How to Save Battery on a Ring Doorbell? 7 Tips for Getting the Most Battery Life

Updated January 10th, 2024

One of the great things about Ring Door Bells is that you can get a battery powered wireless video doorbell. If you live in an apartment or have a door without an existing doorbell, battery power can make smart doorbell installation much easier. How long does Ring battery last? Ring claims they last months between charges. In real world usage, battery life can be anywhere from 3 days to 4 months. How to save battery on a ring doorbell so you get more than 4 days out of it?

How to Save Battery on a Ring Doorbell? What influences ring doorbell battery life?

Ring claims your video doorbell should last for months on one charge. Actual users of ring claim they get as few as 3 days on a charge to as much as 4 months on one charge. If you are only getting 3 days out of your Ring cam there might be something wrong with it. If you are getting more but less than a month it might be due to how you use it. Let’s look at how you can make your Ring video doorbell battery last longer between charges.

1 – Reduce Motion Detector Events

The more often your video doorbell motion sensor triggers a recording the more battery it will use. If you set your motion detector so that it triggers from every squirrel running across your yard or car going up the street, you might get a lot of notifications and recordings. Every one of these will increase the drain on your battery.

To get more battery life, reduce the motion detection sensitivity down to where it only captures people at your front door. If you are concerned about what happens in your driveway you can increase it a little bit. You can get a Ring Spotlight camera or one of their other Ring security cameras to look at that area so your doorbell doesn’t trigger as often. You will have to charge a Ring Spotlight cam battery also or use one of the solar options but your Ring doorbell battery will last longer. Having a security system with more than one security camera or video doorbell can make battery life management easier.

See this article from Ring for more help setting your Ring Video Doorbell motion detection.

2 – Two Way Talk uses the battery faster

It can be convenient to use the Ring App to talk to people at your front door instead of actually getting up and answering the door. If you want to save your Ring battery, save two-way talk for when your not home. Every time you use two way talk feature it drains the battery faster. If you integrate your Ring with other smart home devices such as a smart lock, using them will drain the battery faster.

3 – Reduce usage of live view

Every time you use the live view feature from the Ring App it drains the battery faster. Sure, it can be fun to use your Ring camera as an outdoor camera to see what is going on around your home all day from your iphone or other smart home display. Every time you do it, you drain the battery faster. Don’t keep live view turned on for constant watching if you want to get a decent amount of time out of your doorbell camera battery between charges.

4 – Make sure you have a strong wifi connection to your Ring

If you have a weak connection between your Ring and WIFI it will cause your Ring doorbell battery to drain faster. Your Ring video doorbell will be constantly searching for the weak wifi signal which will waste a lot of battery power. If your doorbell is too far away from your wifi router, you can use a Ring Chime Pro which will act both as a doorbell chime and a wifi extender. Put the Chime Prop on the closest outlet to the door that has the Ring video doorbell.

5 – Cold temperatures reduce the life of your Ring video doorbell

There are 3 temperatures to remember when setting up your Ring video doorbell with a battery.

• The battery drains faster below 36F
• The battery won’t recharge even if hardwired below 32F
• The battery voltage will drop too low for Ring to function below -5F

See this article from Ring for more information about their video doorbells and freezing temperatures.

If you live somewhere that has temperatures that regularly go below freeezing in the winter you might want to consider hardwiring your Ring doorbell. The battery can function as a backup in case you lose power. I live in Michigan where it goes below 32F for 2 months non stop and we can get a week or more below -5F on a bad winter. I would not choose a Ring that only runs on battery power because of this.

When you charge your Ring doorbell battery, bring it inside and let it warm up before charging. This will ensure you get a fully charged battery. Don’t charge the battery while it is still freezing cold.

6 – Get a second battery pack

If you have a Ring Video Doorbell with a built in rechargeable battery you can’t get a second battery. You have no choice but to take your Ring off it’s mounting bracket and bring it inside for charging with a micro USB cable. If you have a Ring Video Doorbell 2, 3 or 4 it has a quick release battery pack and you can get a second battery to swap with. This allows you to keep one battery charged for backup and ready to go. When your battery dies in your video doorbell you can quickly swap it. Then charge the dead battery right away so it’s good to go for the next swap.

7 – Hardwire your Ring device

Not depending on the battery will ensure your Ring is always working. You can still have the battery as backup in case the power goes out. If your power goes out your wifi is probably out too so you won’t get notifications either way. Using hardwired power will let your Ring work in colder temperatures than battery power.

You don’t need an existing wired doorbell chime or doorbell wiring to hardwire your Ring video doorbell. You can buy a small power supply just for the Ring. Depending on where you mount it outside, you can run just a small wire to it. You can do this by drilling a small hole to pass it through. You can run the wire through your doorway too. Pass it through one of the corners and run it along the molding so it’s not too noticeable.

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