Nest Doorbell (wired) doesn't ring with mechanical chime

[chonger5]

I installed the Nest Doorbell (wired Gen 1 - not 2), and the mechanical chime is not working. I tried toggling the "Chime duration" switch in the Nest app to "On" with no success, as laid out in this post.  

Doorbells with my chime tend to have a circuit that looks like the one below. (I found this drawing from the original chime box.)

My circuit looks like the blow.

With the chime connector installed, there's power to the doorbell (I can see live video), but there's no chime when the doorbell is pressed. Interestingly, the chime works when I don't use the chime connector, but only for a few presses.

I suspect my transformer is not compatible as suggested in this article, Nest doorbell chime doesn't ring or sounds weak, but I wanted to see if there might be another reason before purchasing a new transformer. I measured the voltage on the transformer and got 0, but this seems like an issue with my multimeter.

[MplsCustomer]

@chonger5 

I'm a bit bewildered by your wiring, but the drawing from your original chime box refers to a 10V 5VA transformer. We had to upgrade from our original transformer (whose specs I could not find, though my guess is that it was 16V 10VA); our house is 94 years old) to a 16V 30VA transformer several years ago when we bought a second Nest Hello Doorbell and there wasn't enough power for the second Nest Hello to ring the chime. That's more than the minimum Google Nest says is needed (16 to 24V, and 10 to 40VA: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9247132), but there are quite a few posts in this forum from customers with both the 1st and 2nd gen doorbells who upgraded to 16V 30 VA in order to get their chime to ring.

If you can get live video, it may be that all you need is a transformer upgrade, especially since--if your drawing is accurate--your current transformer may be less than even Google Nest's recommended minimum.

[Lance_L]

Hi everyone,

@chonger5, I wanted to see if you still needed any help. Have you seen MplsCustomer’s response above? If yes, how was it?

If you still need help with the Nest doorbell, you may contact a Nest Pro to help you set up the device. In the US, you can contact our installation partner, OnTech. For all other countries, you can book an appointment with a Nest Pro. You can check out this handy guide for information on Google Nest professional installation services.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for your help, MplsCustomer.

Best,

Lance

[chonger5]

Thanks for the suggestion. I upgraded my transformer to this one from Amazon. The new transformer is 24V 40VA. The old one is 5VA 10V.

[EmersonB]

Hello folks,

@chonger5, thanks for getting back to us. We wanted to make sure that everything is covered here. How's it going with your Nest Doorbell? Is your mechanical chime working now with your new transformer? We'll wait for your update here.

I appreciate the help, Lance and MplsCustomer.

Regards,

Emerson