If You’ve Got A Ring Doorbell, You’ll Want To Know About This
Amazon’s Ring is recalling roughly 350,000 doorbells due to fire hazard after the company received multiple reports of injuries and property damage, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Ring video doorbells are everywhere. Being a regular dog-walker, I've seen probably a hundred or more Ring doorbells go up outside front doors in my Rockford neighborhood in the last few months. Amazon says that last year, they sold nearly half a million of them in December alone. They won't give an exact count of units sold overall, only saying millions and millions.
So, why is the recall limited to 350,000 (and about 9,000 in Canada) or so?
It's because the problems seem to be limited to the 2nd generation of Ring Doorbells. Here's the wording from the Consumer Product Safety Commission:
This recall involves Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Generation), model number 5UM5E5 smart doorbell cameras. The video doorbells have a blue ring at the front and come in two colors: “satin nickel” (black and silver) and “venetian bronze” (black and bronze). They were sold with a mounting bracket and a USB charging cable. The two-way audio doorbell can be hardwired or battery-powered and supports night vision. The Ring logo is printed on the bottom front of the doorbell and the model and S/N are on a label on the back of the doorbell and the outer packaging. Consumers can determine if their doorbell is included in this recall by entering the doorbell’s serial number at http://support.ring.com/ring-2nd-gen-recall. Only Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Generation) models with certain serial numbers are included.
Nothing gets the consumer's attention more quickly than the term "fire hazard." The video doorbell’s battery can overheat when the incorrect screws are used for installation, posing fire and burn hazards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that Ring has received 85 incident reports of incorrect doorbell screws installed with 23 of those doorbells igniting, resulting in minor property damage. The firm has received eight reports of minor burns.