Ring my bell! (But not so loud please)
December 28, 2023 4:26 PM

Recently upgraded our doorbell with a Nest Camera, which necessitated upgrading the transformer, but now our doorbell is very loud.

We have a new (wired) 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell Camera installed. The old transformer wasn't powerful enough so we removed it and upgraded. (I'm guessing the old one was original to the house when it was built in the mid 70s). The doorbell cam now works great, but the chime is SO loud. I'm guessing the old mechanical chime wasn't built with the extra power in mind.

Would a new mechanical chime be quieter? Or should we get an electronic chime?

Thanks all!
posted by cozenedindigo to Home & Garden (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
Easy solution: add some strategically placed felt to damp the chime tubes.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:04 PM on December 28, 2023


Techy solution: if your doorbell is wired like this, you take the two wires going to the "T" terminal, connect them to each other and one lead of a power resistor, then connect the other lead of the resistor to the "T" terminal on the chime where the two wires were formerly connected. You'll need to experiment with the value of the resistor, but you could try perhaps a 10ohm, 5 watt resistor or a 15 ohm, 5w. (This will reduce the voltage going to the chime, but not to your camera. Higher ohm value resistors will result in less volume. I am guessing at the values of the resistors, they are cheap, buy a bunch and try them out. )
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:00 PM on December 28, 2023


Better techy solution: hook up a small relay with a coil voltage matching the Nest Cam power supply, to the connector that the Nest uses to activate the original doorbell. Wire the relay contacts as if they were the doorbell button in a circuit with the chimes and their original transformer.
posted by Stoneshop at 4:02 AM on December 29, 2023


Techy solution variant: in place of the resistor, put a potentiometer, which is a variable resistor. You will need a hole for the shaft of the knob, you can then adjust the volume to where you want it.
posted by TimHare at 12:55 PM on December 29, 2023


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