Radio doorbells don't seem to work well with modern doors. With the transmitter outdoors the wireless range is not good.
Which doorbell systems work well with modern doors?
It would be good to have several ringer units plugged in to the mains in different places.
I think the problem is that the frame is reinforced with metal, usually where the transmitter is fitted and I guess this shields the signal.
Best solution is a wired doorbell.
Tim
It is possible to buy a doorbell extender which will convert wired to wireless.
Malcolm
Yes. I've seen them, but you'll have to Google as I can't recall what the make was...
I tried a couple of cheap ones, and they were variously unreliable and drained batteries quickly.
I've since bought a Friedland (on recommendation from here I think) basic model and it's worked perfectly, and still on the same set of batteries after at least a year. Button mounted on the UPVC door frame, bell about 6 yards away.
Just a year? When we moved into our current house the Friedland (wired) doorbell batteries were orange Everready HP2s and God only knows when these were last on sale.
Tim
On 13 Jun 2015, Malcolm Race grunted:
Yep. I have one of these and it works well:
I do have an old-fashioned door, made of olde worlde 'timber'; there's a conventional period doorbell pushbutton on the outside, and it's wired to the Byron transmitter which is on the inside of the door. I can't imagine having a door or frame made of another material would make any difference
+1
Only problem with my doorpush
Is that the plastic is yellowing after less than 2 years, would probably replace it with the black version.
I was able to drill and thread cables (doorbell and alarm contact) through the uPVC frame while installing my front door door so there's nothing visible.
I often find the portable non plugged in ones work better than the plugged inones. I have a theory that this is due to the amount of crud on the mains from powerline addaptors and switch mode supplies deafens the reciever in the bell, wheas the battery operated worn type bells are higher up and not near the mains and hence work better.
The main issue I had with wirelss bells though was that there are now so many around spurious operation from another bell push is a real possibility. Brian
wires and transformers are always better than radios and batteries as far as I'm concerned.
+1 for Friedland. In my experience some of the cheap no-name wireless doorbells were unreliable including the transmitter losing contact with the receiver regularly.
With my current Friedland unit it also has the intelligence to know when the push button battery is going flat and sends a different code to the receiver - the bell unit works as normal and then gives a second tone to say 'replace the battery'
Chris brought next idea :
I have installed lots, with never any such problem - The secret is to buy a quality unit, like Friedland's 100m range ones.
Brian-Gaff wrote on 14/06/2015 :
Not with a good quality one, which has unique coding - Friedland.
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