Is a Ring Chime Worth Adding to Your Doorbell Setup?
Worth it, if you already own a Ring device
Picture this: you're out back hosing down the grill, or downstairs with the dryer running, and somewhere at the front door a delivery driver taps the bell, waits a few seconds, and walks off with your package still in hand. Your phone was upstairs on the nightstand. That's usually the moment people start eyeing a ring chime sale and wondering whether a small plug-in speaker can really fix a problem this simple.
Here's the bit the listing buries under 'easy setup': the Chime isn't really a doorbell accessory, it's a second alert system that lives on your wifi instead of in your pocket. Your Ring doorbell or camera detects motion or a press, sends that signal over your home network, and the Chime, plugged into any standard outlet, picks it up and plays a real, audible tone through its own speaker. That's the whole trick. It doesn't need your phone nearby, doesn't need Bluetooth active at that moment, and doesn't care if your ringer's on silent, because it's not a notification, it's an actual sound in the room with you. Ring lets you assign different tones per device and per event, so a driveway motion alert can sound different from someone actually pressing the button, and you can set quiet hours so it stays silent when the paper gets delivered at dawn. Setup itself is just plugging it in and connecting it through the app, no wiring, no drilling.
So you're not really buying a louder doorbell, you're buying a way to hear your front door from the parts of the house your phone doesn't reach: the shower, the garage, the basement. The doorbell already worked fine. What didn't work was you, three rooms away, missing it.
Worth it if
- You already own a Ring doorbell or camera
- Your phone is often in another room or on silent
- You want alerts you can actually hear, not just feel as a buzz
Skip it if
- You keep your phone on you at all times
- You don't own any Ring devices to trigger it
- You already hear the doorbell fine everywhere in your home
Not for anyone whose phone is always in hand, or who has no Ring doorbell or camera for it to connect to.
If you already own a Ring doorbell or camera and regularly don't hear your phone buzz, this is a quiet yes, it does one small job well. If you keep your phone on you constantly, or don't own any Ring devices for it to connect to, save the money, you won't notice the difference.
Amazon shoppers rate it 4 out of 5 across 3,362 ratings. That is their number, not ours.
Before you go
Is it worth getting a ring chime?
It's worth it if you already own a Ring doorbell or camera and often miss alerts because your phone's out of reach, since it plays a real audible tone through the house instead of a silent phone notification.
Which is better, Ring Chime or Chime Pro?
The standard Chime covers most homes fine with clear audio and simple wifi setup, while the Pro version adds wifi extending for larger homes where signal is weak at the front door.
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