Choosing

The five-minute check before you install

Every item here is free and takes under a minute. Between them they account for most of what goes wrong on the first evening. All of them are easier to check now, while the old doorbell is still on the wall.

Last updated 2026-08-30

Someone photographing an existing doorbell mechanism and its wired terminals with a phone, before removing it — The first item on the list, and the one people wish they had done once the old unit is off the wall.

How to use this

Work down the list with the old doorbell still fitted and still working. That is the whole trick. Every one of these is easy to answer now and awkward to answer once the wires are out of the wall.

Each item says what a good answer looks like. If yours is not that, the link beside it goes to the page that deals with it. Nothing here is a reason to send the camera back.

Before you open the box

Photograph the existing doorbell and its wiring before removing anything, including the wires on their terminals. Good answer: a clear photo you can zoom into. There is no page for this one because there is no fixing it afterward.
Find the transformer and read the voltage and VA off its label. Good answer: two numbers, photographed. Cannot find it, or cannot read it?
Check that rating against your exact model. Good answer: your model's published range covers what the label says. Numbers do not match?
Identify the chime as mechanical or digital, by listening first and then looking. Good answer: you are sure which. Not sure?
Confirm your model drives an existing chime at all. Some newer ones expect a separate plug-in chime instead. Good answer: the manual says yes. It says no, or says nothing?
Check Wi-Fi at the door, standing where the doorbell will sit and not on the porch behind you. Good answer: a stable connection with the door closed. Weak or dropping?
Measure the mounting surface, including how wide the trim is and whether it is flat. Good answer: a flat face wider than the doorbell. Siding, brick, or narrow trim? Not allowed to drill?
Find the breaker that feeds the doorbell circuit and confirm it is the right one. Good answer: the doorbell stops working when you switch it off. Cannot find it?

Two questions this list does not ask

Neither of these stops an install, and both change what you should have bought, so they are worth answering before the box is open instead of a month later.

Will it cost you monthly? Some cameras record to a card in the house and some record nowhere without a plan. That is a structural difference between models, not a setting you can change later.

Is the view what you think it is? A wide lens hung at the old button height looks down at the tops of heads and out at the roofline. Standing where a visitor stands and looking at the camera tells you more than any spec.

Checks done

Nothing turned up? Then this is the ordinary kind of install, and the rest of this site is here for the day it stops being ordinary.

Work through it as an interview: the same ground, asked one question at a time
Not bought yet: five questions about your door narrow the field