Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsTerrible Battery Life, Doesn't Work Wired
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2024
I've never written an Amazon review before but felt compelled to warn others from making the same mistake I did. I'm coming up on 6 months of owning this thing and it's been a frustrating mess of an experience.
The doorbell "works" when on battery power, but you lose access to most of the features you'd actually want a smart doorbell for, and critically, you'll have to budget for all the batteries you're gonna be buying to keep this thing going. As other reviews note, this thing goes through batteries at a ridiculous pace. It's 6 AA batteries every time you need to replace them, and even on the most restrictive power saving mode, where the thing is almost just a regular doorbell, it'll still get nowhere near the advertised battery life.
So wiring the thing would solve all problems right? You would think, considering Aqara says it'll work with just about any transformer, almost any kind of voltage, AC, DC, no problem.
Or so they say, it'll work marvelously for about a week after you wire it, all the functions running and no more low battery spam. Then, it'll simply just stop working. The doorbell consists of two parts: the actual doorbell, and a chime repeater you place inside the home that the doorbell wirelessly connects to. Some time after you go wired, it'll stop connecting to the repeater, and the doorbell becomes a useless brick on your front door. The doorbell won't ring, you won't receive any alerts, and you can't access the video feed.
Go online and you'll find hundreds of posts from other owners with the same issue after wiring the doorbell. Contact Aqara support and they'll give you increasingly ridiculous suggestions to get it working again. Reset the doorbell, not working? Ok turn off night vision, no? Turn off accidental deletion protection, turn off tamper protection, and so on. One of these will magically fix it, which I suspect is merely coincidence, since you'll get about another week before it's broken again.
Clearly something is wrong when using this thing on wired power, and Aqara either can't figure it out or refuses to.
In short, if you aren't going to use wired power, and you're ok with having a monthly battery budget just for your doorbell, then get this. Otherwise, look for a doorbell that actually works like it's supposed to.
