My mom's handyman put one in for her and periodically, it chimed on it's own. Sometimes turning on a light set it off. I asked the local wiring forum gurus and was informed the electronics in the chime were cheap - insufficiently shielded from stray magnetic fields. Maybe if you get a good one all will be well.

Bill

You also have to remember to check the batteries periodically. If you don't....you might find someone standing on your front step....thinking he's ringing the bell....but with nothing happening.

If you have existing wiring for a hard-wired bell system....I recommend that you stick with that.

James

I've got a hard wired front door and a wireless unit that you plug in to any receptacle. I've got it upstairs because I usually can't hear the front doorbell from the second floor. When the regular doorbell is pressed it energizes a little transmitter (you install this on the terminals for your regular doorbell) and it sends a signal to the remote unit. It works fine (had it for at least 5 years), was less than $20 at Home Depot, and requires no batteries.
Once every few months it may go off by itself if there is a power surge, but generally that's a minor issue.

We have a victorian style doorbell chime that you turn the knob & it chimes. It is loud enough to hear through the house & I like the different sound it makes. Mine is very similar to this one but it was a bit cheaper. www.vandykes.com/product/02284066/
Can't remember which catalog mine came from.

We received a a two doorbell battery run kit as a gift. We have a (900 sq ft) house shaped like a boxcar, with doors at each end. The kit had range problem, the receiver had to be placed in the center of the house.

Sometimes the front doorbell just didn't ring, and it is closest to the receiver. Eventually it stopped working. One day I saw the receiver on the living room wall was caked on the bottom with green corrosion salts from the battery. The salts went onto the wall.

We haven't removed it yet, so I can't tell you the brand name, but it was from a big box store.

There aren't many choices, and they are all from China, land of the lousy electronics.

One day when our house is rewired we will get everything hardwired/

I installed one in my tenant's apartment 10 years ago when the hardwired bell stopped working and a short was found in the bell wire. The chime unit plugs into an outlet and there is a battery in the push button at the door. I replaced the battery about 3 years ago. It came from Home Depot and works well without the inconvenience and expense of running new wire. If you have the wire, I see no advantage to a wireless unit.

I spent $30 on one from Home Depot and I returned it. It did not work at all. Not even with the receiver ten feet from the bell. My kids being loud set it off, but not the doorbell. It felt like a rip off.

I have a brass Victorian mechanical bell. We LOVE it--although you may have to train your guests to use it since they're few and far between these days. Many people just haven't seen one....LOL Mine's like the one in the Van Dyke's catalog, too.

My daughter has one, it is original to the front door of her house.

I have aluminium siding and the wireless doorbells don't seem to work. There was one here when I moved here and it worked. It quit and every one I've tried since hasn't.

I've also used the wireless driveway alarms but they go off or not, depending on whether the wind is blowing or it's dark or the sun is shining or I close the refrigerator. The very first one I bought years ago worked until a rock hit it from the snowblower. I never found that brand again.

I thought I would try the old fashioned kind like above but I do have a steel entry door. Right now I have a sign on the door to "Toot your Horn! I could be anywhere!" And that covers me no matter if I'm inside or out.

We put in a wireless doorbell from Home Depot after a major remodeling --- forgot about wiring for a doorbell! It works well for us. The receiver is about 20 feet and around several walls from the button, and we've had no issues with it not working. The only problem I have is that there was only one button style available and I didn't particularly like it. But I painted it to match the door hardware and it's okay. It is mounted with double-side sticky tape which has not failed after several years. The receiver is just placed on a shelf where it's out of the way; it can also be hung on a wall (but it's also not the cutest thing on the planet).

We had one that worked for awhile; we bought it at one of the big box stores, probably Lowes. After some time, it quit, and the replacement never worked at all. I'd suggest installing a hard wired one. (That's one thing we forgot in our remodel - luckily code calls for hardwired smoke detectors!)