Recommendations for door bell cameras/intercoms

March 31, 2015 9:16 PM

My mother and I live in the same house. She is on the main floor and me and my family are on the top two floors. When the doorbell rings we want to know who is there so that the right person can answer the door. How do we make this happen?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Two separately wired and labelled doorbells with different chimes.
posted by taff at 9:20 PM on March 31, 2015 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: That would work but I'd still want a camera/intercom to see who's there and let them know I'm coming to the door (or that the door's open and they can just come in).
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 9:25 PM on March 31, 2015

Best answer: Two separately labelled and wired intercoms with different chimes? And one cc camera with two monitors.
posted by taff at 9:34 PM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dropcam and similar networked cameras can be accessed via wi-fi (via any computer or mobile device).
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:38 PM on March 31, 2015

Sign on the door: "Push once for [Tariq's mom], twice for [Tariq and his wife and kids]".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:41 PM on March 31, 2015 [7 favorites]

I was recently looking for a similar product. I don't own one, but this is what I settled on as my most likely candidate: Ring Video Doorbell.
posted by HermitDog at 10:00 PM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've got one of those crazy Ring doorbells. I had to turn off the motion detector because it was too damn sensitive -- even though I set it to sense things from five feet away, it kept going off whenever cars would go by at 30 feet away, and thus would drain the battery. Grr.

It is pretty nifty -- I was shopping miles away when I was notified that someone was at the door. I looked on my smartphone but I think if you're not using wifi you can't really talk to the people at the door. I dunno. Ring is a work in progress, is what I'm saying.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:38 PM on March 31, 2015

Best answer: I needed a new cordless phone a few months ago and almost purchased the VTech Video Doorbell . I don't have one so cannot tell how well it works but reviewers say you can use it just as a doorbell system (no telephone line needed).
posted by bCat at 7:17 AM on April 1, 2015

Response by poster: That VTech Doorbell looks pretty good. The Ring and Skybell look neat, but seem too much like a 1st gen product. Also, I don't like relying on wifi for something as basic as a doorbell.

Any other recommendations for similar-type devices?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:55 PM on April 1, 2015