Kasa Smart Video Doorbell Camera Hardwired w/ Chime, 2K Resolution, Always-on Power, Night Vision, 2-Way Audio, Real-Time Notification, Cloud & SD Card Storage, Works w/ Alexa & Google Home (KD110)

I bought this as an affordable option with Alexa integration to replace the Bl*nk video doorbell I had previously. The Bl*nk (leave out the 'i' for idiotic) would often fail to notify of doorbell rings and required expensive, lithium AA batteries despite being hard-wired. Thankfully, this Kasa doorbell has none of those problems and has been doing a great job of detecting people vs. other motion, and I'm able to skip on the subscription (though it is affordable at $3/month) by using a micro SD card in it for video recording. The video quality is very good, too.All around, I have no complaints so far. It's been rock solid. Just don't expect frills like "package detection" here.

This Kasa camera is the 3rd or 4th camera I have given a try. I had tried both battery operated and hard wired. The idea of having to replace or charge the batteries every few months turned me away from the battery operated cameras.I have an older Condo and had to purchase a new transformer in order to power this Kasa. I almost didn't try it because the doorbell transformer is tucked up inside a small laundry closet and was heck to get access to... and even then I had to do most of the work with my left hand. Anyway, this old dude managed somehow.When I went to hook up the camera the instructions told me to look for a blinking orange light to confirm I was getting power. Well, all I could see was a white circle light and it was not blinking. I contacted customer service and they walked me through the process a couple of times and I still only saw the white circle light. The CS rep finally said something to the effect of... "You are looking at the small LED light at the top, right?" Well... with my old eyeballs I had never even seen or noticed that itty bitty thing. Once the light was confirmed blinking I was up and running.When I removed my doorbell cover there was a large hole in the wall behind it that was larger than the base of the camera body. I went to Michael's and bought a $2 oval wood piece and painted it. I had to drill holes for the screws and the wires but that part was easy.It has been about a month since installation and I have to give this camera 5 STARS. I'm sure it is not the best one out there... but for $45 it does remarkably well. It makes no sense to me at all to pay for remote storage of 'MY' video. For starters, I think just by having the camera light up when someone approaches is a pretty good deterrent to someone with ulterior motives.I get a notice within 3 seconds if I am on WiFi and maybe 10 or 12 seconds when I am away. This gives plenty of time to speak to someone through the unit... or to use one of the handful of recorded messages.When large trucks or vans go by I usually get a false alert... but I don't find it to be much of a nuisance as I don't live on a major street. The software does allow you to outline the 'active' areas but I have not found that it makes much of a difference.If desired, you have the option to pay a small monthly fee for storage (much less than some others) but you also have the option to insert a Micro SD card, which is what I did. As I understand it, the old video gets replaced to make room for the more recent video. Someone was complaining of this in their review but I find it to be brilliant. If there is a 'serious' event that takes place I can always remove the SD card and copy that file to my computer. But... at least i don't have to remove the SD card every month or so to clear it out for the new data.I haven't had a chance to check out the night visions as our HOA turns all of the porch lights on automatically with a light sensor... but in my case, even with the porch light glaring in, the view is very acceptable.I actually think that this company could give 'R#*G' a run for their money. The quality is pretty great (especially at this price point), the subscription service is much lower... AND they allow you the option for local storage. Who would pay two or three times as much for the other brand... and then have to pay out a substantial amount of money over time in order to have access to your own video?!A bit of software upgrade and I'd give it 5 stars at twice this price... but as it is, I am not sure where I could have found a better value and still have my home 'protected'.

Camera is very nice and the sound box, but I will lay the sound box isn’t loud enough and I wish I could get another sound box but can’t seem to find one

Day one and this thing wipes the floor with the ring and blink cameras. Hardwired so no battery to worry about. Option of SD card or cloud. The SD card video loads super fast unlike blink,, and no additional module needed. The best part is there is virtually no lag when the bell is rung, which was a big issue with both the blink and ring cameras I previously owned. Often the ring the doorbell and the blink wouldn't actually ring for up to a full minute later. Kasa is far superior in every way. The only drawback is that even when it's hard wired it will not ring your old doorbell. You do have to use the chime that comes with it. Not a big deal since it does come with the chime and any Alexa module will alert you when it is pressed.

The instructions on to install this video doorbell, attach it to your 2.4G (which it requires, not 5G) Wi-Fi network, link it to the phone (Android in my case) app, and make the Bluetooth connection to the chime aren’t very clear. Especially the need to tightly time what you do when relative to the various colours of blinking lights in the front of it before they move on to the next step.However after several attempts and master ‘paper clip’ resets, I initially got it working at my desk. Later however when I actually installed it on the outside of the house, wired (including bypassing the house’s original chime), it had lost connectivity to the app. So I loosed it from the house (the reset is on the back) and did it all over again (out in the cold) and it worked again. A couple of hours later – gone again.So did the reset all over again and nothing. I then did a bit more in-depth troubleshooting – my router could see it and ping it, I could ping it from my phone too (with excellent numbers), so I don’t think it was dropping off due to Wi-Fi issues. E.g. distance. It just seemed like the app had ‘lost’ it as an available device.I had installed a SD card in it for local storage, so I pulled it back out, checked it in my PC, and there were tons of exactly 60-second videos on it. Which was a bit inconclusive.Also, interestingly enough, through all of this the actual ringing of its remote chime when the button was pushed worked.So I contacted Kasa’s (actually TP-Link) tech support via a chat window, and not too surprisingly they initially wanted to talk me through all the reset stuff I had already done three times. I told them about my being able to ping it all the way from my phone and they then concluded the camera itself was defective. They said they would send me instructions on how to return it to them for a warranty replacement. Which seemed a bit strange to me as this looked more like an app issue instead of a camera hardware issue.I later received an email from them asking me to send them proof of purchase, country where I am (Canada), and photo of the on the box serial number, which I did.Later more I received another email from them, contradicting the prior one, saying because it was less than 30-days old, rather than they warranty replacing it, I should return it to the seller (Amazon) for a refund. Huh?? They only warranty it if it’s MORE THAN 30-days old?? Whaaaat?So I did just that and that ended of my experience with Kasa. Back to shopping for a video doorbell.