In a slightly higher price bracket Honeywell do a range of wireless uinits where the chime bit plugs direct into a mains socket. The pushbutton being powered by a 2032 lithium coin cell.
We have the DC313 NHGBS (around 50 quid), which has an additional battery chime unit as well as the mains chime unit, plus a PIR (L430NW for about 25 quid) that integrates with the door bell chime units and triggers a 'pre-warning' sound if anyone is coming up the drive before they have even got a chance to ring the bell (or not)
Range and ability to penetrate multiple walls and foil insulation is good. Adding additional mains chimes is also a possibility which, presumably by a retransmit mechanism also extends the effective range. The battery chime unit reliably works some 100m from the door pushbutton with the other mains powered sounder 10m from the door and three walls away.
You forget in this case, Brian, that the point of the wireless link is to eliminate the need to drill a hole in an exterior door frame or create a path via the surrounding brickwork and the installation of a long run of bell wire to wherever the bell or chimes have been located.
The tiny 12v bell push batteries last a very long time so frequent battery replacement isn't a problem at this end of the wireless link. However, unlike the bell push, the batteries in the wireless bell chime have to cope with a continuous drain to keep the receiver circuit active at all times.
Having to plug a small wallwart into a socket conveniently located by the wireless chime unit is no great detriment and neatly eliminates the limited battery life issue of a battery powered wireless door chime unit.
Battery life would be far less of an issue if the battery powered door chimes were designed to run off a couple of D cells instead of their equally priced but quarter the capacity AA cells commonly specified (often in sets of three making their battery replacement costs effectively 6 times that of a two D cell battery option).
When it comes to battery powered gadgets like this, I'll always select an item that uses the largest cell size possible within the physical constraints of the gadget. D or C cells instead of AAs or, worse still, AAAs or PP3s,when it's patently obvious that the gadget could have been made large enough in the first place to accommodate the larger cell size without making them appear overly large for their intended function.
For example, a portable radio where the extra depth would offer the benefit of higher audio fidelity from a larger speaker and/or cabinet enclosure. I see far too many gadgets that have been pointlessly miniaturised to the detriment of their function. A classic case of this is in the use of four AA (or worse, just two AAs) as a battery pack for those kitchen waste bins with motorised lids that use a PIR sensor to automatically open 'Hands Free'.
In this case, the use of AAs instead of the more sane choice of a set of four D cells hasn't been dictated by space constraints, but seemingly at the behest of the disposable battery manufacturers. When I was looking to upgrade our kitchen waste bin solution to one of these novelty, hands free bins, my primary selection basis was that it use a set of four D cells since, other than for that distinction, they were pretty well all the same thing.
I landed up buying a 40 litre hands free bin from Home bargains about 4 months or more back and installed a set of Alkaline D cells (four off) that I'd purchased a decade earlier three of which had been kept in the blue plastic bag they'd originally been supplied in as 'spares' for the three 3 cell torches that I had acquired which had remained largely unused and from one of which I extracted the fourth required cell.
Actually, I'd used a cheap 'battery test meter' to pick out the best of my collection of D cells - there was very little difference by which to choose the 'best'. The bin is still operating perfectly fine to this day! I reckon a pack of four "Heavy Duty" zinc carbon D cells from PoundWorld should last a good 12 months in this case, making the expense of battery replacement far cheaper than that of the more fancy bins which rely on the use of alkaline AA cells instead.
In the case of battery powered portable kit, size *is* important after all! :-)
I guess they have to make them pretty nondescript to cover almost any door colour and design. We didn't stick ours on the frame because that's apparently not advisable with PVC over metal, as the metal is supposed to attenuate the signal. We stuck ours centrally on the glass.
Some delivery persons still choose to ignore the lit bell push, and they should hear the chime too, but they often knock on the glass, presumably due to the number of dead batteries in wireless doorbells ... I blame TMH!
Why don't door bells use *bell* batteries? (The big rectangular ones with terminals on top. Originally these had nice brass screws, latterly replaced with nasty plastic caps.)
Before I bought the hands free bin, I'd have said the same. Don't knock it without trying one out for yourself. :-) Just make sure to choose one that runs off the most economical battery type if you ever decide to 'upgrade' from pedal to battery power.
Because those batteries are as rare as hens teeth and expensive if you can find them. You can get one for 15 quid at
formatting link
- and it even has brass terminal nuts.
Though plastic capped nuts reduce the risk of short circuit problems.
But if you want vintage BIG high capacity batteries then the old cylindrical "Flag" 1.5 volt cells at 2 5/8 in, dia and 6 3/4 in. high with big brass terminals took some beating.
formatting link
I had great fun as a child stretching wire across the terminals and watching it glow red.
I remember the GPO versions of those R40s which were still in use as late as the 70s for local battery systems (usually in a set of three in a wooden or bakelite battery box, typically on private wire point to point circuits).
The only difference between the Flag battery pictured and the ones supplied to the GPO was that the GPO R40s used a flying lead wire for the negative termination retaining the screw terminal feature on the positive carbon rod connection which made it easy to wire up a string of them to form a higher voltage battery pack.
I clicked on the file usage link below to the list of battery sizes page and then from there in the See Also list, the link to "Search for the Super Battery (2017 PBS film) which intrigued me enough to torrent download the documentary itself which was, considering its intended audience, a quite informative and well balanced treatise on the subject of energy storage. Well worth a watch, imo.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.