topic Arlo Wireless doorbell - connecting to existing battery powered chime in Arlo Video Doorbell Wire-Free

Arlo Wireless doorbell - connecting to existing battery powered chime

alicelet — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 11:22:20 GMT

Hi,

I've recently bought the wire-free doorbell as the wired one didn't seem suitable for the UK.

I have an existing chime powered by a single 9v rectangle battery. As I haven't bought or installed this existing chime I don't have much information about it and based on what I can see there isn't any transformer in it (please see the pictures attached), please correct me if I'm wrong.

I need help to understand some basics stuff:

- Is there a way for me to safely connect my Arlo wire-free doorbell to such a battery-powered chime?

- Will this 9v rectangle battery trickle charge the Arlo doorbell battery?

I think all the answers to these questions are no but I'm not really sure.

If it's not suitable what would be the simplest option?

- replacing the chime with a suitable one

- connecting my existing chime to the mains somehow if this is even possible.

Thanks so much,

Re: Arlo Wireless doorbell - connecting to existing battery powered chime

StephenB — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 12:35:03 GMT

@alicelet wrote:

- Is there a way for me to safely connect my Arlo wire-free doorbell to such a battery-powered chime?

- Will this 9v rectangle battery trickle charge the Arlo doorbell battery?

No, and No.

The doorbell can only trickle charge from low-voltage AC, and the battery is providing DC.

@alicelet wrote:

If it's not suitable what would be the simplest option?

- replacing the chime with a suitable one

- connecting my existing chime to the mains somehow if this is even possible.

One option is to not connect the doorbell to the wiring at all, and just run it on its battery. Then get an Arlo Chime 2, and use that instead of your existing chime. One disadvantage of this is that you will need to remove the battery and recharge it - if the doorbell is aimed at a busy street, you might need to recharge frequently.

The other option is to replace the chime with one that is compatible. Unfortunately, Arlo doesn't maintain a list of compatible chimes. However, Ring does, and chimes that work with Ring should also work with Arlo.

Re: Arlo Wireless doorbell - connecting to existing battery powered chime

alicelet — Sun, 01 May 2022 14:04:55 GMT

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the clear reply.

I had a look at the Byron chime recommended in other threads but connecting the transformer to the mains sounds like something way too complicated for my level of DIY and unfortunately, I couldn't find any chime with some transformer you can just plug in, which would have been a lot simpler.

So I'm just gonna remove the old chime wiring altogether and order another battery and swap them every time it gets low on power (which is not ideal really) and I will maybe get the arlo chime.

Thanks again for the reply,

Alice