Tech Under $250

Video Doorbells

Video Doorbells

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The doorbell is one of those items I never really thought about before this recent surge in video doorbells.  It is probably the simplest of tech in the home and one of the most needed.  Press a button and two connectors touch send an electrical current to a chime placed somewhere in your home.  Let go of the button and the connectors separate stopping the current.  They cost less than $10 to replace which is why I always find myself being slightly annoyed when I visit a home of means and find that their doorbell is broken and has been so for awhile.

I began to research video doorbells while looking for a discreet place to house a camera by my front door.  We moved into a townhouse earlier in the year and I found it to be a real hassle to come down two flight of stairs while I’m trying to put my kids to sleep to tell a solicitor I’m not interested.  I was beginning to think I was going to have to run a cable to the front of the house which would become a bit destructive when I fell upon a YouTube review of a video doorbell.  My stand alone IP camera ideas was immediately eliminated for this option.

Video doorbells allow you to be notified by smart phone or tablet when your doorbell is rang.  You can then pull up the doorbell’s camera on your device and speak to whomever is at the door through the built in intercom.

Before I began to research my options in the world of video doorbells, I again asked myself the questions I always ask before I make a tech purchase.

1) Will this add convenience and security to my life.

Yes, it will prevent me from opening the doors to people I don’t know while still being able to communicate with them.  It will also prevent me from panicking when I am changing diapers or bathing the kids and doorbell rings.

2) Can this be integrated with other tech I own.

This one was tricky but ultimately it passed the test.  Most of the popular brands of video doorbells can be integrated with a home automation platform.

As you can tell from my front door picture, I ended up choosing the Ring Pro video doorbell as my choice for a number of reason.

The doorbell wire that the builder ran for my townhouse is in the middle of my door molding.  This means I had limited space to place a doorbell without having an overhang. No only is it not aesthetically pleasing but it could easily be broken off that way.  This left my option limited to a slim doorbell which the Ring Pro offers.

I also wanted different color options for the video doorbell so that it matched my door accessories and I liked that the Ring Pro comes with 4 different color skins.


The Ring company also had the brilliant ideas of inventing a ring chime pro which helps in two ways.  If you have a large home or a home with many levels like mine, there are parts of the house where you can’t hear the doorbell.  The Ring Chime pro simply plugs to an outlet in that part of the house and uses its built in speaker to chime when the doorbell button is pressed.  It also extends the wi-fi  broadcast range of the video doorbell which can make or break you experience with the product.  If the signal is too weak you won’t be able to pull up the video.

The Ring Pro also comes with motion sensors which can break up the area in front of your home into zones and notify you if someone enters the zone.  I made my driveway my zone so I get notified whenever someone pulls up to my driveway or walks within 10 ft of my front doorbell.  This allows me to watch my daughter steps off the school bus in the afternoon while I am at work and depending on she acts as she walks in I know if she had a good day at school or a bad one.  It’s a small thing but it makes me feel good to know I am not missing these moments.

I love my Ring Pro video doorbell so much that I ended up purchasing a Ring for my parents and my in-laws.  The Regular Ring model differs from the pro in that it does 720p video as oppose 1080p.  It also has the option to be wireless unlike the pro which has to be hard wired.  This makes the Ring much large in size.  My mom had even less space than me to mount a Ring in front of her house so we ended up mounting it to the brick.  Since it’s not wired, her Ring has to be charged periodically and from what she tells me one charge can last about six months. When the battery becomes too low se gets a notification and charges it for about an hour.  What has impressed me most is that she lives in Canada where the temperature regularly drops to below 20 in the winter and she has never had a functionality issue.

Please leave me a comment if you have any questions, comments, prefer another video doorbell or just want to say hi. I  always love hearing from you.

Automated locks

Automated locks

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Since I love technology, it does not take much for whatever the newest gadget is to entice me into purchasing it.  In my quest to make my home fully automated, I have made many purchases on a whim which I ended up regretting.  Be it that the technology was not perfected yet or it is so complicated to utilize that I am the only one who can operate.  I now ask myself the following questions before I make any tech purchases:

1) Will this add convenience and security to my life.

2) Can this be integrated with other tech I own.

Convenience to me means that it reduces the amount of steps it would of taken me to perform a task.  An example would be instead of trying to remember if I locked the door as I ran out this morning I can quickly check on my phone for the status of each door of my home.

Security would be receiving a notification when my door is unlocked during a period when no one should be home.

Integration is important because I need my technology to be able to communicate with one another.  Gone are the days when every product spoke its own language.  If what I am coveting cannot interact with existing gear I own or plan to own, that is a deal breaker for me.

Not as important as far as functionality but important to what I bring in my home is aesthetics.  My system should be invisible and if it can’t be than it should be at the very least discreet.

I began researching automated locks because I saw my daughter reach for the front door handle one day in an attempt to follow my husband outside.  If she had a little more strength she would of been able to open the door.

I thought about this for awhile and began to think of features the lock would have to have to validate my purchase.  If it was only about my children’s safety I could easily just install a child safety lock and be done with it so it had to offer me more.

Enter the August smart lock with HomeKit.  This lock met every single one of my qualifications

1) The lock is placed on the inside of the door so it is not visible to the outside.  My door decor is unaffected and no one knows there is a smart lock on the door.  I can also keep my higher quality lock on the outside which is harder to pick if someone was so inclined.

2) It uses the Bluetooth and GPS of my phone to sense my location and unlocks itself as I am heading towards the door (it also knows which side of the door I am on so it doesn’t unlock when I am inside the house).  As a mom, this feature has saved me when my arms are full of bags and kids and adding unlocking a door to that equation would require me to place one or both down.

3) I can remotely access it via my iPhone  HomeKit app and an AppleTV 4th generation.  This allows me to unlock the door from anywhere I have an internet connection.  If you don’t have an AppleTV 4th generation or iPhone, August sells an August connect which gives you that capability from their app.  It can also be integrated with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

4) I have a time stamp of each time the door is opened and wether it was done electronically or manually.  If the door is opened electronically I see a picture and a name of the person who unlocked it.

5) I can schedule specific times that allow guest access to the lock.  Guests can also download the app and get added to the access list at no additional cost.

The install was incredibly easy which is another perk of this lock.  All I needed was a Phillips screw driver.  Once the lock was in place I downloaded the app and followed the directions.  August also has decent customer service if you need assistance.

Since the existing front lock is unaffected it was my only option of a smart lock when I lived in an apartment.  This allows me to recommend this lock to everyone I know.  I especially wanted my younger sister to have it for the safety features in her apartment.

All in all, I am quite impressed with this smart lock.  There are some features I wish they would address like how quickly it goes through batteries (4 AA every three months) and once the batteries get too low the lock does not always respond before I am notified to replace the batteries.  I always carry my keys with me in my purse but if I were to try to go jogging I doubt I would take them and I would want the lock to do it’s job without trepidation.  Bottom line, I have not found a comparable smart lock at the same price point which gives me all these features and it has added to convenience to my life as it will to yours.

Please leave me a comment if you have comments, questions, or just want to say hi.