Wireless doorbell with mains chimes - recommendation?

Just discovered that allegedly the door push will work any chime within range.

So I've ordered a single chime and push which should be enough to diagnose which bits aren't working.

Possibly also to have a chime in the shed.

Cheers

Dave R

I installed my secondhand Panasonic PABX with doorphones 20 years ago, Its a bit triggers broom-ish - 1 doorphones replaced, I/O board replaced (lightning) BUT its solders on

I have recently bought one of these Tecknet chimes

Not a recommendation as such, but I am likely to be buying one of these shortly for an aged relative:

Having identified this as a possible purchase I came across one fitted to a shop premises recently. The proprietor said that they had been happy with it, but I realise that's not much data to go on.

HTH, a bit J^n

Have you looked inside the device. Most of the problems aare of corroded bell contacts, terrible membrane systems of switching. Often you can bring out the wires to a more traditional bell push. Brian

I found that on my battery door chime it was the wiper on volume potentiometer that was going open circuit. As I had set it to maximum volume a soldered link fully cured the problem. This was a chime with a loud bing bong and I guess the vibration caused the volume level to be intermittent with the wiper of the potentiometer making good, poor or no contact with the carbon track.

I bought one of these

No battery needed in the bell push and a mains powered ringer. A single bell push can ring several ringers or you can have multiple bell pushes with different ring tones. Seemed quite loud when we plugged it in but YMMV.

The doorbells I installed when I re-wired this house in 1974 are still working.

I have changed the bell push, though. Just to match new door furniture.

I lived somewhere for 15 years which had a battery operated wired chime with

I think the problem is the 'wireless' part - it needs power to listen, and so you need a mains powered sounder or you get through a lot of batteries. And so then you need a complicated set of electronics to do the wireless bit, and of course you have to play 57 tunes (because marketing), and then there's no-brand-from-Amazon quality...

I now live somewhere with a 1965 chime - since the consumer unit was being changed I replaced the original bell transformer (which was working but buzzing a bit) with a new Honeywell one. Perhaps I should have sold the old as 'ebay vintage'.

Theo

They look handy, especially with the two sounder option.

Presumably it's a piezo sender, does it have a nice positive movement with a clear click? I find many delivery people don't give a sufficiently strong push on my current traditional type.

I also have Blink cameras front and rear, which give a convenient chime on the phone (after a short delay).

When I was a small kid in the early 1950's, we lived in a house that was built about 50 years earlier. In the cupboard under the stairs was a group of Leclanché cells that powered the front door bell, just like this only crusty with salts and a bit cobwebby:

Yes, as you say a positive movement, a clear click and a light blinks. My only reservation is that even though they're rated as IP44*, a few of the reviews claim they packed up after a few months with the suggestion was that rain may have got into the mechanism. But with

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Hi Andrew Those look interesting - I had previously looked for Quinetic Door Bells, not sure why I missed these.

Any idea what IP rating the bell push has? The website leaflets don't mention a figure, hmm.

I would be buying a system for an aging family member so any more information on the 'quite loud' would be useful. I presume you can pair one bell push with multiple ringers?

Thanks, J^n

Seems to be the way these days. Everything has to be cordless. Even where there is zero advantage with it. Suppose on a new build a cordless door bell makes some sense. But a properly installed cable lasts for ever.

Sadly specs seem quite sparse, even on the Quinetic website so no idea of IP rating.

Yes, you can pair multiple ringers with one bell push or indeed multiple bell pushes with one (probably, I haven't checked) multiple ringers. So, one bell push for the front door, one for the tradesman's entrance both ringing on a ringer on the ground floor, first floor and workshop.

Plugged one ringer in to test but not played any more than that. I can't even say whether the ring that it does when first plugged in is at max volume or not.

Bought for a family member so not here now but I could find out more when I next visit if that is any help. If not it's likely your local TLC would have one to show you - assuming you have one nearby.

Thanks for that. Yes, specs do seem quite sparse, which is odd.

There is a TLC fairly close by, I might try them on Saturday.

Thanks, J^n

Ah, that probably explains the Leclanché cells we found in a house that we moved in to back in the 60s. It also has a lot of small bore gas piping for lighting and an acetylene generator in an out-house.

Tim

On a new build there's really no excuse for the builder not to run a bit of cat5 to the front door - then it can be hooked up to a doorbell/entryphone/security camera/whatever.

I can see the advantage of a remote sounder unit, eg if you're in the garage or whatever. But my solution for that is the existing bell wiring runs back to the consumer unit, which is a better place to put a box to detect if the bell is pushed and it has power available to feed the bell push. You can either use the existing chime, or wire the bell push as a dry contact. Some of the smart doorbell systems use the existing bell transformer/push arrangement so can be wired in directly from there.

Then that only leaves the case where there's no existing push and no way to run a wire to the front door.

Theo

Quinetic is a TLC whitelabel, I think. I wonder who actually makes them?

Theo