Best value doorbell with video to smart phone

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Did you get one ? Which did you get and why?  
Best value free cloud feature - not interested in a subscription
Best alternative to free cloud USB or micro SD card onboard 
Do people steal these doorbells? 
Wired or battery ?  Tell me about wired.. do you plug in a transformer into the nearest socket?  How have you found battery life if you use battery? 

**AND** what is the cheapest possible way of having live video of someone at the door, assuming you are inside the house and you hear them knocking on your door but you don't want to go to the door and open it.  This option means other than expensive doorbell cameras.  
EDIT to add, front door is glass so a spy-hole is not an option.   

Thank you

fenwick458

I have 2 of the Eufy wireless ones. black Friday sale they were £135 each but they always have an offer on they seem to fluctuate between £160-£140 
no subscription, easy to use, they seem to get most of the events but in certain circumstances do miss them. for example, if a delivery van pulls up, it will capture that and store it as an event, but then miss them coming to the door and leaving the parcel. it doesn't happen all the time, mainly in the rain, but sometimes in the driving wind and rain towards the doorbell it works perfectly, seems very hit and miss
I have a Hikvision IP cam setup that records 24/7 and thats the backup, but the eufy seems easier to use and easier to quickly review events from the day. it certainly beats the Hikvision on ease of use. it's my go to app to see whos at the house, the proper CCTV will see more in more detail but it lacks the easy to view event system that the eufy has
mine are both wired to a 12v transformer so I never need to charge the batteries. regarding possible theft it was a concern of mine, so I fitted mine into a plastic pattress to obscure the hole you need to put a sim card removal tool into to take it off.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ToVJsRj1qBmm9FtWA
there are probably better anti theft solutions if you live in a rough area, when I searched there were a few custom items being made and sold but none for a eufy so I came up with my own

chrisw

Not sure why you're so set against a subscription, Ring is £25 a year on top of the doorbell which is often on offer for around £59.

The other advantage of cloud is that if the doorbell gets stolen, you still have evidence of who's stolen it as opposed to losing the card as well. Ring will replace a stolen doorbell once.

The battery on Ring last about 3-4 months with fairly intensive use but they can easily be connected to a transformer if need be.

iampetesmith

Ours is a Eufy one which isn't the cheapest, but I got it after I tried a couple of cheaper ones where the motion detection didn't alert the phone properly. The Eufy one has a box that acts as the chime, stores the recordings and plugs into the network, then the bell communicates with it. I find the phone alerts work much better than the other ones I tried (one was an iGeek from Amazon, and the other was a different brand but the same bell in a different casing). 

The recordings are stored on the chime box inside the house, so even if it gets nicked the footage will be on there. There are 2 tiny Torx screws that hold it in place, so any thief would need to be carrying one of those screwdrivers anyway.

You can either charge the battery that comes with it, or plug it into the mains with a 24v adapter. I plugged ours into the mains, you can buy the adapters separately and they have quite a long cable so you plug it into the wall, then connect the 2 wires to the connectors on the bell's bracket.

Sandtree

We have a Nest Hello but that in part was because the Ring doorbell didn't pass the wife aesthetic test and would have been too wide to fit in the old button's place.

Ours replaced an existing wired doorbell and so its powered by the transformer in the consumer unit which was just powerful enough to run it. Not had anyone try to steel ours but Nest/Google replace it if it is stolen. 

Martin_the_Unjust

iampetesmith said:

Ours is a Eufy one which isn't the cheapest, but I got it after I tried a couple of cheaper ones where the motion detection didn't alert the phone properly. The Eufy one has a box that acts as the chime, stores the recordings and plugs into the network, then the bell communicates with it. I find the phone alerts work much better than the other ones I tried (one was an iGeek from Amazon, and the other was a different brand but the same bell in a different casing). 

The recordings are stored on the chime box inside the house, so even if it gets nicked the footage will be on there. There are 2 tiny Torx screws that hold it in place, so any thief would need to be carrying one of those screwdrivers anyway.

You can either charge the battery that comes with it, or plug it into the mains with a 24v adapter. I plugged ours into the mains, you can buy the adapters separately and they have quite a long cable so you plug it into the wall, then connect the 2 wires to the connectors on the bell's bracket.

That sounds very interesting, thanks

scrummy-mummy

Another vote for Eufy. There is no monthly fee and it was easy to configure. We plan to add to our system over time with additional cameras.

fenwick458

iampetesmith said:

so even if it gets nicked the footage will be on there. There are 2 tiny Torx screws that hold it in place, so any thief would need to be carrying one of those screwdrivers anyway.

have they updated them? you remove the type I have with a sim card removal tool in the bottom