Why I bought a Ring Security System for my Apple home

[@TechJB65]

Eric, this is exactly what I did myself. In all actually, I did a bit of research before buying my Ring Alarm system but didn't dig deep enough to learn that Amazon had acquired Ring. If I had known that prior to my purchase, I probably wouldn't have went with Ring. But I didn't so I bought it and I'm glad I did. I think it works quite well and one bit of info I can lend to you is on the keypad. With mine, it replaced a really old system so I was able to use a 12v dc to 5 v dc buck converter to use the old alarm system wiring to hookup the keypad with the wiring inside the wall for that clean install look. And integration into homebridge/hoobs was a breeze with an rpi I had laying around doing nothing. I have heard that possibly Scrypted can get the Ring Cameras working with HKSV but I haven't tried that yet. Keep up the awesome work with your videos!!

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Jody! That's great you got your keypad to work with the existing wiring like that. I have heard many good things about Scrypted but I haven't tried it yet.

[@ToysRS350]

Scrypted does infact have HKSV working on Ring Cameras. I currently use it

[@TechJB65]

Yeah, just installed Scrypted yesterday on my raspberry pi right along side of HOOBS and it works great with Ring and does add support for HKSV!!

[@ksc6000]

You really ought to make a video detailing the problems you've encountered with Abode.

[@EricWelander]

I will address this in an upcoming video

[@ksc6000]

@@EricWelander Thank you. I subscribed hoping you'd say that haha

[@glassman3333]

It’s worth noting that you can still use your own wifi network with the ring alarm pro version. Ring has a support page on this, but to be able to use all the integrated ring features that you get out of most ring plans, such as ring edge, you need to use the double nat method that ring goes over in their page. Also, I noticed you mentioned that you don’t get HKSV with ring cameras. While that’s true with the Homebridge plug-in, Scrypted has a plug-in for ring that supports HKSV, and you can use both Scrypted and Homebridge ring plugins together without any compatibility issues.

[@newt6639]

Ring has been flawless for me and I love that the sensors can be used for home automation. Now I wish they would improve their cameras, as I have not made that jump yet.

[@Asmodeus097]

I’ve used the Honeywell Lyric alarm system for several years and it’s been fantastic. It supports HomeKit natively in a traditional type alarm system and with the wired to wireless adapter I was able to pull in all my legacy hardwired window and door contact sensors from the previous alarm system. The smoke and carbon monoxide sensors present to homekit too. While they sell their own totalconnect smart app for a monthly fee you don’t have to use it. I manage everything for free in homekit.

[@talljohn5350]

Ring isn’t perfect but it’s selection of cameras that work very well with the alarm system which seems to not only be the best but most affordable diy alarm system makes it the best option in my opinion.

[@chrisrobinson3771]

In 2024 are you still using ring? If so what problems have you encountered? Maybe a follow up video shows different automations?

[@DanielJohnTobin]

I always enjoy your videos. I must say, your reviews have stopped me from buying two products based on some of the shortfalls you mentioned that I didn't know about. Thanks for doing these.

[@jessemorales146]

Man for a second there I thought Ring was HomeKit compatible! Lol yeah I have Ring and I love it. Like you Eric, I’m a big HomeKit fan, but I can’t commit to a company who can’t even commit to their own smart home products. Let’s see what the future brings.

[@Living_Matrix1]

What was the problem with Abode? I’ve had no problems.

[@robin9609]

Interesting most of the tech KZbinrs go w Ring

[@acoh50]

First of all, glad you’re back! Recently looked at your Ring security video and I’m contemplating a purchase. Noticed that Hoobs is coming out with a Pro model to include matter and more. This seems to be a great solution for connecting to Homekit. Hope you will review it when it becomes available in March.

[@rivertonrock]

Would have appreciated an explanation for abandoning Abode.

[@EricWelander]

That's a great question. I will talk about this more in a video soon. The thing that pushed me over the edge was how often my base station would go offline. This persisted across multiple wireless networks and with wired and wireless setups for the Abode base station. Then it would just do that annoying beep forever. It does the same for the keypad battery being low. Abode offered to send me a new base station but I'd heard of enough other people having the same exact issue that I couldn't keep using it as my preferred security system since I thought others that followed my advice would hit the same issues.

[@rivertonrock]

@@EricWelander Thanks for the additional info, Eric! Pity that we don’t seem to have many great security+monitoring options that are natively HomeKit compatible.

[@sheperdcohen]

@@EricWelander is this just with abode iota or did you try the regular base station as well?

[@Sah-dd1zh]

Eric - curious if you are still using Ring with Hoobs to integrate into HomeKit and if you are using any automations with any of the ring sensors? I have been utilizing Ring sensors for automations but they just seem stop working after a few months for some reason, didn’t know if you had experienced the same. Is this just what you can expect from non HomeKit certified accessories?

[@kabish0603]

Wait.. You had me sold on Abode and just built out a system ($678.00) but have not pulled the trigger yet. I've used Ring Flood Light as our front door camera and its always done a good job. What was wrong with Abode??? While it seems to be a bit more expensive, it seems like its a much better product. I'm running (or will be at our new house) a very similar network as you, all Unifi equipment along with their cameras, APs and Talk. I feel like adding a middle man piece like the HomeKit hub that runs another middle man addon would lead to a higher point of failure vs a system that natively talks to HomeKit. I'd be really interested in the reason you moved from Abode, unless it was purely for a change on your channel format.

[@AlexGower]

what did you end up doing?

[@techfan8457]

Awesome video. I have a similar setup as you and was wanting to determine whether to get the Pro or regular Ring.

[@n25992]

Do you recommend it over abode alarm? What kind of prob did you get with abode ?

[@kwayy]

Hey Eric, Do you know how to remove the "light" accessories that represent the base station / keypad in HomeKit?

[@mele2259]

Hello. Thanks for the great video. Finally getting rid of ADT. I have a question please . I'm gonna have three different pads in three different floors. I need the pad upstairs not to chirp at all when any sensor is opened or closed. And I need the one in the middle and Basement floors to only chirp when certain sensors are opened and closed. Are these options customizable? Thanks so much.

[@uninfamous]

Why not use Ubiquiti’s? I feel like there should be a section of this video dedicated to Ring’s anti-consumerism and anti-privacy aspects..

[@sootherelax2802]

I wonder if they will do continuous recording ever.

[@PrAmerican1024]

Do you need to use the EERO? Can you skip that router ?

[@maryglobal3704]

I have the ring doorbell and it’s so slow. Most of the time I can’t answer in time before the visitor gives up. However, the nail in the coffin for me is the recent announcement that in July my yearly cost for cloud services is about to almost double. Wtf £24.99 to £34.99.

[@ZachSkagen]

Not quite double my friend. +That’s reasonable given the economy.

[@christianhotter]

I’m trying to get away from Ring and go all HomeKit with no monthly monitoring. I want as few companies products as possible to keep my set up and maintenance as simple as possible

[@DanielJohnTobin]

I did something basic. I am Homekit... but... I have Nest for my cameras. I like that they record 24/7. My outside cameras are always on. My indoor cameras only activate when my phone leaves the house. If any motion is detected, I get alerts on my iPhone and Apple Watch. That's my security system for when I am not at home. For when I am home, I have a few Eve Contact Sensors that trigger automations on my system. It works well and is all I need.

[@AlexGower]

@@DanielJohnTobin hows nest working for you?

[@AlexGower]

any updates?

[@DanielJohnTobin]

@@AlexGower As much as I love the way Nest handles their video (I like the 24/7 recording with motion being marked), I ended up dropping Nest altogether about two months ago and went with CircleView cameras by Logitech that work natively with HomeKit. For the doorbell, the Logitech option gets a terrible review in regards to overheating, so I went with the Belkin Wemo. The Nest doorbell camera definitely had better image quality than the Belkin. The CircleView cameras have awesome quality and a wider field of vision than the Nest. What I miss is the 24/7 recording, but I made the switch so I could drop the Google/Nest subscription (I already have a paid Apple subscription that has iCloud video storage... so I figured it was time to use it and drop the other subscription).

[@RealEstateGuide]

@EricWelander Thanks for this video. However my issue with RING is that the "HOME" button is no longer working as it should once I connect to the Apple HomeKit App. I am running Homebridge on my IMAC and I have my system setup with switches for RING and MYQ so that it works based on my location of entering and leaving. I have not figured out how to get the HOME alarm to work as this is the setting for sleeping at night. Now the switches are set up for Disarmed and Away but I have no way to set HOME so I tried another switch to use for just the HOME alarm and that failed because Ring sees the Alarm such that if it is disarmed then the switch is off but if it is on It thinks it should be ARMED and AWAY. I do not use HOOBS so do you know of another way to get around this and so I can make it an automation again? I can make it go into the HOME alarm at night but I can only do it through RING and I have to do it twice.. the first press goes into HOME then into AWAY mode. THOUGHTS/HELP please.

[@PostprandialTorpor]

Dubious of ring alarm pro because Amazon forced it to be your primary gateway router - rather not have them be my internet portal harvesting internet data. If it’s a secondary router, they disable cellular fail safe backup connection and local sd card storage of recordings

[@georgebrodie9795]

Eric watched your video on ring security system with Apple where you say you need a bridge and looked at hoobs 250 dollars is alot

[@AlexManMe]

I use Aqara instead

[@Weezy533]

Did you use Hoobs to Integrate your Unifi protect cameras? If so I would love to see a video on that. Keep up the great work!!

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Anwar! I am certainly working on a Unifi Protect video. There’s just a lot to cover there and I’m still testing and researching.

[@dvvelzen]

@@EricWelander Hi Eric, did you release this video yet? I can't seem to find it. I also wondered about the homekit video support either native of through f.e. HOOBS. As far as I understand it the main differences with the HSV is the recording / detection part, so you are still able to have live views, right? and is there any real delay in starting the stream through f.e. HOOBS or should it be as fast as with native support? Thanks a lot for your video's and keep them coming :D

[@EricWelander]

@@dvvelzen Thanks Dennis! I haven’t made this video yet. There’s been a lot to cover this spring but my Ubiquiti video is coming, I just don’t know exactly when. Thanks for the question on if there’s a delay with HOOBS for the cameras, I’ll look into it because I don’t know

[@michaelthompson657]

Why didn’t you get Aqara?

[@BlakeFealy]

Because Aqara doesn’t have a monitored option I’m guessing

[@michaelthompson657]

@@BlakeFealy yeah that’s what I’m assuming too, just thought I’d ask

[@EricWelander]

Exactly! I love Aqara for plenty of other things in my smart home, but I like having a security system that has a monitoring service connected to it

[@michaelthompson657]

@@EricWelander yeah I thought that, thanks for confirming! I love Aqara too but I wish it had the option for battery backup. I was affected by the storms in the UK this year and I needed battery backup for the loss of power, even if it had like a UPS. This is the only reason I don’t have an Aqara alarm

[@silnce01]

@@michaelthompson657 This right here. Loss of power or internet renders the system useless. The blue lights flashing are the worst.

[@craigs.4302]

Funny that Amazon would allow Eero to support Homekit and Fire TV sets support Homekit, but not Ring? Sheesh! But anyway...Ring uses Z-Wave which seems to be near a deadend compared to Thread. And so... anyway... Until Ring supports Matter and Thread with their hub, with seamless Matter integration between Google Home, SmartThings and Homekit? Pass!

[@NB-Philly]

What’s interesting is that if you use a standard eero as your main gateway, you get the option to set up a HomeKit network. But if you’re using the Ring gateway alarm pro, that option is missing. I’ve seen so many videos where they show you step-by-step on how are you can use your eero routers to set up a HomeKit network for your HomeKit devices. But nothing for the eero router built into the Ring Alarm pro.

[@xu5949]

I’m also looking into this, I’ll wait for apple’s thread announcement this wwdc though.

[@abc123fhdi]

I had an issue with the motion sensor in my ring alarm system so it looks to be buggy at times.

[@theoblongbox4909]

Video title is a little misleading. If you have that many Amazon / Ring devices already, then it's not really an "Apple Home." You're just adding one more Ring device to the many Amazon devices you already have. Not a big deal.

[@joeyrosen55]

I must be the only one whose never had an issue with their abode system. Knock on wood it continues that way

[@harrisonjoa]

I’m too OCD to mix ecosystems.

[@Stormchoirs]

When AWS goes down (it’s happened before) that system is useless.

[@truth-media1]

I wouldn’t buy no ring. Government its piping on all ring camaras worldwide. Stay away