Nest wired doorbell 2nd gen transformer trouble

[skipcooney]

Installed the Nest wired doorbell 2nd gen and all looked good, getting the blue LED during setup and the green LED after completing setup in the Google Home app. Installed the puck in my indoor mechanical chime. Then found my chime did not work. The mechanical plungers would move when I pushed the doorbell button, but not move far enough to hit the plate. Checked my transformer and see that is 16 V, 10 VA. I know I need to swap this for a 16 V, 30 VA transformer, but I would have to pull the cover off my breaker box to make the swap, and I am not wanting to risk messing up my home wiring. Maybe someday I will get an electrician, when I have some other electrical work to do in the house. For now I can live with doorbell alerts on my iPhone (very quiet) and my Apple Watch (loud enough). Considering getting a Nest mini speaker to announce doorbell pushes. Is there any harm in continuing to operate the Nest wired doorbell using a 16 V 10 VA transformer and living without the mechanical chime?

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@skipcooney 

You can turn off the "Indoor chime" option for your doorbell so it doesn't keep trying to ring your chime, and get a Nest Mini and turn on "Visitor announcements" (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7672451) and hope your 16V 10VA transformer adequately powers your doorbell's camera.

When we got a second Nest Hello doorbell several years ago, the plunger on the chime wouldn't work for the second doorbell with our 16V 10VA transformer, but the doorbell camera worked fine. Eventually, we upgraded the transformer.

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@skipcooney 

You can turn off the "Indoor chime" option for your doorbell so it doesn't keep trying to ring your chime, and get a Nest Mini and turn on "Visitor announcements" (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7672451) and hope your 16V 10VA transformer adequately powers your doorbell's camera.

When we got a second Nest Hello doorbell several years ago, the plunger on the chime wouldn't work for the second doorbell with our 16V 10VA transformer, but the doorbell camera worked fine. Eventually, we upgraded the transformer.

[skipcooney]

So far the new Nest wired doorbell is working as expected in every way except for ringing the indoor mechanical chime. The acid test will be tomorrow night when we can expect dozens of trick or treaters at our door. Seems like the Nest Mini is a good stopgap measure until we can swap the transformer. 

[EdmondB · Accepted solution]

Hi skipcooney,

I’m glad your Nest Doorbell is working as intended except for ringing the indoor chime. As long as you disable the indoor chime option in the Google Home app, the Nest Doorbell is safe to use, as it will stop the doorbell from trying to ring the indoor chime. Please let us know if you need help or have questions after you swap the transformer. 

Thanks for the help, @MplsCustomer. 

Best,
Edmond