Replace wireless doorbell with a wired one

[Another John]

Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp? Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the approved transformer).

I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) - it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?) would be much appreciated!

Cheers John

[Tim+]

Don?t discount a battery wired bell on the grounds of reliability. The batteries on a basic bell will last for years. I suspect the ?bing bong? type bell will run for decades. (When we moved into out current house I replaced after about 10 years. They were the orange HP11 batteries. God knows when they were last produced...

Tim

[Tufnell Park]

My mains wired bell does the same thing. It is more to do with bad contact at the doorbell push than being wireless. IMHO

[Michael Chare]

I have used these "Bell Transformer HSBT1A Hispec 4,8,12V Fused 240v" which have a choice of ac output voltages.

You can buy din rail transformers.

When I replaced some door bell push buttons I was surprised at how many holes there were in the wooden door frame for previous push buttons.

The problem with drilling a plastic door frame is that you won't know whether any metal is not perpendicular to the drill. You might learn something from the hinge mountings.

[Brian Reay]

+1

We?ve got an old style battery operated bell ( the traditional ding dong type). I think I may have put new batteries in it shortly after we moved in, in 1997 but I?m not even sure that is the case. I replaced the push but only as Senior Management wanted one to match the new front door fittings.

I looked at it a few months back - we are half thinking of getting one of those RING Beasts- the batteries aren?t showing any signs of corrosion.

[Clive Arthur]

I bought a nice brass bell push, drilled a hole in the door and mounted the wireless gubbins on the inside with the button blanked off and the external button wired to the PCB. Much nicer.

One failure mode of these is the battery becoming dislodged when the door's slammed. That can be alleviated with foam packing.

Cheers

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The most sensible thing you've ever done. ;-)

That seems to be the norm with wireless bells on all my pal's houses. My wired one - or rather two, one upstairs - is some 40 years old. With only the push changed to match new door furniture.

An ordinary twist drill for steel (rather than one just for wood) should have no trouble. Just use a low speed on the drill and reasonable pressure.

Just have a look at what TLC sell. Or Google for a wider selection of bell pushes, to perhaps match door furniture.

The major work with a wired bell is of course concealing the cable - if such things matter to you.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

What would be nice is if somebody made a good wireless intercom where the outside bit could be powered from the mains, and which also allowed you to initiate the intercom from inside as well as out. I too have suffered from poorly constructed bell pushes on the intercom or battery box. What I did for a while is found out how the door bell bit worked. it worked by shorting out an in line capacitor in the speaker wire, thus making it low resistance. This meant I could just fit a bog standard doorbell push on the box over the crap button they supplied. Sadly though, it eventually succumbed to uv and frost and fell to bits, now I have an intercom, but its drawback is that you cannot instigate a challenge unless the bell has been activated. You would be surprised at the number of nutters who bash on the door and you cannot answer them as you cannot activate the intercom from the remote unit! Brian

[PeterC]

I solved this problem by getting a bell with a kinetic push - no battery and IP55. Here are some:

with 2 sounders (probably not 111dB!) Note that most of these require the sounder to be in a 13A socket. Mine are placed so that they're audible all over the house but can't be heard next door. The push on mine is 'hinged' at the top - possibly a good design re. IP rating - and it is stuck on the door. The adhesive is v. strong, so it needs to be in the right place, especially as I cleaned the area first.

[charles]

I think the one by Ring (sold by Screwfix) does just that.

[John]

I get the impressionthat the buttons get pressed too hard and it damages the innards. Likely to happen when you can't hear the bell from the outside

- the courier just presses harder.

The button is the weak link.

I have a mains powered bell - I liked the idea of the illuminated bell push . However, the bulb has failed and I can't be arsed to fix it. Transformer is in the Consumer Unit.

[williamwright]

25 years ago I installed a traditional ding-dong as the sounder for an IR beam across the entrance. As a 'temporary' measure I fitted batteries (4 AA cells). I've had to replace the batteries four times in 25 years. Bear in mind that the ding dong sounds every time anyone enters or leaves the property, so probably an average of ten times a day.

For a different application I've just installed a Honeywell DW915 sounder. It works for wireless and also wired. The only thing I don't like about it is that the connections for the bellpush are not screw terminals; you just shove the wire in.

I was often asked to do this when I was working. Don't do it if you can avoid it. Could you mount the bellpush on masonry adjacent to the door and drill through the masonry using a 300mm x 8mm SDS drill bit?

It can be nice to mount the bellpush on a small polished hardwood plinth. It's much easier than mounting it direct on the masonry.

Bill

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Is that the one that needs an app? I was thinking stand alone and can be initiated by either end to deal with idiots. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed the silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs. They do have their uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and persuade delivery drivers the bell actually works. Many are so use to wireless ones not working they simply knock on the door. ;-) And if you press my push, you can hear the bell working from outside.

[Bob Eager]

You can't hear ours from outside, but there is a brass plarte telling people to use it.

I think I'm going to put a 'glass speaker' on the transom and play the Westminster Chimes.

[Andy Burns]

Yes I did the same a couple of years ago, worried that back EMF from the solenoid might zap them, without some sort of flyback diode, but they've been fine, had to swap to a lower value resistor than the one I'd calculated.

They did used to rap the door a few seconds after ringing the bell, but they do seem to have learned now, just be be sure if I'm upstairs, then I turn on the downstairs hall light as I leg it down the stairs.

[John]

"Dave Plowman (News)" [e-mail]> wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I like the idea - I suppose I could but a new Bell push and adapt it. I guess it was a fiddly job as even the bulb it very small. What voltage tapping do you use on the transformer? Have you seen any LED equiped bell pushes for sale?

[Rob Graham]

Just to put in my penniworth while I am here as I had to solve this problem some years back.

The problem is caused by the lack of waterproofness of the inexpensive push button switches. It is a well known problem in the electronics industry that if something is not fully sealed, the changes in air pressure draw moisture and airborne chemicals into small spaces like those between both switches and batteries and their contact points. The moisture plus chemicals dry out forming an insulating film that the very low current - designed that way by the manufacturer so that battery life is extended - does not break it down.

So a fully weather sealed bell push is required.

I solved this by refitting an old brass bell push with one of those tiny sealed printed circuit board switches that are so ofter used on electronic toys and similar gizmos. I was fortunate in that there was a cable in place going to my roof space which I wired into the wireless transmitter such that it effectively worked remotely from its switch; this works excellently as I can now move the sounder around the house if needs be.

Been in place that way in excess of 10 years and no bothers - having said that I also have a large cast brass door knocker and often enought the bell goes off at the same time as furious operation of the knocker !!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Me too. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I have the transformer set for best results with the pair of under dome bells in use. So chose the dropper resistors for that. As Andy said, sort of adjust under test, rather than calculated.

It was a fairly pricey brushed stainless steel type from a door furniture supplier, rather than a generic from Friedland, etc.