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2 Nest Doorbells; 2 Mechanical Chime Boxes (16VAC/30VA); 1 Transformer: Rear Doorbell Not Chiming

brennanrusnell
Community Member

Hi,

I recently installed 2, 2nd Gen Wired Nest Doorbells.  When doing this, I upgraded my transformer to a 16VAC/30VA model (Heath Zenith 16VAC/30VA Transformer).  My home had existing wired doorbells.  Each floor (upper and lower level) has its own mechanical chime box and each existing doorbell was installed using the "front" connector.  After upgrading the transformer and installing the Nest Doorbells, I am left with this setup:

Doorbell Setup 

 

The front doorbell works perfectly, including the triggering of the mechanical chime.  Unfortunately, the rear doorbell RARELY makes a chime noise.  I have been able to trigger the rear chime box by changing the Google Home app settings (iOS) to think that I have an electronic chime (again, I don't).  When this happens, I was able to get a full chime about 1/10 times.  When I switch the app back to NOT having an electronic chime, I can see the chime "pin" (the metal piece that creates the chime noise) moving, but it isn't moving enough to create a strong noise.

With this in mind, do I need to upgrade to a 40VA transformer?  Could it be the wiring?  If the front works fine, should I expect the rear to work as well (without any further changes)?

Thanks in advance!

31 REPLIES 31

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@brennanrusnell 

Do you have the "chime pucks" connected to each chime, as shown in the first diagram here?

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/12153643

brennanrusnell
Community Member

Hi, yes I do. Sorry I didn’t include those in my drawing.

@brennanrusnell 

I don't know whether a 40VA transformer would help or not. I suppose you could try. There are numerous posts in this forum from customers upgrading to a 16V 30VA transformer to get ONE 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell working.

Another possibility is that several customers in this forum have reported problems with their "chime puck" being defective.

brennanrusnell
Community Member

Here are some photos of my setup (prior to installing the Nest Doorbells and upgraded Transformer):

Chime Box: https://imgur.com/a/sCDk0aX
Transformer: https://imgur.com/a/CRuqqvp

@brennanrusnell 

I assume you have the "chime puck" tucked away out of site.

brennanrusnell
Community Member

Great idea. I could swap chime pucks to see if that helps.  If it does, then I can reach out for a replacement.

EdmondB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello brennanrusnell,

Checking in — did you try to swap the two chime pucks for your Nest doorbell? If so, how did it go? Let me know if you need more help.

I appreciate the help, @MplsCustomer.

Thanks,
EdmondB

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey everyone,

@brennanrusnell,  I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. How's it going with your Nest Doorbell? We would appreciate it if you could share the information we're asking above. In case you have an update, you know where to find us.

Thanks for answering, EdmondB and MplsCustomer.

Regards,
Emerson

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi brennanrusnell,

Just one final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, we would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let us know.

Best,
Emerson

Please keep active, as per the reply I just wrote a moment ago.

Hello brennanrusnell,

 

Thanks for getting back to us. You need a transformer that is rated for 16-24 V AC, 10-40 VA to provide enough power to your Nest Doorbell. If you've already installed your Nest Doorbell and you see a blinking yellow light on the front, your Nest Doorbell isn't receiving enough power. To confirm, were you able to swap the chime connectors? Have you gone through other troubleshooting steps? Looking forward to your response.

  

Regards, 

Emerson

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey brennanrusnell,

 

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

   

Thanks, 

Emerson

Hi, thank you for offering to help.  It will take some time to test things here as I have young children and testing doorbells in the evening (after work) can be difficult when they are trying to sleep.  I wasn't able to try anything this past weekend, but I should be able to try a few things this coming weekend (July 8-9).  Thanks again 🙂

Lance_L
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

@brennanrusnell, buzzing in — do you still need our help? Don't hesitate to reach back if you do.

 

I appreciate your help, MplsCustomer, Edmond, and Emerson.

 

Best,

Lance

Thank you for reaching out.  My plan is to make another pass on things this weekend (July 22/23).

Lance_L
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey brennanrusnell,

 

Sounds like a plan! Let me know if you still have any further questions.

 

Regards,

Lance

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello everyone

 

@brennanrusnell, we wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of assistance. In case you have an update, you know where to find us.

 

Thanks for answering, Lance.

  

Best,

Emerson

Hi,

 

I finally found time for this. I removed the puck from the bottom chime box and it works 100% of the time now.  I’ll try using the upstairs puck, on the downstairs chime box, to see what happens.

 

 Again, the upstairs chime box has been working fine.  It’s the bottom that’s been problematic.

Ok. With both pucks off, both chime box/doorbell pairs work perfectly.  I then added the upstairs puck to the downstairs  chime box. Works fine. I then added the downstairs puck to the upstairs chime box. The upstairs doorbell rang 95% of the time - it missed the first 2 doorbell presses. The downstairs chime no longer makes a noise when I press the doorbell button.

 

Based on this, it seems that the pucks are potentially draining power from the chime boxes?

 

No pucks = 100% success with both doorbells

1 puck = 100% success with both doorbells

2 pucks = 95% success with upstairs doorbell and maybe 5% downstairs.

 

 What happens if I don’t use the pucks? Or, what happens if I use only one? In the case of 1, which chime box does it attach to, or should it attach elsewhere?

 

 Thanks.

This is how I *THINK* things are wired.This is how I *THINK* things are wired.Chime Box with PuckChime Box with PuckTransformerTransformer

If it helps, here are some photos of my setup.  The diagram, above, is my best *GUESS* as to how I think things are connected.

@brennanrusnell 

As designed, the chime pucks don't "drain" power from your chime boxes. They are designed to provide continuous power to your doorbell without tripping the chime and causing it to ring. Since you have two doorbells with a separate chime for each, each should have a chime puck.

The one chime box you pictured seems to be wired correctly.

Perhaps ONE of your chime pucks is bad--the one that was originally upstairs, though I'm not certain.  As I mentioned earlier, other customers have reported bad chime pucks.

When you said "the downstairs chime no longer makes a noise when I press the doorbell button" did you mean the chime wasn't ringing? And was the chime puck attached?

Thank you for the reply. To answer your question:

 

Correct, the downstairs chime box doesn’t make a ring/noise when I press the Google nest doorbell button.  This is when both chime boxes have a chime puck connected.

 

How can I request another chime puck?

 

 Thank you.

@brennanrusnell 

You'll have to try contacting Support. You can find the link and instructions in this post:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Using-Google-Nest-s-quot-Contact-Us-quo...

Some customers in this forum have reported that they had to agree to a complete replacement of their doorbell just to get a new puck. Some just replaced the puck and sent the replacement doorbell back rather than pulling out the original doorbell.

Hi,

Before I try Support, just wanted to provide a quick update.

As a quick reminder, the downstairs chime box rings maybe 5% of the time whereas the upstairs is nearly perfect.

I did an experiment: What if I remove the puck from the working, upstairs, chime box?  This means the only puck attached is the downstairs one.  Again, the downstairs puck is the one that might need to be replaced.

With this setup (downstairs puck attached, upstairs removed), both doorbells work perfectly.  Not sure if this changes anything, but wanted to share.

Thanks again.

And now that I have swapped pucks so many times, the puck wire ends snapped because of the continual bending ... 😞

I have stripped back the protective casing to expose more wire, but it's frustrating.

@brennanrusnell 

The results you cited don't make sense to me. Maybe your chimes are somehow wired in series. Do both chimes ring when either doorbell is pressed, or are they separate?

Google Nest doesn't offer much in the way of sample wiring diagrams for other than the simplest setups; they just tell you to hire a Nest Pro.

Maybe if both doorbells and their cameras work perfectly with just the downstairs puck attached, you just run that way for awhile and see if they continue to work just fine.

I can’t tell if they’re in series, but ringing one doesn’t trigger the other. I talked to customer support and they are sending new units. I think I’ll likely get a local Nest Pro to help me out.

Lance_L
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello folks,

 

@brennanrusnell, thanks for the update. Keep us posted. Just in case, here’s how to contact a Nest Pro: If you are in the US, you can contact our installation partner, OnTech, to help you set up the Nest doorbell. For all other countries, you can book an appointment with a Nest Pro. More information here.

 

Thanks for your help, MplsCustomer, Edmond, and Emerson.

 

Regards,

Lance

Hi,

What's the worst case scenario if I don't use both chime connector pucks?  Can I damage something by using only one puck?  Would it matter which chime box gets the puck?

@brennanrusnell 

I don't know, because I don't know how your chimes are actually wired. As I said earlier, maybe if both doorbells and their cameras work perfectly with just the downstairs puck attached, you just run that way for awhile and see if they continue to work just fine.

Hi,

Things have been slow here, but I am still not getting everything out of my doorbells.  To summarize, here's my setup and where I'm at:

I have a 2 floor house and a chime box on each floor.  I upgraded my transformer to 16VAC/30VA model.

The top floor doorbell works fine.  The bottom doorbell triggers the chime box maybe once every 10 attempts.  Everything else works fine - it maintains the video feed and sends notifications to my phone when it detects something.  It's just the chime box itself.  Fortunately, the bottom doorbell isn't used all that often, but it would still be nice to have both doorbells functioning as advertised.