Is the Blink Chime for doorbell worth adding to your setup?
Worth it, if your wifi reaches the outlet
Why you never hear the doorbell ring
Picture the doorbell ringing on your phone while your phone sits on the kitchen counter and you're out back with the hose in your hand. By the time you dry off and check, the delivery driver's already gone. That gap, the one between a doorbell that notifies your phone and a house that actually makes a sound, is exactly what a blink chime for doorbell is supposed to close.
How the Blink Chime actually talks to your doorbell
Here's the part the box doesn't spell out. A Blink doorbell doesn't ring anything on its own, it just sends a signal over your wifi to Blink's servers, which then push a notification to your phone. The Chime is a second device listening for that exact same signal. Plug it into any outlet in your home and pair it through the Blink app, and it subscribes to the same motion and press events your doorbell already sends, then makes an actual sound in the room it's sitting in. There's no wiring into your existing doorbell circuit and no need for a smart hub, which is why setup really is just an outlet and an app. But that also means the Chime is only as reliable as the wifi signal reaching that particular outlet. Put it in a basement or a room three walls from your router and it can lag behind the phone notification, or miss the trigger entirely. Put it somewhere with a clean signal, in the kitchen, the bedroom, wherever you actually are during the day, and it rings close enough to instantly that you stop checking your phone at all.
So you're not really buying a doorbell speaker, you're buying a second listener for a signal your doorbell is already sending, one you get to place wherever your wifi reaches instead of wherever a wire happens to run. That's a genuinely different problem than the one a traditional wired chime solves, and it's why placement matters more than specs.
Who the Blink Chime is for, and who should skip it
Worth it if
- you already own a Blink doorbell and often miss its phone alerts
- you want an audible alert without running new wiring
- you have a strong wifi signal near the outlet you'd use
Skip it if
- you don't already own a Blink doorbell to pair it with
- the outlet you'd use sits in a wifi dead zone
- you need a chime that also works with non-Blink doorbells
Not for anyone without a Blink doorbell already installed, or with a weak wifi signal near the outlet they'd use.
Blink chime review: is it worth it for your doorbell
If you already own a Blink doorbell and keep missing it because your phone's never in your hand, this is a small, cheap fix and a quiet yes. If the outlet you'd use it in has weak wifi, or you don't own a Blink doorbell to pair it with, save the money, since a chime with no signal to catch is just an outlet nightlight.
Amazon shoppers rate it 4.4 out of 5 across 600 ratings. That is their number, not ours.
Before you go
Do I need a Blink Chime?
Not strictly, since Blink doorbells already send notifications to your phone, but you need one if you want an audible alert inside the house when your phone isn't nearby.
Why can't I hear my Blink doorbell inside the house?
Because the doorbell itself doesn't make a sound, it only sends a wifi notification to your phone, so without a separate chime plugged in there's nothing audible in the room.
What chime is compatible with Blink doorbell?
The Blink Chime is built specifically to pair with any Blink doorbell model through the Blink app, and it's the chime designed for that ecosystem.
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