, this project doesn't take more than an hour and isn't as hard as it sounds.

Works with any wired doorbell system, even if the button is lighted and even if the current doorbell plays a melody. (or that have a diode, I'm sure, but I don't why your system would already have a diode.)

[Mark Lloyd]

Mine's in the A/C closet, and is easily accessible.

[Bill]

I bought an electronic doorbell which has a speaker like a stereo. It also has a connection for external speakers.

I have the doorbell (chime) in one location, then wires running to a speaker upstairs, then wires running to another speaker in my workshop.

So my doorbell rings in 3 separate locations and I can hear it anywhere in the house. (But then I had the problem of people who would knock instead of pressing the doorbell button! So I put a sign on my door which says to ring the doorbell because I can't hear knocking if I am upstairs. That solved that except for a few people who can't read...)

[mm]

For some reason I don't consider that sign to be tacky (unlike the others). I guess it's because they made you do it. Having two buttons for the same home seems like a failure on my part. grin.