Between their outdoor cameras and their new line of smart lights, Ring relies heavily on LEDs to make sure their devices are working properly. Their cameras and floodlights are rated for 10-20 years of realistic use, while their new smart lights are expected to last for over 20,000 hours.
After Ring was purchased by Amazon, they instantly shot up to being the single largest smart home tech grouping out there. Ring products are designed to work seamlessly with Amazon’s Alexa which only goes to further bolster how popular this tech is on the market today. Like pretty much every other smart home tech company, Ring relies on LED lights for many of their devices. We’ll get into how you can maximize your LED longevity in a bit, but first let’s take a look at Ring’s newest LED-based product. It’s clear that Amazon and Ring have noticed the market share that is currently held by Philips Hue and other rivals and have moved into this new space. Ring states that the A19 smart LED bulb has a life expectancy of 25,000 hours winds up to being about three years (if they’re on 24/7), but again we have to ask what the actual use of these lights are.
Ring’s Pathway and Steplights have a similar lifespan – over 20,000 hours of continuous use or 20+ years of actual use, according to their help pages: If you want to make sure your LED lights get to their full expected 25,000 hours of operation, check out these tips.
Ring’s LED lights are often housed in their outdoor camera products and alongside motion sensors or other smart tech. Make sure to follow the recommended guidelines for your product and you’ll be able to keep these lights going for years to come.
General rain and the odd storm is fine, but persistent thunderstorms will shorten their lifespan. General rain and the odd storm is fine, but persistent thunderstorms will shorten their lifespan. LED lighting that can be hit by a stray basketball or otherwise damaged on accident is much more likely to break than more safely placed tech. Whether you got a lemon or it has finally reached close to that 25,000 hour lifespan, these lights eventually fail even though they can last for decades.
Because these lights last practically forever, one of the leading ways they fail is when they come with a factory defect. If your smart LED light burnt out within the warranty window, it’s time to make that return and get your product replaced.
Whether you’ve got the Ring Floodlight or Spotlight Cam systems, there are guides online for hacking together new LED lights that wind up working just as well as the original device. Philips Hue and LIFX are some of Ring’s biggest smart lighting competitors and that’s for a good reason. Their products have also gone through much more “real world testing” by users than Ring’s which could buy smart home enthusiasts that all-important peace of mind.
If you’re looking for dedicated smart lighting systems, it might be worth waiting a few generations for Ring to catch up with the LED lifespan of the competition. This means that an LED has no mechanical parts, nothing to heat up, and can be built into one, sealed, secure unit. Whether it’s cost, longevity, or efficiency, LED lights are the clear winner no matter which smart tech brand you go for.
Ring Floodlight Cam Review
As we powered up the camera for the first time, it asked us to update its firmware (which seems to be the norm these days), and within five minutes we were in business. To get a firsthand view of how Linked Devices works, we decided to focus on the neighborhood friendly feline. That way, if our mysterious neighborhood cat happened to run through our yard at any point overnight, there’d be a good chance our cameras would catch it! At that point, we thought, two things would happen: we could get a good look at how the camera’s infrared night vision works in tandem with those super-bright floodlights; and we could see the elusive kitty’s path for a few seconds after motion was detected. Pro Tip: We recommend cameras with infrared night vision because they don’t rely on ambient light. It’s worth mentioning that the ability to link devices together is pretty typical in home security cameras these days. It’s another perk of building your own smart home ecosystem with a brand like Ring; all of their devices tend to communicate with each other pretty effortlessly. Clearly, our Spotlight Camera in the front of our house failed to pick up the cat before she entered our backyard; we surmise she must have walked in from another neighbor’s yard that backs up to ours.
As a standard feature in most security cameras these days, we’ve seen the extraordinary images captured with 1080p HD resolution. This is most evident from Ring’s floodlight model, where we viewed refreshingly clear and crisp video 24 hours a day, rain or shine.
When it comes to audio on the Floodlight Cam, it tends to work pretty well with one exception: we noticed a lot of interference when there was background noise on either side of the conversation. The truth is, ambient noise5 is a challenge for any outdoor camera, as it’s largely unpredictable (we can’t exactly tell the garbage truck to quiet down!).
Even the brands that promise Cadillac-level features in every camera (think Nest Cams) still pick up wind gusts and tree branches, so we consider this a minor issue. Ring is known for giving its users sweeping control over how their cameras detect motion, which alerts you receive, and how much data you get.
How Long The Ring Floodlight Stays On (& Other Useful Info)
The Ring Floodlight Cam is a really useful two-in-one smart camera: it has all the usual smart cam functionality that you’d expect from Ring, along with two lights which output a total of 3,000 lumens of brightness (which is quite bright, in case you aren’t too sure how much 3,000 lumens is! The lights on the Ring Floodlight Cam stay on for 30 seconds by default, but this can be adjusted. As I mentioned in my introduction, the Ring Floodlight Cam is quite an interesting smart camera. By default, the Ring Floodlight Cam’s lights stay on for 30 seconds after motion is detected. I find that when I go into my backyard at night, it’s often to go into my garage to get something – so keeping the lights on for 3 minutes works well for me. Finally, you can manually turn the light on and off via the Ring app on the main page for the device: In other words, there’s no automatic switch-off timer when you enable the lights on the Ring Floodlight Cam in this way. Click into “Light Schedule” page and enable the toggle box:
If motion is detected in this time, they’ll stay on even after the “automatic shut-off timer” has expired. By default, recordings from the Ring Floodlight Cam (which start after motion is detected) will last for 60 seconds. It’s not a slider allowing for fine-grained control, but it’s nonetheless useful to have the ability to make your recordings longer (or very slightly shorter!) This is because the recordings have already been made and uploaded to the Ring cloud, and thus there’s no extra footage stored anywhere to display to you.
When I first installed my Ring Floodlight Cam, I noticed that the lights had come on: In other words, the Floodlight Cam shouldn’t come on during the day unless you (or someone with access to your Ring app) has configured it to do so. Whilst it’s one of the more expensive Ring products, it is sometimes on sale and in my opinion it’s worth the money. This doesn’t happen with the Ring Floodlight Cam: footage is viewable before, during and after the lights coming on.
I previously had a 800 lumen motion light in my backyard which barely lit anything, so the upgrade to a 3,000 lumen floodlight cam which also helps protect my property via its full HD recordings has been a big improvement for me!
At-Home Review: Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro
Ring makes the process as easy as possible by including a variety of different-sized screws for the electrical box (other models include a single set of screws that might not fit the holes of your electrical box) as well as both printed instructions and in-app instructions with animated GIFs to show you each step. You also have to angle the camera between 45 and 60 degrees off the wall and input its approximate height off the ground.
Ring Floodlight Cam review: An excellent choice—if you’re living in Ring’s ecosystem
This appeal of this feature wasn’t immediately clear to me, but a Ring spokesperson explained that it will be valuable “for customers that want to be extra careful to avoid recording miscellaneous conversations or audio that does not pertain to their home security.” While Ring emphasizes that subscriptions are optional, you’ll be restricted to real-time viewing of what the camera sees if you don’t opt in to one after your 30-day free trial. Its Presence camera has onboard storage in the form of a 16GB microSD memory card, and you can download recorded video to your smartphone via the app. The Maximus Camera Floodlight that I reviewed in earlier in 2018, which is based on Kuna’s technology, allows you to look back in time two hours and download up to three videos per month without a subscription. We previously reviewed the Ring Spotlight Cam, which is designed to be plugged into an outdoor outlet and has a single LED light. Like the aforementioned Netatmo and Kuna products, most people will install the Floodlight Cam as a replacement for an existing outdoor light.
That’s a whole lot easier than cutting a hole in your exterior wall, installing a junction box, and running Romex to it. It’s relatively easy to replace an existing outdoor fixture, and Ring makes it even easier with excellent instructions and videos covering every step of the process that you can watch on your phone.
These lights are rated to produce a combined 3,000 lumens of brightness, but to my eye, the dual floodlights on the Maximus covered more area.
This could be due to the cone-shaped shades on the Ring product that focus the beams more tightly than the flat LED panels on the Maximus, which are rated to produce 2,400 lumens. The Floodlight Cam’s motion sensor detects movement over a 270-degree radius and can be fine-tuned to reduce or increase its sensitivity (you can, for example, set it to respond only to humans and ignore cars or four-legged visitors). The Ring app provides an excellent tool for creating multiple irregularly shaped motion zones, so that you can prevent objects such as shrubs and trees from triggering the lights and camera.
Ring The ability to plot more than one motion zone makes it easy to prevent windblown trees and shrubs from triggering false alerts. The Ring Floodlight Cam records video with excellent quality, with just a little barrel distortion at the extremes of its field of view. Ring attributes this limitation to the 2.4GHz frequency band’s superior range, but the fact that it’s equipped with an 802.11n adapter tells me the choice has more to do with bottom-line cost.
As a result, it takes a bit of time to establish a connection to the camera’s live feed, and audio was choppy at best. The Ring Protect Plus plan covers an unlimited number of cameras, so you could put one of Ring’s doorbells at your front door and its Floodlight or Spotlight cams at every other door and anywhere else you have electrical power (or not, since some of its Spotlight cams run on battery power, and with optional solar-power recharging).
Ring Floodlight Cam Review – Is It Worthwhile?
Although Ring is perhaps best known for its innovative video doorbell, the company has much more to offer with a range of home security products to keep your family and belongings safe.
Ring Floodlight Cam Review: The Home Security Device to Get
Strong lights, a sharp camera and a great app make the Ring Floodlight Cam the best at securing and illuminating your yard. Strong lights, a sharp camera and a great app make the Ring Floodlight Cam the best at securing and illuminating your yard. Among the competition is the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight ($249), which has a 2K camera, can run on battery power, has LEDs that produce up to 3,000 lumens, and has color night vision. Below the two LED lights is a fairly large, rectangular housing that contains the camera, a speaker and microphone, and a dome-shaped motion detector on the bottom.
It picked up the rust-red deck and fading green grass of my backyard, and I could even make out features of my dog as he bounded around. You lose a bit of definition in Ring’s black-and-white nighttime videos; I couldn’t distinguish any features in my face as I walked in front of the camera.
One thing that the Ring lacks — and the Maximus has — is the ability to play prerecorded messages, as well as sounds of barking dogs, gobbling turkeys and more when the camera detects movement. I found it both unnerving and reassuring to watch video of people stealing packages and testing door locks via Ring’s neighborhood-watch feature. I found it both unnerving and reassuring to watch video of people stealing packages and testing door locks in my neighborhood.
For $30 per year (or $3 per month), Ring’s Protect Basic plan gives you 60 days of video from a single camera and lets you share it with others.
Without a plan, Ring lets you view live events only as they’re happening, but you can set motion zones. Not only was the quality of the video great, but its other features — such as neighborhood alerts in the app — also further enhance the floodlight cam’s utility as a home-security device.
Ring Floodlight Cam review: A perfect deterrent?
(Pocket-lint) – Ring is perhaps best known for its video doorbells that not only let you speak to anyone at your front door when you’re not around, but can even be used to help catch any unwanted visitors to your home. Unlike some other outdoor security cameras – Arlo, for example – the Ring Floodlight Cam only works on mains power and doesn’t have a wire-free battery option.
Whichever installation route you choose, for the simplest setup you’ll need to make sure there’s access to a power socket nearby, which will determine to some degree where you place the camera on your property.
Note that in the UK, mains electrics require official sign-off by a qualified professional to be safe and legitimate.
Click “set up device” and the app will then ask you to select which Ring product you want to add – you may already have existing ones, or intend to buy more – then to confirm your location. It’s flanked by the floodlights which output at 3000 Kelvin, putting the beam into the “warm” lighting category, so is ideal for outdoor use.
It also allows you to shrink the default zone so it doesn’t constantly go off and send you notifications every time a car drives past your house or the regular dog walkers go by in the early mornings. We chose to set our zone just on our driveway, so we were only notified when family members came home or, say, a delivery driver came to the door.
The Ring Floodlight Cam records Full HD 1080p video – both when streaming live and when it detects motion – and saves a clip to the cloud for future reference. If you’re away from home and you do notice pesky intruders, not only will they be illuminated by the floodlights, but you can make the rest of your neighbourhood aware of their presence by activating the built-in siren. Whenever the Floodlight Cam detects motion, it will send a notification to your phone so you can immediately tap into the live view and see what’s caused it. The camera will also record a clip of the motion and save it to the cloud for you to access later through your Ring account – either through the app or on a computer.
Then, of course, there’s the Cam’s pièce de résistance: the addition of floodlights, which adds an extra layer of protection to your home. As security deterrents go the Ring Floodlight Cam brings classic features into the modern tech world and it does a great job of spotting and notifying you of any potential threats – including scaring them away with the built-in alarm. It too requires proper installation but it offers 1080p video day and night, it’s capable of detecting people, cars and animals up to a customisable 20-metres and the floodlight can be switched on manually if you want it to.
It can be either mains or battery powered – the latter great for renters who don’t want to be feeding cables around the place – and offers similar alerts and recordings as the Floodlight Cam.
You’ll have to buy the actual ring sound – called the Chime – separately, though, which feels like an oddity for what’s meant to be a doorbell.
Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro review
Who this is for: The Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is a top-of-the-line solution for those who want to keep an eye on their driveway or yard, or can’t install a video doorbell but still want added security. The 2,000-lumen floodlights are bright enough to stop a deer in its tracks, and the camera is able to stream 1080p video directly to your phone so you can keep an eye on your home. What you need to know: At $249, the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro isn’t cheap, but the features inside arguably justify the cost. You’re able to view a wide swath of your yard or driveway, and if something doesn’t look right, you can set off the siren or engage the lights to alert others. If you’re not keen on the $249 price tag, Ring offers a slightly less feature-filled version called Floodlight Cam Wired Plus for $179 that looks great on paper. The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is also $249 and offers 2K video but lacks a wired option, so you’re forced into either buying a solar panel or constantly recharging batteries.
Then, amid announcements of a new video doorbell, Ring delivered the redesigned Floodlight Cam Wired Pro. The Ring app walks you through each step of the installation process and makes it really easy to follow, even for electrical novices. With the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro in your Ring account, you can view a livestream feed from the camera at any time on your phone or even on an Amazon Echo Show or Fire TV.
At one point, we used the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro during a road trip to check on our home after a bad thunderstorm and, to our surprise, were able to zoom in on the back door of our house and clearly see both of our dogs watching the rain and hail land in the yard. You tap on a satellite picture of your home to indicate where you installed the camera, and the app shows you the specified motion range on top of the map. As he gets within range of the motion detection area, you see the Bird’s Eye View thumbnail show up and dots start to track his movement.
On that map, you’ll see a series of dots move across your yard or driveway, indicating where the person walked after the camera detected motion. Bird’s Eye View is helpful in the moment when you want to see where someone has been as you’re watching them live but don’t want to or can’t go back in the video timeline to look. The addition of better motion detection along with the subtle peace of mind that Bird’s Eye View adds make it a valuable piece of tech for your home.
This version will give you a way to watch over your home, but it lacks 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View and a few other features of the Pro model.
Floodlight Cam Wired Plus
Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus includes Live View, Two-Way Talk, Advanced Motion Detection, Customizable Motion Zones, Customizable Privacy Settings, and an easy to use app. Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro builds upon all these great features with a new design and advanced features including radar-powered 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View, Audio+ for enhanced audio, a 110db siren, dual-band wifi and an array microphone that limits sound distortion.
Can I mount Floodlight Cam (2nd Gen) upside-down on a ceiling or eave? Floodlight Cam Wired Plus allows you to configure your privacy settings depending on your current needs.
After you subscribe, save, review and share all videos and photos captured by your doorbell or camera. If you have a subscription to Ring Protect, you can share your videos and photos with anyone, including neighbors, friends, family and local law enforcement.
Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro review
The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is a simple home security camera that records clear video and comes with built-in LEDs and a siren to deter Intruders. The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is a simple home security camera that records clear video and comes with built-in LEDs and a siren to deter Intruders. The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro has 140-degree lens and records clear Full HD video in color during the day, and at night providing the LEDs are alight. It also has built-in speakers for conversing with anyone in the camera’s field of view, along with a piercingly loud siren which can be remotely activated as a severe deterrent to any would-be intruders. On top of this, the security camera also has the same pre-roll feature found on the Ring Video Doorbell 4, which stores four seconds of color footage recorded before the motion was detected, again giving you a better understanding of what triggered the alert. The only real downsides for some users are the fact that you have to pay for Ring Protect if you want to store footage to review at a later date (which, let’s face it, you will), and access the features we’ve mentioned above.
However, if you’re an existing Ring user though and are after a smart security camera that does it all, the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro should be a top contender for sure. Another cost you’ll need to take into account is a Ring Protect subscription which unlocks a premium service that provides cloud storage for video and access to some of the features to reduce unwanted alerts.
This is a swanky-looking security camera with a sleek weatherproof plastic build that’s sturdy, with rounded edges and swooping curves that lend it a rather modern look. The angle of the camera and floodlights are easily adjustable, too, letting you achieve your perfect setup with the confidence that they’ll stay where you’ve pointed them. The Floodlight Cam Wired Pro’s 1080p camera offers a generous 140-degree horizontal and 80-degree vertical field of view, which should be more than enough coverage for most people’s needs. Video is crisp and clear in daylight, though we occasionally experienced a few pixellated moments if we’re viewing a live stream from the back of our house where the internet connection is at its weakest.
It’s not a feature that’s proven to be massively useful, though we suppose it could one day reveal the colour of a suspect’s clothes for easier identification. Like many Ring devices, the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro also has a built-in speaker, letting you scold suspicious cats or their burglar counterparts remotely via your tablet or phone. We only dared test it for five seconds or so, and even from the back of the house, we could clearly hear its piercing wails, similar to that of a car alarm. If, for example, someone walks diagonally across your driveway to the side of your house, you can trace their path as a series of dots in a map that’s not too dissimilar from the one you might find in an online FPS.
Lastly, if you’ve got an Alex-enabled smart display such as the Amazon Echo Show 10, you can also summon up a live view of the camera feed using nothing but a voice request. It takes a few seconds to fire up, but it works well, and there’s something rather Tony Stark-like about checking up on your outer perimeter without having to lift a finger.
From crisp video to powerful floodlights, built-in alarms, customizable motion alerts and even innovative birds-eye view smarts, it offers plenty of tools to tinker with. If you’d rather not pay for the ability to record videos then there are alternative devices like the Nest Doorbell (battery) which offer free storage.
If your home’s crammed with Google Assistant-powered devices and screens, then you’ll be disappointed in the lack of compatibility with Ring.
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