Little known fact: I am a BIG fraid-y cat. Like I will talk myself into thinking that no matter what I am doing, the worst possible situation CAN and WILL happen to me. When Jay and I first moved to Durham, we lived in a 3 story townhouse. We had Hollings only two weeks after we moved in. Our house was practically sound proof from floor to floor. We had an alarm system, but a lot of times, I wouldn’t be able to hear it from our bedroom all the way on the 3rd floor. This was concerning, especially since Hollings was on the floor below us. I would have such anxiety at night, that I would not be able to sleep. I would worry so much about someone breaking into our house and me not being able to hear them. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I wanted cameras put up on our front and back doors.
We went to Best Buy to check out our options. There were more camera options than I thought there would be, so it was easy to get a little overwhelmed. We didn’t want something that was crazy expensive, but we also wanted something reliable. The Ring cameras were $99.99 each, which we decided was reasonable. They also have MORE than a 4.5 star review on the Best Buy website, which of course is a major plus (I take customer reviews so seriously). We bought two of them and Jay installed them as soon as we got home. I can’t say anything to how easy they were to install, because that was all Jay.
We’ve been using them for over a year and a half now, and I love them. We probably have to take them off to charge them once or twice a month depending on how much activity they pick up. They don’t record 24/7 (although that might be a feature you can pay for – not sure). They are motion activated, so they only record about 30 seconds, starting when they pick up some sort of motion in their range.
You can set it up to get a notification every time they pick up motion. I, of course, have this feature set up. I don’t watch every single video that was taken during the day, but I do watch all of the ones at night, just to make sure there isn’t anything sketchy going on.
You view the videos that the camera takes through an app on your phone. The app is very user friendly. What I love most about the app is that it gives you a monthly neighborhood report of stuff that other Ring users reported near you. This could be car break ins, someone stealing packages, etc. I have read on there of multiple people in my area who have caught thieves through providing video evidence from the Ring cameras to the police.
Luckily we’ve never caught anything weird happening on our cameras, and hopefully we never will. The reason I really love them and think they are worth it is for the piece of mind they give me. I like having them in case something does happen, but I also like that they are on the door front and center. My mindset here is that hopefully if anyone was thinking about breaking in, they would think twice, because they know that we have cameras set up.
If you are in the market for outdoor cameras for your house, I highly recommend the Ring cameras. I sleep much more soundly at night, knowing that we will have a recording of anything that might happen outside when we aren’t looking.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ring-video-doorbell-2nd-gen-satin-nickel/6396004.p?skuId=6396004
