Ring Pathlight Review
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Ring Pathlight Review
Ring has been on a roll launching new products in 2019. We got our first view of some of their new smart home products at CES 2019 like their new line up of smart lighting and their new smart doorbell the Ring Door View Cam.
The Ring Pathlight is one of the new smart lighting devices in their smart home lineup and is designed to provide completely wire free landscape lighting with built in motion detection to light up the steps or a pathway to your home as you approach.
Ring Pathlights installed along walkway in front of house.
Ring Pathlight Review : How It Works
The Ring Pathlights are 100% wireless and are powered by batteries that will last typically up to 1 year with normal use. They have a built in motion sensor that can detect motion up to 15 feet and they can also be controlled to turn on or off using the Ring App on your phone.
The Ring Pathlights are wireless but connect to your home network through the Ring Bridge which is a wireless network designed to work with Ring smart lights to optimize battery life and communication. The Ring Pathlights require a Ring Bridge to work so for your first set of Ring Pathlights it’s best to buy lighting package that includes the Ring Bridge. Once you have the bridge you could just buy Ring Pathlights to expand the system with your existing Ring Bridge.
Ring Pathlight Review: Best Uses
We see the Ring Pathlight as a great option to illuminate a walkway or pathway up to your home providing lighting to prevent trips but to also create ambient lighting for your front yard. Not only do they provide good lighting for a pathway up to your home but they also integrate with the Ring App and can integrate with your Ring Doorbells to enhance the security at your home.
When the Ring Pathlights are paired with the app they can alert you when motion is detected or they can work with your Ring Doorbell to start recording when motion is detected by one of the path lights. The Ring Pathlight creates a smart device network that can extend the motion detection capabilities of smart doorbells or smart cameras like the Ring Doorbell or the Ring Floodlight Cam.
Ring Pathlight Review Features:
Battery Powered - 4 D cell Batteries
Brightness 80 Lumens
Motion Detection Range 15FT
1 Year Battery Life
Smart Home Control With Ring App
Motion Detection Alerts On Ring App
Works with Ring Cameras & Ring Doorbells to trigger recording when motion is detected.
Works With Alexa
Made to be placed outside in the elements.
Customizable motion and brightness settings.
Ring Pathlight Review: In App Lighting Control
Ring Pathlight Review : Value
The Ring Pathlights come in a pair and typically offer a better value than what it would cost you to run built in landscape lighting to illuminate your pathway or walkway up to your home. However they do require you to replace the batteries after a year so there is an on going maintenance cost with these smart lights.
We couldn’t find any specific information on the exact batteries to use with the Ring Pathlight other than they require D cell batteries. However typically recommend using rechargeable batteries with smart home devices when they need replacement because they are more sustainable and typically have a lower long term cost than non-replaceable batteries. Most manufacturers will have disclaimers that you shouldn’t use rechargeable batteries but we have used them in other smart home devices without any ill effects. But at this point we haven’t tested the Ring Pathlight with rechargeable batteries but we hope they work. There is potential that Ring Comes out with a rechargeable battery pack designed for these lights just like they did with the Ring 2 Doorbell.
If you already have a built in hardwired landscape lighting or outdoor lighting system and want to add smart home control to your existing hardwired landscape lighting system the Ring Transformer is probably a better fit for you. You can connect the Ring Smart transformer to your existing hardwired low voltage landscape lighting that will allow you to have smart control of your existing landscape lighting from your phone or using Alexa.
Ring Pathlight Review : Installation
The Ring Pathlights offer incredibility easy installation. All you need to do is setup the Ring Bridge and connect it your home network, follow the instructions in the app to connect your Pathlights, power them on and place them where you want in your yard. They don’t require any wiring so once you connect them through the Ring App they are ready to be placed.
Ring Pathlight Review Summary:
What we like about the Ring Pathlight is that it offers easy installation and works with your existing Ring products like the Ring Doorbell and Ring Cameras to expand the motion detection capabilities of your existing Ring System through the App. We also like that the Ring Pathlights have customizable brightness and motion detection settings that can all be changed through the Ring App. You can also turn the Ring Pathlights on or off from the app or control them with Alexa.
The one drawback we see to these lights is that they are battery powered so that means you will either need to replace the batteries or use rechargeable batteries to power them. The battery power makes them easy to install but typically you will need to replace or recharge the batteries once per year. The lights don’t come with rechargeable batteries so this is something you would need to upgrade too in the future.
Overall it’s an innovative smart light designed to work with rest of the Ring Smart Home Ecosystem and could be a great addition to your home if you want to add landscape lighting or increase the motion detection capabilities of your existing Ring Doorbell or Cameras.
