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I have used plenty of smart home products, and I usually have a decent experience, but the Wemo Smart Doorbell is hands down one of the worst products I’ve ever dealt with. This thing is a trainwreck from start to finish, and if you’re considering buying it, do yourself a favor and run the other way.Power Kit Nightmare: It Just Doesn’t WorkOne of the biggest selling points of this doorbell is that it’s supposed to work with your existing chime via a “power kit.” In reality, the power kit is a complete failure. No matter what you do—whether you follow the instructions to the letter, hire an electrician, or sacrifice a goat under a full moon—it simply will not work properly. The chime either doesn’t ring at all, or it makes a faint buzzing noise like it’s dying a slow and painful death. Sometimes, the doorbell completely cuts power to the chime, leaving you with a doorbell that doesn’t actually notify you when someone is at the door. That defeats the entire purpose of a wired doorbell.Unreliable PerformanceEven if you somehow get past the power kit catastrophe, the doorbell itself is one of the least reliable smart home devices I’ve ever used. The motion detection is wildly inconsistent, sometimes missing people entirely while sending alerts for cars driving down the street. The video feed frequently cuts out, and on multiple occasions, the doorbell just went completely offline for no reason—requiring a full reset to even get it working again.Apple HomeKit Integration? Barely FunctionalWemo loves to market this as a premium Apple HomeKit doorbell. In reality, the HomeKit integration is as unstable as the rest of the device. The camera randomly stops responding in the Home app, the chime issues persist, and there are long delays when trying to view the live feed. If you’re an Apple user hoping for a seamless smart home experience, this doorbell will make you regret your decision immediately.Terrible Customer SupportYou might think, “Well, maybe I can just contact support and get this fixed.” Wrong! Wemo’s support is practically nonexistent. If you somehow get a response, they’ll just tell you to reset the device, check your wiring, or reinstall the app—all things you’ve already done ten times. They have no real solutions for the power kit issue because it’s clearly a fundamental design flaw, not a user error.Overpriced GarbageConsidering how expensive this thing is, there is no excuse for it to be this bad. There are plenty of better, cheaper, and actually functional alternatives from brands that actually know how to make a smart doorbell. Wemo completely dropped the ball on this product—it’s unreliable, poorly designed, and an absolute nightmare to install and use.Final Verdict: Avoid at All CostsIf you want a smart doorbell that actually works, this is NOT IT. Between the broken power kit, unreliable performance, and abysmal customer support, this product is an absolute waste of money. Do yourself a favor and get literally anything else.

I was able to install this bell easily in less than an hour. Integrated easily and perfectly with Apple HomeKit, and monitors activity outside the door. But before you order it, be aware that in the instructions, Belkin specs a doorbell transformer with 16 volts and 30VA. If you're replacing an old fashioned doorbell, some use 5 volt transformers and the ones that use 16 volt transformers are usually only 10VA. This is the reason for all the complaints about drop-outs. I purchased a direct replacement on Amazon for $14, and it works flawlessly with the doorbell. Your transformer is almost always attached to a junction box in your basement, and you can determine its specs by looking up its part #. A voltmeter can come in handy. It installs with two power and one ground to the 110V house power, and two terminals that attach to the wires coming in from the old doorbell. Nothing to it. The mounting for the bell couldn't be easier. The mount for the transformer is equally simple: unscrew the old transformer from the junction box, and screw the new one in.

It’s been about a month and the Wemo is fine. Not great, not bad, just fine. I have a pair of HomePods nearby and it hardly ever loses connection. The talkback is very good and I love that it pops up on my Apple TV’s. The face recognition is fine, not great. It does an okay job at recognizing animals, packages, and people. The notifications are pretty good. It does take about 10 seconds to start recording after it detects motion. Sometimes it tells me it detected motion and I see that a package has been delivered without video of it being dropped off. Delivery folks can be pretty quick, but it knows something happened and tells me fairly instantaneously. Video quality is fine and dynamic range is average. My porch lights are on all night, so I’m not sure about the night vision.I like that there’s no subscription fee and that it’s fairly secure and encrypted compared to other systems, that’s why I’ll settle for fine. It was fine enough for me to buy a second Wemo for another entrance. It’s expensive for only being fine, but it seems to be the best native HomeKit solution. I got it slightly discounted and would really have a hard time justifying the full retail price tag to some of the far superior competitors at lower prices. But apparently it’s encrypted unlike some of the others.UPDATE- Subtracting a star because after 3 months, it’s just “kinda fine” now. It’ll frequently miss packages, people, and vehicles- and I have 2 cameras in the same area and both will miss everything. Biggest issue, these cameras need to be reset at least once every 2 weeks. Resetting them means getting out the special mini green torx screwdriver and physically taking the doorbell off and pressing the button on the back and then screwing it back on. I’m kinda over it. The perfect solution would be the ability to reset remotely through the app, but I guess once it loses connection there’s no way to talk to it. I don’t seem to have these issues with my other HomeKit cams, a Logitech and an Eve. Neither has needed a reset yet since installing them on the same network. If I were you I’d probably try something else, but unfortunately this may be the best HomeKit solution available.Update #2 SeptemberIt won’t ring on my HomePods anymore. Tried restarting everything and re-adding the doorbells, but no ringing on any of my HomePods. Customer support says that they’ll get back to me. I’ll be holding my breath. I found out because my neighbor stopped by and rang the bell and thought we weren’t home. We were home, it’s just our doorbell doesn’t ring🤦🏻‍♂️ subtracting another star. At this point, I would not recommend.Update #3. Added a star. IOS 17 seems to have fixed the frequent disconnections and it now rings on all my HomePods. I don’t think I’ve had to reset it since the new update. Fingers crossed that it now works like it’s supposed to. I think I can recommend this doorbell cam again?