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After bricking my Nest Hello, I decided to get the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) from Eufy US Website. I chose Eufy after reading Domotics review on Eufy Doorbell 2K (Wired). The author, Mike, also encountered the same thing with his Nest Hello Doorbell (Wired). He eventually gave up and bought a Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired). So I thought, it works for him, it should work for me.

I paid US$115.48 (S$156) for the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired). That is after a US$40 discount from their retail price of US$155.48. Shipping from my freight forwarder, HopShopGo, to Singapore is an additional US$19.96 (S$27) via DHL.

So total, I paid S$183, which is almost S$90 cheaper than the Nest Hello (Wired), S$270.

Unboxing

Design

There is a QR code at the back of the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired). You have to scan it to start the setup before mounting the doorbell to its holder.

Setup
Just follow the onscreen instructions.

For the region, I chose North America.

The setup even detects whether there is enough voltage to the doorbell.

It seems that the AC 230V to 18V 500mA Doorbell Power Supply Adapter that I got for Nest Hello works fine for this as well.

I have been using it for more than two weeks, and so far, so good. It lasted even longer than my Nest Hello.

Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired)
The Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) doesn’t record 24/7 but instead starts recording only when it detects movement and stops when there is none. It has 4GB of storage onboard, and once the limit is reached, it will delete older video clips. There is no cloud option for it to upload, and it doesn’t work with Eufy’s Homebase.

Eufy has another Video Doorbell 2K that is wired and does five days of continuous recording as it has 32GB of storage onboard. But sadly, it is exclusive to Best Buy, and as far as I know, Best Buy doesn’t ship to freight forwarders like HopShopGo.

So I guess I have to make do with the lack of 24/7 recording until Google Nest has another new wired product that will probably not be anytime soon.

Chime
Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) comes with a chime, and it connects to the doorbell via Bluetooth.

Installation
Replacing my Nest Hello that bricked with Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) as my HDB BTO Doorbell is straightforward.

It is plug-and-play. I just have to connect the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) to the doorbell wires that I previously installed for Nest Hello, replaced the wallplate with Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) compatible wallplate, and I am good to go.

I replaced my existing Ring Cable Terminal with the included extension wires and wire nuts.

I even took a level meter to ensure that the plate and doorbell were leveled.

Events

You can see the activities/events under the event tab and why it recorded that event. It is either it detected a human or someone rang the bell. And if someone rings the bell, it will indicate whether you answered it or a missed ring.

It is a missed ring only when you do not tap on the push notification when it sends to your phone.

So far, I have no issues with the events. All the events are being captured as expected. The only feature I miss from Nest Hello is the facial recognition feature.

Unlike Nest Hello, which shows a dimmer version of the ring light and brightens it when it detects motions, Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) doesn’t show the ring light at all when on standby.

It only lights up the ring light when it detects motion.

Visitor Announcement – Google Home
Unlike Nest Hello, which integrates very nicely within the Google ecosystem, for example: when you press on the doorbell, all your Google Home devices will announce that someone is at the door, followed by an image captured showing on your Nest Hub.

For Eufy to achieve the same effect, you need a hub. And I think so far, only Homey and maybe Home Assistant can accomplish the same thing. Sadly, there is no integration of IFTTT or SmartThings.

I have been using Homey since 2017. For my use case, I am using my Sonos speakers Homey app to announce the arrival and Chromecast Homey app to cast the image captured by the doorbell to my Nest Hub. Alternatively, if you do not have Sonos, you can also use the Google TTS Homey app to do the visitor announcement.

The flow card looks like this. When the doorbell is pressed, cast the image captured to a Google Nest Hub and say “Someone’s at the door” using my Sonos speakers.

Too bad I can’t select multiple devices, and I have to add them one by one. In this case, I have two Nest Hub and three Sonos speakers.

This works perfectly every time. It takes about 1 to 3 seconds from the doorbell being pressed to seeing the push notification on my iPhone. This is faster than the Nest Hello of 3 to 5 seconds.

It takes an additional 2 seconds to hear the announcement via my Sonos and an additional 3 seconds to see the image on Nest Hub. Since this is automated through Homey, it is slower than Nest Hello native integration with Nest Hub.

Visitor Announcement – Apple HomeKit
Eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired) integrates with Apple HomeKit via Homebridge using the Homebridge Eufy Security plugin.

Integration is also as straightforward, you just need to enter your login credentials to Eufy in Homebridge UI, and the plugin takes care of the rest.

I would recommend creating separate accounts of Eufy for each integration since you might get logged out of your main account if Eufy detects too many sessions. Also, you can’t use 2FA when you want to use either integration.

There is Apple TV integration, so when someone rings the bell when you are watching Apple TV, a small window will appear on the top left.

You can press the TV button on the Apple TV remote, making the image full screen.

The only limitation of the plugin is that I can’t live stream the video doorbell feed in the Home app, apparently, it is a known issue and there is no fix for it.