Ring Retrofit Alarm Kit Review - Setup and Installation

Today, we are going to check out the Ring Retrofit Alarm Kit. This is for you if you have an existing wired contact sensors in your house and you are planning to switch to the Ring Alarm or you already have the Ring Alarm system but you have more windows and doors that needs to be protected. This small hub will use your existing wired contact sensors and integrate it with your Ring alarm so that you don't need to buy extra wireless contact sensors.

Ring recommends professional installation but if you are a DIYer that has worked with electricity and used a multimeter before, then this can and will be an easy install. Ring has a professional installer company linked at their website if you need one.

Ring also has a video, tutorials and installation guide at their website to learn more about the Ring retrofit alarm kit and the link is below:

Here are my Ring Alarm videos since I installed my system last July 2018

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[PrydeWater]

The retrofit kit WILL, in fact, work with the wired motion detectors. It just requires that the backup battery and ac power supply be connected. It is NOT recommended by Ring. There is no selection in the setup process for prewired motion detectors, you’d have to set it up as a secondary entry and silence the chirps. This worked for me.

[PRTM]

Thanks for doing a review. I didnt know about the retrofit kit as ring doesn't seem to advertise it in any way I've seen. It's exactly what I needed. I've never worked with wires and the set-up was easy, breezy, beautiful, covergirl. I was lucky that my wires were already labeled. I had 6 zones but 1 zone linked 3 bedrooms, so i split those 3 bedrooms and ended up with a perfect 8 zones. I started using a multimeter but had no idea what i was doing with it so I gave up on using it. All zones were tested in the app and worked perfectly. I kept the retrofit in the metal box and so far no negative effects (the hub is about 6 feet away and separated by a wall). I saved a few buck$ by adding the retrofit kit and the security 5 piece kit separately to the shopping cart rather than their "discount" combo.

[nosirrahm]

I don’t have any real wiring experience other than YT school of wiring. I did it myself. 🙌🏽 I was even renegade enough to skip the multimeter tool too.

My front and garage doors were tied to one zone in my old alarm panel. I separated the wires so that the front and garage doors were independent.

Also take a pic of what you’d wiring looked like before you start work.
Some things to note:
- if a wired sensor location is open (and you want to leave it open), you have to remove that area from the away/home mode settings. If you use the “by-pass” option when arming, you will by-pass the retro kit itself thereby bypassing ALL wired sensors. So, either close that zone or disable it when arming away or home modes.

2. If you label the retro kit to a room, then set up your zones, because the wired zones are “children” off the retro kit, it will keep changing room names.

Ex, set retro kit to master closet, add a wired zone and set room location to living room. If you go back to the location of the retro kit, it will show living room. It will keep updating its location for every wired zone you add. If you go back to the retro kit location and change it back to master closet, ALL wired zones locations changed to master closet. They are not independent zones in room naming convention. Since you label your zone with a room name, not being able to properly set the room names won’t kill you. I called this into Ring Customer service because it was driving me bonkers.

[Gingersnap]

Just ordered mine! Really awesome to be able to save cash using existing sensors and be able to expand with their wireless sensors.

[mlim]

thx for this detail video. i'm curious why you decided to drill hole on old alarm box, vs. punching out the punch hole next to the new hole you drilled.

[JessieMHadaller]

You can use motion sensors. You just need a separate 12-18v power supply. It depends on the sensor.

[clubtc]

This is amazing! Thanks for making this video, I’m glad I subscribed to you a while back. I just bought a new home and just wished ring had something for a pre existing system and then your video showed up! Haha

[alanh]

Appreciate your videos. Are you suggesting the resistors I have on my existing system be removed for the Ring retrofit? What is the recommended ohm reading?

[paulmyers]

Revisiting this video... a few questions.. 1) I have 6 zones, one of which is a door / windows. How do I add zone 7, just for the door. Question 2: Do we need to snip off the resistors on the current ADT system. Thanks!

[klacourciere]

If you wanted to add glass break detectors on the ring alarm system.... You could use wired glass break detectors and then use the retrofit kit to interface them to the ring system.

[rayshafer]

I have 6 existing hard wired zones. Is it worth doing the retrofit kit if I pay to have it installed or even if I try to install it? If I don't do the retrofit kit, I understand you have to deal with batteries but don't you also get the replacement warranty on everything if you have ring protect plus or pro?

[baloo]

I love this, i had ADT, this ring set up will be compatible with ADT alarms systems?

[zachstuff]

Well that's a fun option! Too bad it doesn't work with the motion sensors yet. Thanks for reviewing this!

[BeaglerBassFishingOutdoors]

I have an alarm system in my shop that i dont use.

So this unit is solely for using your existing door and window sensors?

So i would need to also buy the ring alarm system to have a siren and punch pad which is the actual alrm system ??

[dannynicolosi]

great video. I have a question. I currently have a wired system. I did add a couple wireless motion detectors. Will this retrofit kit work with the added wireless motion detectors? Also, Ring says I need to order their base in addition.

[stargate]

I do like the ability to know which window in a zone is being opened. That would seem to be the only downside here.

[Trainman]

Excellent video as always!
Question….Do the old contacts have to be ‘normally open’ or ‘normally closed’ or will it handle both types?
Thank you.

[rickreboso]

great info thank you but i have one question can i or is there a way to tape into the vivint system I already have up it about 5 or 6 years old and use the ring system .?

[STEPHEN-rzmy]

If I have 2 windows in 1 bedroom, can I connect them together into 1 zone into the retro fit kit?

[donpeartlee]

Will this work with an operational ADT wired system? Will ADT allow their wired connections to be used with this Ring retrofit alarm kit?