New Arlo wired doorbell with dual mechanical chimes not chiming correctly

[PhillyD]

Hi there,

I just recently purchased the Arlo Wired Video Doorbell, and after some issues and research I thought it was time to reach out for help.

So I have 2 mechanical chimes in my home. The volume of the chimes are very sufficient, that is until I installed the Arlo doorbell. If I ring the chimes without the Arlo with a mechanical doorbell button, I get plenty of volume and both upstairs and downstairs chimes work. Hook up the Arlo, and instead of getting Ding-Dong, I get Ding- and only the downstairs chime works, but it's very weak.

Is this particular issue indicative of underpowered transformers? Our house is 9 years old so I am not sure if it is running 16 or 24v transformer. When I went to check the volts coming from the transformer, I found that my voltmeter was dead, and it was too late for me to disassemble the entire chime and plate to get to the transformer in the wall.

Also, do I need two power kits for the dual chimes? It doesn't matter if I have the power kit on the upstairs or downstairs chime.

I started to look at 24v 40VA transformer that works with Nest, Ring, Ecobee, etc but before I went and bought two of those, I thought I would ask to see if that very well could be my problem from the community.

-Phillip

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@PhillyD wrote:

do I need two power kits for the dual chimes? It doesn't matter if I have the power kit on the upstairs or downstairs chime.

No, just one.  It doesn't matter what which chime you connect it to.

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@PhillyD wrote:

Is this particular issue indicative of underpowered transformers? Our house is 9 years old so I am not sure if it is running 16 or 24v transformer. 

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Likely it is.

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@PhillyD wrote:

I started to look at 24v 40VA transformer that works with Nest, Ring, Ecobee, etc but before I went and bought two of those, I thought I would ask to see if that very well could be my problem from the community.

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There should only be one transformer (even if you have two chimes and both front and back doorbells).