Can anyone recommend a good loud doorbell (to suit a rambling house with thick walls). I was thinking about something like this
I've used battery powered wireless extensions in the past but find them slightly unsatisfactory.
eBay, old phone bells, and a 75V supply to power them. You can get this easily, albeit expensively, from a retro phone supplier. Mine is just an old valve era transformer from the back of the workshop, carefully meggered before use. Relay or triac to control it. I would suggest _not_ running this soort of voltage around bell wire circuits, or to outside bell pushes!
That Ebay bell is not necessarily louder than a standard phone bell from the 80's and its trembler will interact badly with the switched ringing pulses on the phone line as it's meant for DC battery use. The old GPO wall-mounted bells for external/workshop use would be better. Still seen at boot sales. Or get a multiple cordless phone set and have a handset on every floor.
rusty
In article , Newshound writes
You may find a buzzer mounted on a sounding board more effective than a bell, the lower tone may travel better around the house.
This might be a bit weedy:
but a door entry buzzer might be more effective, eg:
More volts may mean more oomph but unfortunately no dB figures.
We have multiple cordless phones in our house but the OP wants a doorbell.
We have a wireless doorbell but I have changed the receiver to run off a transformer and use a different sounder. OP might want to consider amending his/her receivers to mains powered.
Yes, I had wondered about that. I shall lurk for a while and see what comes up. Trouble is, they may need fettling. Hence the temptation to use a modern fire bell which I expect will run off an old laptop PSU.
Sorry, I did mean the various outdoor large bells. They're fairly common on eBay. A decent indoor bellset though is plenty loud enough for a doorbell - mine for the house is the separate bellset from an ex-776 compact phone, so it's two gongs and a decent-sized coil. In the workshop I have an outdoor extra-loud bell, but also a flashing light.
It's actually two lights and one bell in the workshop. It gives different ring cadences for front doorbell, phoneline and house internal call (dinner), with two different lights for each. A PIC controls it, but I'm thinking of replacing it with an Arduino and Zigbee for a wireless connection, rather than having to wire it (the current damp string connection is a lash-up).
Phone bells are AC, not DC. They are polarised bells and don't have interrupters.
If you see a DC bell with an interrupter contact and it's labelled "GPO", that isn't a phone bell, it's some form of alarm bell from inside an exchange (of which there were a great many). It's designed to run on 50V DC. An excellent choice, if that's what's on offer.
No doubt someone will now claim to have seen a phone bell with an interrupter, but that's going to be like hen's teeth and probably worth more as an antique.
Great advice, but he wants a doorbell.
I'm hooking the bell push (or whatever) up to the internal phones, woth a distinctive ring!
Instead of a doorbell,A former colleague fitted a large loudspeaker to his hall ceiling. This was fed, through a decent power amplifier, with the output of a cartridge (loop) player on which were recorded the Westminster Chimes. You could here that anywhere in the house. (this was in the '70s; modern technology could repalce the cartridge player with something 'solid state')
You could use a 24v fire bell and run it on reduced voltage. With a variable V you've then got a volume control, which will at least adjust it over a useful range.
As someone else pointed out, lower frequencies carry through a house better, so if you do go for a bell, get the biggest dong you can.
NT
I have two normal underdome bells run off a suitable transformer. One downstairs in the hall, one upstairs on a landing between 1st and 2nd floors. Can hear them anywhere in the house even with radios etc on, and are reasonably neat to the eye.
The other option to avoid deafening the neighbors when you are out is a radio doorbell that you can clip on your belt I suppose.
Brian
That looks like the job, thanks. I think I'll look out for an "antique" one first as I have a central hallway location where it could be a feature, otherwise put one or two of these on my next TLC order.
I think by that pic the one from Ebay would disappoint. Proper old ones like that are made out of wood.
eBay is about the best place to find wooden ones. As they're polarised bells, they're pretty reliable too. Just watch out for cracking in older gongs.
Thanks; I'd just slightly prefer not to have an electronic one.
They're more designed to terrify you: a decent doorbell gives a sense of anticipation. ;-)
run the existing door bell wires to the dogs bed, bared and placed where his testicles would be when he's laying in it, i guarentee he'll let you know someone is at the door no matter where you are in the house.
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