Video doorbell lets you answer door from anywhere

David Larson in Palm Springs decided to take extra measures to protect and keep a closer eye on his home. He’s using Ring, a video doorbell system that’s Wi-Fi driven, so when his doorbell rings it immediately alerts his Smartphone and lets him see and talk to who’s there, from anywhere.

“You can open up the application, see who’s there and talk back to them. They don’t know if you’re here or in New York. So if they have ill intentions it scares them away because they think you’re home,” said Larson.

It’s a one-way camera with two-way audio, so the person at the door can’t see you, but you can see them. It also immediately records and stores the video.

“If you do need to go back and refer to it, you can go back into the cloud and pull that recording.”

The video doorbell also has motion detectors.

“They don’t have to ring the doorbell to be on camera. As soon as the motion detector senses something, you can set the sensitivity for distance … it alerts you and you can turn the camera on and see immediately what’s going on.”

Retailers such as Best Buy and Costco sell the battery-operated product ranging from $170 to $200 dollars, or you can get it online. You can also hardwire it to your existing doorbell system.

“On the battery I’ve gotten about a week and week and a half per charge.”

The device let’s Larson and his husband when their FedEx packages arrive.

“I knew the truck was here. I could meet the driver at the door instead of the package being there for an hour or two,” he said.

Like any device, the video doorbell may have a couple of shortfalls. It’s supposed to handle up to 120 degree weather, so here in the desert keeping it shaded during the summer months may be necessary.

For more information, visit www.ring.com