Ring Chime and Ring Chime Pro review

When you have a Ring Video Doorbell, you have eyes and ears on your front door 24/7. I tested out both the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus and Ring Video Doorbell 3 recently, and what makes me love these video doorbells even more is the addition of Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime.

Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime are two devices you can add to your home to extend your Ring device range, hear notifications for your doorbells right in your home, and in the case of Ring Chime Pro, have a nice night light to light up the dark. You do need a Ring Video Doorbell or Ring Camera to use Ring Chime Pro or Ring Chime.

The benefit of having Ring Chime Pro or Ring Chime is that you’re not tied to your smartphone when you want to know who is at the door or if motion has been triggered. With Ring Chime Pro or Ring Chime in your home, an alert will play and you’ll know just by the sound, no matter what room you’re in in the house, whether there is motion or someone is at the door.

Here’s my look at Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime and how they add to my Ring Video Doorbells.

Appearance and features of the Ring Chime Pro

Ring Chime Pro is a small device that plugs into any standard outlet. It measures 6.9 cm x 2.54 cm x 10.31 cm and weighs 250 grams. It looks like a small speaker and has a blue light to indicate it is on. It also has a night light that shines under the device.

• Gives you notification sounds whenever your Ring Video Doorbell or Ring Camera detects motion, or when someone presses the doorbell
• 30+ classic and seasonal tones you can choose from
• You can snooze your alerts at any time so you don’t have to turn off motion if you’d like a period of quiet
• Works with dual-band 2.4GHz and 5Ghz Wi-Fi connectivity
• Extends the Wi-Fi to boost the signal for your Ring devices
• All settings available in Ring App

Ring Chime is almost exactly the same as Ring Chime Pro. The difference between the two is that Ring Chime only connects to the 2.4GHz band, it won’t work to extend the range of your Ring devices, and it doesn’t have a night light.

Installing the Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime

To install Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime, all you need to do is plug them into a standard wall outlet. Once they are plugged in you’ll open up the app, tap to add your new Ring device, and the app will walk you through syncing it with your Wi-Fi and adjusting the settings.

If you have any trouble connecting to either Ring Chime, I recommend moving it to an outlet a bit closer to your router. I have Ring Chime installed in a back hallway and Ring Chime Pro in my living room, and I didn’t have trouble installing with either device. I had Ring Chime Pro installed prior to installing my Ring Video Doorbell 3 on my front door and it helped me speed up the install of the device. It shared my Wi-Fi details with the doorbell and when it went through the initial update it was a lot faster than when I installed Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus at my back door.

Using the Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime

Once you have Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime plugged in and added to your Ring App, all of the settings will be in the app. I had a lot of fun testing out the different sounds.

Link the Ring Chime to your Ring Video doorbells

To use Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime with my doorbells, I had to link them in the settings for each doorbell. There’s a spot where you tap “Linked Devices” and add your chime. I have all of my Ring devices set up in an ecosystem, so they all work together in different ways. My Ring Path Lights will light up when my Ring motion sensor is triggered, my Ring Spotlight will light up when my Ring doorbell senses motion, and my interior and exterior Ring cameras will record if motion is detected too.

Choose your sound on the Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime

There are 30 different Ring tones and sounds to choose from, so you’ll spend a bit of time scrolling through them to choose the right one. I have my Ring Chime set to sound a tone if motion is detected and my Ring Chime Pro set to sound if someone rings the doorbell.

The only way the sounds on Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime would be better is if you could download your own choices for tones, but there’s still a lot to pick from. I choose Doorbot if someone presses my doorbell and Ding-Dong if motion is detected.

The types of motion alerts you receive are set by your doorbell, and I found the chime would sound off at almost the exact time my phone would receive a motion notification. It’s a nice feeling knowing the chime would sound because I don’t always have my phone with me. Because they don’t have the Ring App, my kids also like the chimes. Having them on means they will know right away if someone is at the door or if someone is triggering motion by our front gate.

Extend your Wi-Fi

Because it’s a built-in Wi-Fi extender for your Ring devices, the Ring Chime Pro is a bit more useful than the Ring Chime. It works on dual-band 2.4GHz and 5Ghz Wi-Fi, so there’s no issue with syncing it with a router that runs both. Once it’s connected, you can connect your doorbell or cameras directly to Ring Chime Pro instead of your home Wi-Fi network.

I tested this out myself when I found my back doorbell had only one bar of Wi-Fi. In settings it lets you see the strength of the signal your doorbell is getting, and you can choose to stay with the existing network it’s connected to or connect directly to Ring Chime Pro. I went through the steps to connect to Ring Chime Pro, and once it had finished updating I had two bars of Wi-Fi instead of one. That was OK with me considering that the back of my house is a big dead zone.

Turn on the nightlight

Ring Chime Pro has a nightlight, and I think it’s a nice touch for a Wi-Fi extender. You can toggle it off and on in the settings, and it will turn on when the room is dark.

Should you choose the Ring Chime Pro, Ring Chime, or both?

How do you choose between Ring Chime Pro and Ring Chime? If you’d like stronger Wi-Fi for your Ring devices, Ring Chime Pro will give you dual-band 2.4Ghz & 5GHz connectivity vs the 2.4GHz you’ll get with Ring Chime. It will also work as the main connection point for your Ring doorbells and cameras. A built-in nightlight is also a nice option.

Both will send off a sound or tone if motion is detected or someone rings your doorbell, and both have the same tones and sounds. If all you need Ring Chime for is the sound alerts in the house, Ring Chime is a great choice on its own.