I’m comparing smart doorbells and would prefer not to pay for a cloud subscription just to review motion events. How well do models with local storage work in practice, and do they still send useful alerts when nobody is home? I’m also unsure how much to worry about Wi-Fi signal at the front door or compatibility with an existing chime. What features or limitations would you check before choosing one?
I've got a Reolink. Video is stored on a Blue Iris instance but I do have a smallish SD card in there as a 'wifi ain't working' backup to record events.
Wifi is generally good, occasionally drops out if I don't have an extender but that's due to my doorbell being down a floor from my router. Solved with an extender in the hall near the doorbell.
It can send alerts when I'm away from home, they can be set up to come thru as a call on your iphone or a push notification. But I generally found trying to talk over the remote link a bit hit and miss so I actually disabled that - my theory is if I didn't have a smart doorbell I wouldn't know if anyone was there or not. It's more useful to review past events, confirm stuff is delivered etc.
Wifi is generally good, occasionally drops out if I don't have an extender but that's due to my doorbell being down a floor from my router. Solved with an extender in the hall near the doorbell.
It can send alerts when I'm away from home, they can be set up to come thru as a call on your iphone or a push notification. But I generally found trying to talk over the remote link a bit hit and miss so I actually disabled that - my theory is if I didn't have a smart doorbell I wouldn't know if anyone was there or not. It's more useful to review past events, confirm stuff is delivered etc.
One thing to check is whether “local storage” also means the doorbell can record without the vendor’s cloud service; those aren’t always the same thing. Away-from-home alerts still need an internet connection, and may rely on the manufacturer’s app service even when clips are stored locally. A local recorder plus SD backup sounds like a useful fallback.
Sparky’s point is worth checking closely: “local storage” can still mean the vendor app is required for remote alerts. Before choosing, I’d verify whether it supports RTSP/ONVIF or a local recorder, how SD-card retention works, and whether away alerts depend on the manufacturer’s service. For the chime, check whether it supports your existing mechanical or digital chime and what transformer voltage it needs; many need a bypass kit or a separate plug-in chime. At the door, test 2.4GHz signal strength rather than assuming an extender will fix it.
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