Ring - Spotlight Cam Wire-free - Black

So I see a TON of negative reviews about the Ring products. I felt compelled to post a POSITIVE review based on my own experience. I own a Spotlight Cam Battery w/solar panel and (2) batteries and I also have a video Doorbell 2. I absolutely LOVE both these products. Are they perfect? No, not in any way. Are they worth the cost, ABSOLUTELY 100% every day of the week! Most of the problems I see and hear about are setup related issues. The products work well in my opinion. Some of these things I see are basic, like charging the battery fully before first use. Motion Issues: If you have this pointing at a tree, the motion sensors might go nuts on a windy day. (As an example) Just FYI, you are not going to get a motion sensing device that can tell the difference from a dog to a person for $200. Just sayin’. This is not the cure for cancer here; this is a $200 wireless security camera. Try to mount the Camera in a place where it points towards the house maybe? Case by case situation. Consider turning down the sensitivity and distance to get the results you seek. It may take a bit to dial this in and remember to work slowly. When you change the alerts from “Frequent” to “Standard” give the CAM a few moments to download the new policy from the cloud and reset. The walk in front and test it. Wireless Issues: I have to address the myriad of wireless and Wi-Fi issues I read about. As a Network/Electrical Engineer for over 20 years I almost never see a home with what I call “Good Wi-Fi”. :-) An Access point can only service a small area (with 2.4GHz) and only so many connections and only so much bandwidth. I am so tired of everyone thinking 2.4 Wi-Fi stuff just works well. Maybe, if you’re lucky. But uploading 1080 streams of video is no small feat WIRELESS Networking wise. If you are having issues with 2.4 wireless have you downloaded SSIDER and looked at what channels your neighbors are on? Probably not, and most devices default to Ch. 1 or 11, leaving the middle of the band for guys like me who know what to look for. Move your crummy cable modem device to channel 5 or 6 and watch what happens, literally. Also consider using a wireless survey tool to move around and confirm good signal in the area you propose to mount the camera. People have to realize that many run video wires for a reason. Moving this high resolution video around wirelessly is amazing we can even do it. My system works very well due to the (3) wireless access points my Wi-Fi system uses. If you are serious about wireless and security get a Ruckus, AeroHive, or WatchGuard type system (Like I have) and your results will vastly improve I assure you. Video Quality Issues: The video quality of my 2 ring devices is nothing short of outstanding for the money. The night vision is good and if you give it good lighting, the video at night is excellent as well. I do not understand the many issue with video quality except to say that may actually be a wi-fi issue. If you see an ATM video with a perfectly clear face of the robber that was NOT by accident. Some tech spent time making sure the lighting and camera positioning was just right. This is no different. In closing I think Ring gets “Beat Up” unfairly in many cases with these reviews, and I hope this post helps someone decide to purchase a Ring product. I have had nothing but positive support experience when I had a question or needed to add my 2nd camera to the cloud. All calls to ring have been answered by a human and they are helpful and sincerely care about the customer in my opinion. The company, it's culture, and story are nothing short of awesome if you ask me. Don;t forget the fact the product is always under warranty as long as you pay for the cloud. I believe that ever covers theft, if someone steals your video doorbell. That is awesome coverage, what more can you want? Ring products are AWESOME and work very well for the intended purpose. I think the video doorbell 2 is the best electronics product I have seen in years! My 2 cents - no refunds! -Tom

I purchased this camera at Best Buy in February and have had nothing but problems since. It is not a security system for the simple fact that it is not reliable. It has proven unreliable for me for the following reasons: 1. It fails to connect to wifi much of the time. I get a message that says "failed to connect" or I get an endlessly spinning wheel (on iPhone). I have been in touch with customer service about this frequently and they blame my wifi system. Which it cannot be for the following reasons: I have 180 Mbps speeds consistently and ten feet from the camera that fails to connect frequently is a 4K TV that streams movies using the same network, and never fails. The network that streams 4K movies to a 70 inch screen fails to stream very low res "movies" from my camera to my phone? No. I can't rely on a system with poor connection reliability for security. 2. When it does connect it often pixilates any movement. In other words the image becomes smeared as the object or person moves across the screen, you cannot tell what it is or what its doing. I can't rely on something that does not allow me to see what is moving around my house reliably as a security system. 3. If it does alarm, and if you do connect, and if it doesn't pixilate it often runs too late to detect the motion that triggered it. From my experience there is some kind of delay between detecting motion and triggering an alarm. This means that whatever triggered the alarm can move off "screen" before you have a chance to capture it on the image. I cannot rely on something that is not fast enough to catch events as a security system. I invested in 4 cameras and a doorbell. The total investment I made was near a thousand dollars and after about 4 months I am done with Ring. It is a lovely novelty item, allowing me to see what packages have been delivered to my door and are waiting for me when I get home. But I cannot rely on it as a security system. This is an indicator of how much I dislike and mistrust this system: though I want to get rid of it, I don't feel good about selling this on eBay, as the person buying it will think they are buying a reliable "security system", but, in my experience, it will not adequately protect their home / car / boat, and I would feel somewhat responsible for selling it to them if they had a loss relying on a system that is, in my experience, unreliable. So this expensive system will simply end up in the trash unfortunately. I am very disappointed in Ring and this entire system... I definitely would not recommend this system to anyone.

I agree with the previous poster most issues in these reviews are people wanting something for nothing. You need to familiarize yourself with Wifi mainly. Almost every issue I have read in reviews can be avoided simply fixing your crappy wifi, Not getting alerts, black screen, pixelating, delays in recording etc. Just because the cam has some wifi reaching it doesnt mean a thing. Its outside and the average home's wifi is too weak. Unless it is 5-10ft away. I too had all the issues stated here until we had to replace our router. (nothing to do with the camera). The new router was installed closer to the camera then we had to add the camera and this solved most issues. The videos are in color, and if installed properly not too high you get perfect facial pictures. If you have it pointed towards trees or plants you get too many alerts. The app lets you choose the alert frequency. Move the camera around, experiment. My cam is mounted aprox. 6ft high for clarity I will post a photo. Sure a bad guy could damage it but by the time they reach it the video is already saved to the cloud vs installing it higher out of reach but not seeing the bad guys face only an angled head shot. Explore the app. You can set the camera to turn on the light at night when motion is triggered or not. It is very very bright. I think the big issue here is the Ring Company not going into better detail in the installation. You def. need to check wifi signal for any wifi camera system. Photo is a screenshot taken from Ring video at night with the spotlight . There is no additional lighting on. Motion zones set to 3/4 and installed at 6' high. (yes that is remainder of yard sale not put away yet lol) Cons: The battery door needs to be re-designed. It is extremely hard to close properly. By design they say however it is a huge issue.

The $3,000 mistake. After my car was broken into, I decided to install security cameras.  A friend had Best Buy install a Swan system at his house and he was very happy with it so I went over to look at it.  I liked it so I contacted Best Buy and scheduled a consultation.  The guy who came out told me that because I had a two story house (my friend's house is single story) I couldn't use the Swan system and would need to go wireless.  He recommended the Ring system.   I bought 8 of these cameras along with the solar panel chargers and an Aero WiFi (this was an up-sale because the installer said the Google WiFi I original bought was not powerful enough.  Coincidentally he had an Aero WiFi with him at the time of the installation!).  BIG mistake.  From day one I've gotten between 400 and 500 alerts a day.  Adjusting the motion zones to minimum for all the cameras reduces this number down to about 100 alerts.  I get so many alerts that I need to recharge my phone twice a day. 95% of the alerts show no activity other than the breeze rustling leaves or my wind chimes moving.  I fail to understand why these crappy cameras don't have a sensitivity adjustment.  I mean who wants to be woken up in the middle of the night because a cat wanders into the back yard! A human yes, a cat no, I went to Ring's website to see if i could salvage this costly mistake and found that the Geek Squad didn't understand Ring's guidelines for installation. First off two cameras are pointed into the setting sun.  According to Ring, this is a no-no.  I admit I told them where to mount the cameras but I should have been advised that this might become a problem.  Also motion over sensitivity should have been considered when places cameras around shrubbery. Here are some of the other things I've encountered: One camera doesn't start recording for about 10 seconds and you barely get a glance at what caused the alert. One camera will send an alert for a car passing 120 away but I can jump up and down, wave my hands 10 feet way from it and it doesn't send an alert.  I can see myself on live view but no alert.  This is the camera that covers where my car is parked.  I can walk all the way around my car and get no alert.  How effective is this going to be if my car is ever broken into again! Another camera will also send a alert for motion 50' away but I can walk out the door and cover 20' to the garage and I get no alert.  Again I can see myself in live mode so I am within the camera's field of vision.  This same camera sends an alert when the breeze is rustling the leaves in the trees but it ignores me! I don't even bother to look at the alerts anymore; when you get one every five minutes or so, you realize it isn't practical to look at all of them.  I can only hope that the presence of the cameras are a deterrent because the system is so flawed with false alerts it isn't any help catching someone in the act. I now wish I had read all the terrible reviews before I spent all that money but I guess what is done is done.  I will now explore what steps I need to take in order to return the system to Best Buy. This experience has really put me off on Best Buy and the Geek Squad.  Don't buy Ring!

Where do I start? I bought an original stick up ring camera with the solar panel. It worked ok. Some bugs but I loved the idea. I saw the pre order online for the spotlight battery / solar camera and fell in love! You download the app , connect it to WiFi ,install and that’s it! ( supposedly) I bought two cameras and two solar panels I loved the idea of not having to recharge the battery because the solar panel charged it. I downloaded the app , installed plug the solar panel. Then the problems began. 1.) Batteries are NOT fully charged mine came at 15% (both) 2.) video delay is horrible 3.) live view works 5 out of 10 times (maybe 4 of out 10) 4.) speaker makes weird noises outside when triggered by motion detection 5.) motion detection doesn’t always work 6.)LED lights sometimes turn on I ran the test and my WiFi connection is good I checked the sensitivity levels I positioned the camera at different angles and closer to the router. Nothing worked. I can rarely log in live view now. These cameras are expensive. I payed close to $500( and $10 a month to store videos on the cloud) for two cameras with solar panels I felt like the price would be justified if they saved me from the hassled of running cables all around the house but Ring failed miserably poor software and poor hardware. Awesome idea and concept but poor execution. Almost feels like a BETA. I contacted Ring and they already gave me an RMA # interestingly they did NOT ask why I wanted to return for a refund. They may have a no question asked if within 30 days or are aware of their bad and defective cameras. Now I have to pay to ship these cameras back to California from Illinois and wait for my money : / Please stay way from Ring.

I bought 2 of these 2-pack spotlights, which were not cheap at all, just to find out they were cheap trash that doesn't even work. After 12 hours of charging the batteries that come dead out of box, I then had to spend over an hour trying to set them up to/with my phone. At this point, I realized the battery doors are cheap and could easily break, same with unit itself. After the were all set up, I noticed one of the cameras was making this awful squealing noise but I thought it was just interfering with my phone. I put 3 out of 4 of them up yesterday morning, and started receiving an obsurd amount of motion notifications but nothing was there. Unfortunately, with the wire free cameras, custom motion zones are NOT an option, so you can only limit the range in one or all directions. One camera wouldn't let me connect to the live view for hours after installing, and when it did finally work, a different camera stopped letting me connect. Halfway through the day, I was getting motion alerts, but couldn't watch live, and when I watched recorded videos, it was just a black image, no picture at all. The actual motion it picked up was so late, that people were already almost out of camera view before filming started. As the day goes on, all cameras are squealing when motion is detected, blowing ANY chance of DISCRETE monitoring, you could hear this noise houses away. At this point, I decided I was returning them and I went last night and traded for the Arlo Pro. I have not installed them yet, but already LOVE this system SO MUCH more, and it was $116 cheaper for same amount of cameras, but i get everything and more from Arlo i did with Ring except for the spotlight which is absolutelt useless if the cameras dont work and draw attention to themselves. Look for my review on the Arlo Pro 4-Camera Wire-Free Kit, will be posting it in a few days. NO MATTER WHAT YOU CHOOSE, DO NOT BUY THESE SPOTLIGHTS!!! I PROMISE YOU WON'T HAVE THEM MORE THAN A DAY.

I read all the reviews about the wireless ring spotlight, good and bad reviews. After all those reviews I end up given them a chance since they are wireless. Here we go.... Battery: Everyone wants to know how long this device really last. Now I don’t know how the device was tested to last 6 months on a single charge. I’m still on the edge to see if my cameras will even last the month. I installed them on 12/3 and as of today 12/17 (14 days in) , they are at 40 and 37 percent full. My settings are at the lowest settings and if I’m home I try not to check the cameras through my phone to save the battery since I notice the battery drains like crazy when you view them live (disappointed) Yes that defuses the point of being able to see them love. I figured why not just look out the window, rather then letting the app load. So, as of now, the battery is not the best and I wish they would come with two batteries instead of one. Settings: This part really took me by surprise. Ring advertises that you can select the area you want the motion to be patrol. Negative, that’s only with the hardwire products. The wireless one only gives you the option in a 180 degree and from 0-30ft. The wire one gives you more options. Also, on the wireless one, you.l can’t select the sensitivity of how the camera senses motion. Wireless just has light, standard, and frequent. The wire one has from pets to only persons. This was a really set back for me when I found this out because my neighbors cat is always setting off my cameras. Ring, please update this!! Quality: The quality is a hit and miss. You can’t really see a clear image when you zoom in. Not sure what that consist of. At night, the spot lights are great. They give enough light to alert any intruders. Night vision is good but you have the same problem when you zoom in. The two way talk is great, used it couple of times and they’ve been a success. Only reason I haven’t returned them back. Over all the cameras would be better if they had the features ring advertises and if the battery life really last 6 months. I would love to know how I can get the 6months or even 4-5 months of battery life.

So I have ring 2 I bought my friend ring 2. I had no issues and love it she got the spot lights and ring 2. I got the extra battery for her. We were amazed and shocked no 1 said anything about the fact the spot light packs have room for 2 batteries but only come with 1. However they work fine if you only put the 1 battery in it! Super cool plus if she puts the lights up hogh she won't have the trouble of trying to get a ladder each week or 2 and recharge or be with out battery when 1 runs low. Say she goes out of town she just needs buy 2 extra packs anand boom charge um all fill um both with 4 2 come with and 2 extras and now she just lets it run or swaps half out and relapaces the other half super cool. We worried about what when our cable goes out like a power outage but do have tmobile 1 hotspot for free and are going to inquire in regards to this. I also use 1 of mine inside the home as well as no inside stuff from ring has been made that I'm yet aware of. We just love the talk back features and using our cells to answer the door or yell at each other and record our pets and communicate for work or out of town. Its a great product if u have any packages delivered like with amazon and delivers a lot of criminal activity around the home. We live in a bot so great area and it saved my puppy from being stolen the 1st week. Saved me from having a hit and run the 2nd week. And the third my bestfriend was enjoying and now we shear funny videos with each other and an awsome group app called neighbors links intermittently with the app to show your neighbors friends and family who to watch out for and what's happening. My neighbor thanked me for shearing the video when I told him it was me and it saved his dog from the same teen trying to take blue pits. And we shear the funny videos of each other to each others phones and download and enjoy. Its a great security system, dog watcher (helper not for leaving and no sitter) lol, in home security, links with other apps and devices and the neighbors app it links with it will offer to shear with the police if you choose to report as well. All in all a great product and the price is only going up so get ut while u can and buy extra batteries. Only 2 cons cable outrage scary if mobile hot spot won't work and charging batteries if you don't have extra or time. Wished they charged faster. All bennifits besides the 2 little cons. I bought several and plan to keep buying more. You should get the extender if in a multi bedroom home. I dont need 1 but I have a 1 bd 1 bath home and my friend has a multiple room larger family home and does need a wifi extender just for front door all else worked great. So there it all is in a few nut shells. Enjoy and stay charged