SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20221122-FD0A6-2147352448. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Ring Model: B08M125RNW, Name: Ring - Video Doorbell Pro (Ring - Video Doorbell Pro Smart Wi-Fi - Wired - Satin Nickel Dimension: Product Height - 4.5 inches, Product Width - 1.85 inches, Product Depth - 0.8 inches). Incident: I recently hired a professional handyman to install a newly purchased wired Ring Video Doorbell Pro. The new Ring video doorbell was added to my existing doorbell system. To power the Ring doorbell, a power kit was attached to the existing doorbell chime. Right after the installation was complete, the chime got burnt by electric. If we didn�t find out about the electrical burn or act on it quickly, it would have caused a fire. The professional handyman was not able to figure out what caused the chime to burn. After doing some research, I believe that the design of the wired Ring Video Doorbell is flawed, especially the power kit attached to the doorbell chime. When installing traditional doorbells, it�s ok not to turn off the electricity as the circuit would not be complete without pressing the doorbell. However, for the wired Ring doorbell, the power kit adds a parallel circuit in the chime in order to power the wired Ring doorbell 24/7. If we don�t shut off the electricity while installing the Ring doorbell, the chime and the parallel power kit will create a short circuit. In the installation manual, Ring indicated that users should turn off the power in the circuit box. However, they didn�t highlight the danger if users don�t turn off the power or distinguish themselves from traditional doorbells. Even my professional handyman was not aware of the differences in the product designs or find out the root cause of the electrical burns in the chime. This issue seems common among Ring doorbell users. You will find out similar complaints on this Ring community discussion forum