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Coming Soon: Rock ‘em Sock ‘em DoorBots!

DoorBot-ALGO-8028You may recall that I was eagerly awaiting the arrival our DoorBot, the Wifi-enabled, video capable doorbell that calls a smart phone app when the button is pushed. Well, our DoorBot arrived early in December. Since then I’ve been pondering if, and exactly how, to share my initial experience with the device.

To be blunt, our early experience with DoorBot has been disappointing. It doesn’t meet our needs for a couple of reasons. The software is still a little rough. To be fair the company is reported to be working on the issues reported by early users. However, they’re not doing the greatest job of reporting their progress.

All of this has me thinking back to when I first considered putting the DoorBell Fone at our gate, and the alternatives that were available at the time. The most attractive option was ALGO Solutions model 8028 SIP Door Phone. However, at $500 it was just beyond my budget at the time.

That project was over two years ago. I’m sorry to report that the DoorBell Fone didn’t last a year before it had some electrical problem and had to be removed. It was not long after that point that DoorBot appeared on the horizon, although it would be nearly another year until the wee DoorBot actually arrived.

Given the early experience with DoorBot I thought that a comparative review might prove interesting. To that end I reached out to ALGO Solutions with the idea. Happily, and a little to my surprise, they have agreed to loan me a model 8028 SIP Door Phone to compare to the DoorBot.

It will be a short while before the hardware arrives and I have the chance to do anything with it. That may give the DoorBot team a chance to address some of the problems that have been reported.

It will certainly be interesting to compare the consumer-oriented DoorBot to the more commercial product.

Update: Saturday, December 28 – The Algo Solutions package has arrived. Also a Wifi range extender that may help get around the biggest problem with DoorBot.

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