Black Friday and Other Great Deals

[robbiestoupe]

How does the doorbell part of the Ring doorbell work? Is there a receiver you mount inside, or is this solely connected to an app/Alexa device?

[Beveridge]

A couple ways.

You can have it set up to your phone/Alexa devices and it will notify you. There is also a Chime device you can plug in and it acts as your doorbell.

It was a little unnerving having the whole house signal doorbell so I disabled all Alexa devices and it goes off on my phone and the Chime.

[robbiestoupe]

A couple ways.

You can have it set up to your phone/Alexa devices and it will notify you. There is also a Chime device you can plug in and it acts as your doorbell.

It was a little unnerving having the whole house signal doorbell so I disabled all Alexa devices and it goes off on my phone and the Chime.

Thanks. Is the Chime extra or does it typically come with the device?

[Morkle]

How does the doorbell part of the Ring doorbell work? Is there a receiver you mount inside, or is this solely connected to an app/Alexa device?

Mine is direct wired into my house. It's run via electric and rings the doorbell that was there when we bought the house.

There are a few ways it can be done, but this is mine. Just make sure it has a solid wifi connection above all else. If it doesn't, get an extender and put it near it.

I also don't have mine connected do Alexa at all for notifications. Was annoying quick. I use just the phone - because I also have a backyard spotlight camera.

[skullman80]

Yeah ours is tied to the alexa and our phones, honestly I keep the sound silent and just let my phone notify me/us by vibration normally.

[robbiestoupe]

I've had a knockoff Chinese Amazon doorbell since we moved in. The old one didn't work, and I found out why when I installed the Amazon bell. The wires going to the doorbell were so brittle that they basically sheared off the moment I took the old one off. So I'll either have to get a wireless Ring, or fish new wire through. Not really up for another project, so looking at the battery powered wireless versions.

[Morkle]

I've heard they work well, I have a friend who has a battery mounted one for his garage. The only recommendation is to make sure it has strong wifi.

They act up if the wifi sucks, mine did that - but I switched to mesh right after that and it's been fine since.

[skullman80]

I've had a knockoff Chinese Amazon doorbell since we moved in. The old one didn't work, and I found out why when I installed the Amazon bell. The wires going to the doorbell were so brittle that they basically sheared off the moment I took the old one off. So I'll either have to get a wireless Ring, or fish new wire through. Not really up for another project, so looking at the battery powered wireless versions.

You can run the ring of a rechargeable battery. We do for ours. The transformer for the old doorbell wasn't powerful enough for the ring and instead of swapping it out we just use the battery. We normally get a 3-4 months out of a charge. We have an extra that we swapout when the other needs charging.

Edit: Missed your last sentence haha.

[faftorial]

I've had a knockoff Chinese Amazon doorbell since we moved in. The old one didn't work, and I found out why when I installed the Amazon bell. The wires going to the doorbell were so brittle that they basically sheared off the moment I took the old one off. So I'll either have to get a wireless Ring, or fish new wire through. Not really up for another project, so looking at the battery powered wireless versions.

You can run the ring of a rechargeable battery. We do for ours. The transformer for the old doorbell wasn't powerful enough for the ring and instead of swapping it out we just use the battery. We normally get a 3-4 months out of a charge. We have an extra that we swapout when the other needs charging.

Edit: Missed your last sentence haha.

Can it be easily swiped?

[NTP66]

I've had a knockoff Chinese Amazon doorbell since we moved in. The old one didn't work, and I found out why when I installed the Amazon bell. The wires going to the doorbell were so brittle that they basically sheared off the moment I took the old one off. So I'll either have to get a wireless Ring, or fish new wire through. Not really up for another project, so looking at the battery powered wireless versions.

You can run the ring of a rechargeable battery. We do for ours. The transformer for the old doorbell wasn't powerful enough for the ring and instead of swapping it out we just use the battery. We normally get a 3-4 months out of a charge. We have an extra that we swapout when the other needs charging.

Edit: Missed your last sentence haha.

Can it be easily swiped?

Without breaking it? Probably not. If you have a Torx bit, you can remove the case easily, then remove the doorbell with a Phillips. But who is spending the time to do that when you can't use the doorbell on your own home? It'd be pointless, unless you were looking to just destroy it.

[Beveridge]

A couple ways.

You can have it set up to your phone/Alexa devices and it will notify you. There is also a Chime device you can plug in and it acts as your doorbell.

It was a little unnerving having the whole house signal doorbell so I disabled all Alexa devices and it goes off on my phone and the Chime.

Thanks. Is the Chime extra or does it typically come with the device?

It's extra or part of a bundle.

On your question for swiping, the base gets mounted to your door or siding or whatever. The battery compartment has a screw at the bottom that takes a special tool (included) to take it off - like NTP said. Not really easy to steal...I guess if you wanted the battery that's easy but would take some effort to get the whole thing.

And as others of noted, it works great as long as it has a good WiFi connection. I don't have a 2nd battery yet, so I make sure I recharge when it's getting low on a day I'm home, but I have high battery use settings turned on and I've had to recharge once since July.

[skullman80]

Yeah getting the battery out and trying to swipe it or the actual doorbell is more work than it's worth. To be honest though I don't even screw the battery in the whole way on the base that holds the battery cause it's a PITA when it's cold out to get the torx screwdriver where it needs to be to take it out, so I just leave enough loosened so I can take it out with my hand.

[NTP66]

Which Roborock do you have NTP? I'm looking at the S7 with the mopping feature

Did you ever pick up an S7? Roborock's Black Friday sale has started: https://us.roborock.com/pages/roborock-deals

Or you can snag a factory renewed one for $355 (after coupon):

[robbiestoupe]

Which Roborock do you have NTP? I'm looking at the S7 with the mopping feature

Did you ever pick up an S7? Roborock's Black Friday sale has started: https://us.roborock.com/pages/roborock-deals

Or you can snag a factory renewed one for $355 (after coupon):

I did. Paid pretty much the same as it is now. The unit they shipped me was crap right out of the box. Kept getting an error 2 which is a stuck bumper error. The bumper wasn't stuck. It took a little back and forth with them before they decided to replace it.

New one is kicking ass. My wife loves it. Said she'll accept it as her Christmas gift, so a win there. Our kids leave so much food under the table, bring in so many leaf particles, and the cat leaves tons of hair that we run the thing probably every other day. The mopping feature is also great since my daughter loves to throw her milk on the ground, and my boys have taken to pouring their own milk for their cereal which inevitably ends up on the floor.

It's a bit louder than I had hoped, but not terrible. We have a rug at our front door with tassels that it can't handle, but we're already picking stuff up like kitchen chairs and shoes so adding the rug isn't a big deal. Sucked up instructions to one of my kids toys the other day when I told it not to go in that room. Found out it did a bad job of determining where the rooms separated and did a sweep just near the walls of the wrong room. A quick update on the map fixed that. Other than those minor things, I'm loving it.

[NTP66]

Awesome, glad to hear it. We love ours.

[robbiestoupe]

My wife's initial reaction when I told her how much I paid for it: I thought you said it was only $200! No, I said it was $200 off. She quickly changed her stance after it got to work.

[NTP66]

My wife has learned to just not ask how much I pay for things now.

[mac5155]

Target ad finally dropped, switch mario kart deal. Sweet. I'll take it with the redcard bonus.

[Ad@m]

VIZIO 70" Class V-Series 4K UHD LED Smart TV V705x-J03
Now $448.00

https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/546665 ... gn_id=9383

[nocera]

I’ve always heard that you shouldn’t buy TVs on Black Friday because companies make specific Black Friday sets that are lower quality. Is that legit?

[LITT]

Yes. From personal experience I bought a Samsung TV that only had two HDMI ports because it was a black Friday exclusive. It’s works great and I’ve had it for 10 years but it wasn’t the base model.

[dodint]

Manufacturers are not making lower-quality televisions with the same model number as a higher-quality set for the purpose of selling them at a discount. That would be illegal for a number of reasons.

That said, manufacturers will make a television with a different model number, in the same product line, for specific retailers. Often these sets are stripped of features and sold at lower prices relative to the fully spec'd TVs in the same product line. So check the ad for the model number and try to do a little research on it. Sometimes it's as simple as adding an extra letter to the existing model number so you have to be diligent.

*edit* A quick Google search shows that these are called 'derivative models'.

In addition to that, lots of really cheap televisions sold on black Friday are from cheaper manufacturers that you've maybe never heard of. But that's going to be a bit more obvious.

[meow]

I love my Zony tv

[mac5155]

Both of my TVs on the wall right now are BF deals. One from 2011 and one from 2019. Both serve my purpose. I don't need 8k with a huge refresh rate.

[NTP66]

Listen, just buy the size you need of the LG C2. You’re welcome in advance.