How to eliminate old chime box

[rcsilber]

I'm stumped and need good advice.

I have three outside doors, two of which have Arlo wired doorbells. I have always used an Arlo chime and not my home's old chime box. I did update my old transformer and the new one is rated 16V and 10VA. This has worked well for a long time.

This past week, I added a third Arlo wired doorbell to the last door. All was good for about a day or so. Then the home's old chime box began buzzing even though it's not used by Arlo. I replaced the old chime box with a new one, even though I'm not using it for Arlo, but it didn't help. Wiring it properly, and turning the power back on, resulted in the new chime box constantly chiming.

Now the doorbells are offline. 

Questions:

1. Has anyone experienced this before?
2. I don't need the old chime box. How can I bypass it? I have a front door and two back doors, but really can't find where the wires are run. I know I need power, but am not sure how to alter the wiring. The transformer is in the attic and I can gain access to some wiring by removing some attic floor panels.
3. Is my new  transformer, rated 16V and 10VA, adequate for three Arlo doorbells?

Thanks for knowledgable help and/or advice. 

[StephenB]

Most traditional chimes support two doorbells (with front and rear terminals on the chime).  Do you have a chime that has a third set of terminals?  Or are you sharing the back door terminals (connecting two doorbells?

[rcsilber]

The connections are not visible, and I suspect that somewhere on the backdoor line a splice exists for the third door. I has worked for years, and when the button broke I installed a third Arlo doorbell. It worked too for a day or so, which made me question if there is too much demand on the transformer or chime box. Hence, can I eliminate the chime box that is not necessary.

[StephenB]

---

@rcsilber wrote:

The connections are not visible, and I suspect that somewhere on the backdoor line a splice exists for the third door. I has worked for years, and when the button broke I installed a third Arlo doorbell. It worked too for a day or so, which made me question if there is too much demand on the transformer or chime box. Hence, can I eliminate the chime box that is not necessary.

---

I am thinking the actual problem is that the power kit isn't designed to divert power from two doorbells.

If you don't need the chime on the back door(s), you can set that power kit to bypass mode (setting the switch to "X").  That should divert all the power on that circuit around the chime.

If that works, you could exchange the AVD1001 for the AVD2001 or the Gen 2 doorbell.  Those will trickle-charge from the transformer, and don't need a power kit.

[rcsilber]

Thanks for the tips and the heads up.

Silly me, I failed to install the power kits back onto the house chime box! I wrongly reasoned that they were not needed since I was using an Arlo Chime. Now with the power kits where they belong, the humming stopped and my existing two Arlo wired doorbells are back online. However, the third (new) Arlo doorbell won't connect. I have power to it, the white led ring is blinking but it will not connect to the system as it did the other day. Maybe three doorbells is too many. Too much trouble -- I'll just return it.

Thanks for your help. 😊