How to change the battery in a ring doorbell

The Ring Doorbell isn’t a type of doorbell with a ringing bell. The Ring Doorbell, also known as the Ring Video Doorbell, is a type of doorbell video camera brand that’s a doorbell and a home security Wi-Fi camera in one device.

It’s quite handy in knowing who’s at your door without bothering to move towards it and open it yet. The Ring Doorbell comes in two variants power-wise—hardwired and battery-powered.

The ones with batteries allow you to power the doorbell cam without needing an electrician to properly wire your front porch or doorway. 

With that in mind, did you know that the Ring Doorbell can be battery-powered as well as hardwired?  If you want to go the battery route, you should know how to remove and replace it. How to replace a ring doorbell battery? Keep on reading to find out. 

How to Remove and Replace Your Ring Doorbell Battery

It varies from model to model, but in regards to the Ring Video Doorbell 2, here’s what you need to do in order to gain access to its battery for the sake of replacement or recharging.

You can also do this process when replacing a defective battery with a properly functioning one without removing the doorbell unit altogether. 

• Get a Torx Screwdriver: The battery is secured with a Torx screw that you need a Torx screwdriver to remove. As opposed to a Philips screwdriver or a standard screwdriver, the Torx screwdriver has an end that looked like the Star of David, in order to fit with the tamper-proof Torx screws designed to be resistant to removal by anything other than a Torx screwdriver.

It’s mainly used in computers, bicycles, automobile components, and in this case, the battery pack of a Ring Doorbell. The reason why it uses Torx instead of a regular screw is to ensure that ne’er-do-wells won’t easily remove it with a regular screwdriver in order to do pranks or invade your home.

• Unscrew the Torx Screw and Lift Face Plate: Use the Torx driver to unscrew the Torx screw. This will allow you to remove the faceplate of the doorbell and gain access to the battery itself. Don’t worry about the battery suddenly popping out after faceplate removal. The battery can only slide out with the release tab pressed.

Don’t bother to screw back the Torx screw onto the doorbell with the faceplate attached to it without putting back the battery first because the screw hole is located on the battery itself. Instead, place the screw somewhere safe and accessible only to you and not your children or small animals that you won’t forget or misplace easily.

•  Press The Release Tab and Remove the Battery: Without the Torx screw, the battery is merely supported by a tab that you’re supposed to press in order to release the battery. From there, you can replace the faceplate with the doorbell, but now it’s not secured because it needs both the battery and the screw to secure it.

You can now charge your battery by connecting a micro USB cable with a power plug to the battery’s charging port then plug it onto the electrical socket. Micro USB or USB-B shouldn’t be confused with USB-C used for Android phones with a bigger connector that can be plugged in more ways than one.

• How Long Does It Take to Charge a Ring Doorbell Battery? A Ring Video Doorbell battery takes about 5-10 hours to charge, so you should preferably charge it at around a weekend or something, when you’re not expecting visitors or if you don’t have a spare doorbell in the house to use in the meantime.

This charge is quite long-lasting at least. The battery can last for at least 6 months of usage or all the way up to a year, so if you were to charge the battery on January 1st, it can possibly last all the way to the following New Year’s Day, wherein you can charge it up during the holiday celebrations and whatnot. 

• Slide The Battery Back Into The Bracket After Charging: In order to put the battery pack back to your Ring Doorbell, you should replace it on the mounting bracket and the release tab until you hear an audible click. Afterwards, put the face plate back and screw back the Torx screw with your Torx driver. You’re now good to go.

It takes about 30 seconds for the Ring Doorbell—particularly the Ring Doorbell 2—to start up. Test the doorbell if it works by pressing the button on the front to ring the doorbell. You can also run diagnostics on all its functions including live-streaming its camera or using its two-way talk function.

Things to Remember Regarding the Ring Doorbell Battery

If your battery is getting low, the Ring app will inform you of the appropriate notifications. You don’t need to remove the battery and check its charge from there every time. You also don’t have to wait every 6-12 months on the dot to charge the battery, especially if you’ve been recording a bit with the video cam to track down the neighbor who has their dog poop on your lawn. The app tracks the battery usage for your convenience so you don’t have to.

• Does the Ring Doorbell Require a Battery? You can avail of the Ring Doorbell in the hardwired form so that you can make use of it 24/7 for years without recharging, but this necessitates getting an electrician to put in a wire at your front gate or front door. You can also get models that are battery-powered instead so you don’t need any rewiring done.

Some even get power through solar panels to continually recharge the battery so that you won’t have to recharge it. Still, others are a hybrid of all options, with the battery hard-wired but still having battery power to allow it to work even in the event of a blackout.

• When Should You Change and Charge The Battery? Change the battery whenever the app informs you to do so or every 6 months or so, whichever is more convenient for you. You can err on the side of caution and simply charge the battery every 6 months anyway instead of waiting a whole year. Your best bet is to follow the alerts that your app provides to ensure of healthy, continual Ring Doorbell performance.

Normal use involves at least 6 months of juice. However, the more you use its more advanced functionalities the sooner the battery will run out, necessitating those application alerts from your Ring app. The battery might deplete faster due to large motion events captured by its sensors and video cam.

• How Do You Recharge Your Ring Doorbell? The common micro USB or USB-B cable is enough to recharge your Ring Video Doorbell to full capacity. The one that comes with the doorbell came is colored orange and is found within the box. You can also use other micro USB cables you have on hand in order to charge the battery, but with the caveat that you should use the cable, it came with to err on the side of caution.

You can plug that micro USB cable to any USB power source such as your computer or laptop. You can also connect it to an electrical socket plug to enable you to charge at any electrical socket in your home. It takes around 5-10 hours for the Ring Video Doorbell battery to fully charge. Don’t overcharge your battery though. Make sure it doesn’t go over 10 hours on the charging dock since this also affects battery efficiency. 

• What Are The Factors That Affect Your Battery Life? The factors that affect battery life include getting loads of visitors or stray animals at your front porch triggering the motion detection mechanism and activating the camera to see what’s in front of it. Typhoons and debris can also trigger the motion detector and camera as well, which makes the battery drain faster.

With normal usage independent of uncontrollable stimuli, events, local weather, activities, and persons in your home environment, the battery can last for up to 6 months or even a whole year without recharging. The app will alert you if your battery is low energy though. You can maximize the lifespan of your battery to minimize the need for recharging through making motion detection less sensitive or using only basic functions.

The Bottom Line 

Congratulations on getting your own Ring Video Doorbell. It’s a huge step towards ensuring the security of your home because it’s no ordinary doorbell. It’s an advanced front porch type of security camera too because it doesn’t activate willy-nilly.

It instead detects motion or shows you a peek of who’s at your front door when they ring the doorbell. It even comes with other exciting features such as a two-way talk that serves as your intercom and live streaming on any Wi-Fi or smart device.

With that in mind, you need to also know how to recharge the battery of the Ring Doorbell so that you can continually use it without any worries. Luckily, the Ring app alerts you if your doorbell cam’s battery is low. It takes only 5-10 hours for the battery to get fully charged and with normal use, the Ring Doorbell can last for up to 6-12 months on a fully charged battery. 

References:

1. “Ring 2 Doorbell How to Remove The Battery“, YouTube, October 24, 2018
2. “Charging the Battery on Your Ring Video Doorbell“, Ring.com, Retrieved June 12, 2020
3. “Ring Video Doorbell Hardwired vs. Battery Powered Operation“, Ring.com, Retrieved June 12, 2020

Image Source:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonlanderson/20596056615/

I write dozens of helpful informational articles based on topics that I have identified again and again throughout my research and work experience. I am here to help you find the right home security products. View all posts by James Core →