Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5 review

Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5 review

Does the Ring video doorbell work with Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) system? With the aid of Ring app, you can add Ring’s smart cameras, including their video doorbell with your Ring Alarm System. After all Ring smart devices are added, you need to linked devices from Settings. You can then create associations so that when one device detects motion, your Ring Alarm System will react accordingly, helping your smart home system work more efficiently to keep you and your loved ones safe. Same way Echo 5 also can be linked with Ring alarm system. Know about more benefits in Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5 review.

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In the box

Includes:

  • Base Station
  • Keypad
  • Contact Sensors (x4)
  • Motion Detector
  • Range Extender

Pros & Cons – Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5

Pros

  • Easy to install
  • Ring app allows for remote monitoring
  • Supports several wireless protocols
  • Many options for cameras, including Ring doorbell cameras
  • Neighbours app provides local security alerts
  • Some cameras have night vision and motion detection

Cons

  • Sensors are rather large
  • Limited starter package
  • Ring’s complicated privacy history
  • Doesn’t support IFTTT or HomeKit
  • Accessory options are limited
  • Bulky contact sensors

Specs

  • Dimensions: 6.65 X 6.65 X 1.46 in
  • Power: 100 – 240V 50/60Hz AC Adapter Included
  • Operating Conditions: 32°F to 104°F (0°C to 40°C)
  • Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Zigbee, Bluetooth for Setup (plus Cellular Backup with Ring Protect Plus subscription)
  • Battery: Internal rechargeable Lithium Ion Backup Battery which lasts up to 24 hours
  • Keypad 4.13 X 4.41 X 0.75 (in)
  • Professional Installation Required No
  • Monitoring Contract Required No
  • Environmental Sensors Yes
  • Cellular Backup Yes
  • Power Outage Backup Yes
  • Z-Wave/ZigBee Yes
  • IFTTT Support No
  • Voice Assistant Compatibility Amazon Alexa

Price – Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell

For larger homes, Ring sells an eight-piece kit for $249.99 that comes with everything from the five-piece kit, as well as three door/window sensors. There’s also a 10-piece kit for $259.99 that contains the base station, keypad, and range extender, as well as five door/windows sensors and two motion sensors. The 14-piece kit goes for $329.99 and gets you a base station, two keypads, an extender, eight door/window sensors, and two motion sensors. 

Pricing for add-on components is pretty much in line with what you’ll pay if you have a SimpliSafe or Abode system. Extra door/window sensors are $19.99 each, another motion sensor will cost you $29.99, and a range extender goes for $24.99. Additional devices include a First Alert smoke/CO detector, a flood/freeze detector, and a panic button.

Alarm Security Kits include:

  • Alarm Security Kit, 14-Piece: This kit costs $419.90 and comes with one base station, one range extender, two keypads, two motion detectors, and eight contact sensors. This plan is for a home that is over 2,000 square feet. 
  • Alarm Security Kit, 5-Piece: This kit is $199.99 and comes with one base station, one keypad, one contact sensor, one motion detector, and one range extender. This kit is ideal for those who are living in an apartment or small home. 
  • Alarm Security Kit, 10-Piece: This kit costs $309.94 and comes with one base station, one keypad, one range extender, two motion detectors, and five contact sensors. This plan is expected to cover around 1,000 to 2,000 square feet. 
  • Alarm Security Kit, 8-Piece: This kit costs $259.96 and comes with one base station, one keypad, one motion detector, one range extender, and four contact sensors. With this equipment, you can protect four windows or doors and control everything from the app.
  • Retrofit Kit with 5-Piece Alarm Bundle: This bundle is for customers who already have a wired alarm system. It costs $319.99 and comes with the alarm kit, a Ring Alarm base station, one keypad, one motion detector, one range extender, and one bonus contact sensor. 

Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5 review

Design

Designed for apartments, condos, and small homes, the five-piece Ring Alarm Security Kit comes with a base station, a keypad, a door/window sensor, a motion sensor, and a Z-Wave range extender.  It measures 1.4 by 6.6 by 6.6 inches (HWD) and has a 1.5-inch LED ring and a speaker on top, and a USB port and a LAN port around back, joined by a pairing button, a reset button, and Wi-Fi and power indicators. 

Connectors

Also included in the box is an installation kit containing mounting tape and hardware for the keypad and two sensors, an AC adapter for the base station, a USB power adapter and cable for the keypad, a getting started guide, and an alarm kit security basics guide.

Base station

The base contains circuitry that supports numerous wireless protocols including dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Zigbee, Bluetooth 4.1, and LTE cellular as a backup if you subscribe to the Ring Protect Plus plan (more on this later). It also has an internal backup battery that will provide up to 24 hours of power in the event of a power loss, and a loud 105dB internal siren.

Range Extender

Following suit with the slim profile, button, and light indicator is the range extender, which amplifies the distance between the sensors and the base station by another 250 feet.

While we didn’t use the range extender, we definitely recommend it for larger homes that need a stronger connection among Ring devices.

Sensor

The LED ring glows solid blue when the system is disarmed and turns red when it is in Home mode (only some sensors, such as contact sensors, are armed) or Away mode (all sensors are armed). When you arm and disarm the system, a voice tells you what mode you are in. You’ll also hear a chime whenever a sensor is triggered.

At 3.2 by 0.9 by 0.9 inches (HWD), the Z-Wave contact sensors for doors and windows are bulkier than the sensors that come with the Vivint Smart Home system (2.5 by 1.0 by 0.5 inches). They’re each powered by a CR123 battery that is rated to last three years and can be installed using double-sided tape or with mounting screws.

Keypad

The keypad measures 4.1 by 4.4 by 0.75 inches (HWD) and has numeric buttons (0-9). It also has Disarm, Home and Away buttons, and Fire and Police buttons that will sound the siren and send an alert to the professional monitoring service so that first responders can be dispatched. Pressing the Medical button will trigger a call to the response center so that an ambulance can be sent.

Motion sensor

The motion sensor (3.5 by 2.4 by 1.7 inches) also runs on a CR123 battery and uses a Z-Wave radio to communicate with the base station. The range extender (3.1 by 1.8 by 1.1 inches) plugs into a wall outlet and extends the Z-Wave signal by up to 250 feet, so you can place sensors just about anywhere.

Installation – Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5

Installing the keypad was simply a matter of plugging it in and waiting a few seconds for it to be recognized. I gave it a name and a location, used the included mounting screws to hang the mounting plate on a wall, snapped the keypad into place, created an Access Code for arming and disarming the system, and was done. Installing the motion sensor was just as easy: I removed the battery tape and waited a few seconds for it to be added to the app. I gave it a location and a name, used the double-sided tape to mount it to a wall, and tested the sensor. To install the Z-Wave range extender, I plugged it into a wall outlet between the base station and the motion sensor (the farthest device from the base station), named it, and assigned it to a room. The entire installation took around 20 minutes.

Apps

The Ring mobile app offers a user-friendly Dashboard featuring live preview windows for each installed camera and doorbell. The Alarm controls are at the top of the Dashboard screen and include Disarmed, Home, and Away buttons. Below the buttons is the status of all installed sensors (cleared, open), and below that are tabs for viewing Neighborhood posts and Event History.

Tap the three-bar icon in the upper left corner of the Dashboard to access the Alarm settings where you can enable/disable email and push notifications, change your location, enable/disable specific sensors while in Home and Away mode, change the Entry and Exit delay timers (30 to 180 seconds), and allow additional users to control the Alarm and other Ring devices.

Ring Alarm 8-piece kit (2nd gen) with Ring video doorbell and Echo Show 5 Customer review

So nice I bought it twice

I recently installed this home security system for my parents and after the install I was fully sold on getting one for myself. It is extremely easy to set up and use. I did have a slight hiccup when installing my parents system due to the fact that they use and Apple devices and with the Apple devices there’s a little connectivity issue when setting up the Wi-Fi access. It wasn’t hard to find a quick work around for it but it did slow down the process just a little bit. Once fully installed this gave no problems with their Apple device. The system is great for parents like me with small children giving us alerts when a door has opened or if someone forgot to close something. When on the go it’s nice to be able to check on our home and know it is secure. It’s also nice to know that the system has its own internal batteries so if there’s a loss of power the security system is still able to arm and stay armed.

Features of Ring Video Doorbell 2

Finally, there’s the Ring Video Doorbell 2, a doorbell camera that you can either hardwire into your home or power using a battery. We chose to hardwire it into our existing doorbell set up so it wouldn’t be dependent on a battery.

Here at Security.org, we love doorbell cameras because they let us greet our guests whether we’re just upstairs or across the globe, even speaking to them through the Ring app.

Video: Like the Stick Up Cam Wired, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 has that 1080p HD video we look for in a camera, plus an even wider 160-degree field of view. While we weren’t able to zoom in, it definitely wasn’t super necessary as our guests stood right in front of it. As you can see from the picture, we were able to see our visitors and front stoop clearly.

Night vision: As you can see, the Ring Video Doorbell 2’s night vision lights up even the darkest of nights via infrared LED sensors, which really helped us greet friends!

Audio: Every video doorbell we’ve tested out has a speaker and microphone, allowing us to have conversations through our camera and its respective app, and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 was no exception. Now, when we tested it out from our apartment in Brooklyn, we found it super helpful in regards to home deliveries. We get a lot delivered, so it was really nice to be able to communicate with the delivery people and tell them any special instructions.

Artificial intelligence: Since the Ring Video Doorbell 2 lacks person detection, we received a lot of false notifications, as we mentioned earlier. Most of the video doorbells we review have person detection, which is even more important outside because of cars and animals like squirrels. Living in Brooklyn, there’s a lot that passes our camera every day, so this was a pretty big drawback for us. However, if you live in a more rural area, it may not be as much of a problem.

Ring doesn’t just stop at alarms, cameras, and video doorbells — you can add their Alarm Flood & Freeze Sensors or Alarm Smoke & CO Listeners to reinforce your home’s protection. In our case, we didn’t incorporate any of these accessories into our security system but we tip our hats at Ring’s dedication to expanding its ever-growing product line.

Storage: The same storage options apply to the Ring Video Doorbell 2; no local storage and cloud storage available only through Ring Protect plans. Again, we wish that the Ring Video Doorbell 2 had a slot for a micro-SD card, but it wasn’t hard to download the cloud storage from the Ring app onto a local hard drive.

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