Ring’s line of sensors are a great way to upgrade the security of your home. They also had a lot of convenience and utility when it comes to automatically turning on lights and other smart devices. However, they can also be a bit of a pain because they have a bad reputation for falling off randomly.
There are a few quick tricks that you can do to make sure that your Ring sensors stop falling off.
The best way to prevent your Ring sensors from falling off is to just screw them into the wall or door frame. If you can't screw your Ring sensors down, you should consider upgrading the pre-included tape with 3M adhesive strips. If you plan on using any kind of adhesive strips, make sure to clean the surface with some rubbing alcohol before you stick any sensors to it.
Here's how you can make sure that your Ring sensors stay up until you decide to take them down.
What Are Ring Sensors?
You probably know Ring for their doorbells and cameras, but Ring also has an impressive suite of alarms and sensors to match. The Ring Contact Sensor and the Ring Motion Sensor are the two flagship sensors from Ring:
Most of Ring’s sensors are designed to work with the Ring home security system. This functions as an all-around home security setup that gets integrated into your smart home. The Ring sensors can turn on lights, trip alarms, and send you messages about movement in your home.
Ring’s motion sensors are also used with smart lighting. One of the most common is your standard outdoor lighting setup. Ring’s motion sensors can pick up activity in your yard and turn on floodlights as needed. These motion sensors can also light up bathrooms and stairs to make your home a little safer, and a little more convenient, at night.
Before we get into stopping Ring sensors from falling off (and potentially ringing your loud alarm siren!), we need to look at how to properly install them.
Tips for Installing Ring Sensors
Getting your Ring sensors installed properly is the key to having a truly secured smart home. Here’s a few tips for making sure that Ring Contact Sensors and Ring Motion Sensors are properly installed.
Ring Contact Sensors
Ring contact sensors are designed to be used on doors and windows. These are the classic security sensors that detect when a door or window has been open or closed. These are great for home security, but can also be a great choice for making sure your home's doors and windows stay shut when you're on vacation.
The Ring contact sensor is made up of two parts. The larger part is the sensor while the smaller part is a magnet. The sensor in the magnet must be within one inch of each other in order to function properly.
You can mount the sensor in the magnet at any angle or orientation. There can even be decorative features, such as the molding on your door frame, in between the magnet and the sensor. The sensor and the magnet can even be offset, but they must be within one inch of each other when the door or window is closed.
Ring Motion Sensors
Installing Ring Motion Sensors is a lot more flexible than installing the Ring Contact Sensors. At the most basic level, Ring motion sensors just need to be aimed at whatever area you're looking at to detect Motion in and then they're good to go. However, there are a few good tips for properly installing a Ring motion sensor.
You want to make sure that the sensor is somewhere between 6 to 8 feet above the ground. This prevents children, pets, and even adults, from accidentally knocking into the sensor and causing it to fall off. These sensors have about a 30-foot detection range which should be large enough to cover most rooms.
Why Ring Sensors Fall Off
There's one big reason why these Ring sensors keep falling off. If you've been seeing posts online about Ring sensors falling off, or your own Ring sensors have fallen off, it's probably because of the adhesive tape on the back of the sensor:
Ring may make some fantastic products, but they seem to be cutting costs when it comes to the adhesive tape that they include with their sensors. Many users have experienced this tape losing it’s adhesion overtime and the sensor ultimately falling off.
Besides being an annoyance, this can cause some considerable problems. When a Ring sensor falls, it's going to trigger whatever smart security events you have connected to it. This could be as minor as turning on a bathroom light or as major as setting off your home security alarms.
Let's jump into a few of the ways that you can make sure that your Ring sensors stay properly connected for a long time.
How to Keep Your Ring Sensors from Falling Off
One of the best things you can do for keeping your Ring sensors firmly attached to the wall is to follow the instructions for properly securing them:
- A lot of Ring sensors fall off because they are placed too low to the ground and get bumped and knocked off a wall.
- There can also be problems with the surfaces that you're connecting your Ring sensors to that makes them harder to connect with the adhesive strip.
Surfaces like brick and stucco, for example, are much harder to stick the adhesive tape to in a way that's going to last. For those surfaces, you're either going to need to screw the Ring sensors in or find a clever work around that allows you to get sensor coverage, but doesn't involve sticking anything to the wall.
We're going to start with the most secure way of attaching Ring sensors and work our way from there.
Screw Them In
One of the best things about Ring’s suite of sensors is that you don't have to use the tape at all. In fact, if you can screw your Ring sensors in, this is the best way to go.
The back of your Ring sensors are going to come with some holes that have been pre drilled into them in the production process.
Firstly, slide off the back cover on the contact or motion sensor:
You can use these holes to secure screws and mounting brackets to make sure that your Ring sensors aren't going anywhere:
There are also solutions for individuals who can't use the included way of screwing and your Ring sensors.
There are plenty of aftermarket brackets for Ring sensors. These are readily available for Ring motion sensors, but you can also find mounting brackets for the Ring contact sensors. These mounting brackets are a great choice for individuals who are looking for an easier way to screw their sensors into their walls and door frames.
However, there are several reasons why you shouldn't screw in your Ring sensors. If you're renting, it might be against the rules of your lease to screw anything into the door frames or walls. Your walls might also be made of a material, like masonry, that's less suitable for screwing in Ring sensors than others.
If you can’t screw your sensors in, you should consider using 3M adhesive strips.
Use 3M Adhesive Strips
Those 3M adhesive strips have really changed the game when it comes to hanging things on our walls. You used to have to nail or screw everything in that you wanted to hang, but since these 3M adhesive strips have gotten more popular you can now just stick things to the walls.
3M adhesive strips are surprisingly powerful. They can hang everything from jackets to paintings or mirrors. This means you're going to be more than capable of handling these small smart sensors.
Outside of following the instructions in your pack of 3M adhesive strips, there is one extra step we need to take. Ring sensors have a piece of tape already on the back of the sensor:
We're going to need to peel off that tape and replace it with a 3M Adhesive strip.
You should be able to just peel the adhesive strip off the back of your Ring sensor. However, if too much residue is staying behind or the tape isn't peeling off, you might need to carefully scrape it off with a razor or another sharp tool.
Clean the Surface With Alcohol
One of the problems with the pre-included tape that came with your Ring sensors is that it is just not that adhesive. Another problem could be that the surface you're attempting to stick it to is covered with dust, grime, or other debris. This prevents a good occasion could be the reason why your Ring sensor keeps falling off.
If you attempt to stick a Ring sensor onto a surface without cleaning it, you're actually sticking the sensor to the dust on the surface of the wall rather than the wall itself. The best way to overcome this is to give your wall quick cleaning with some rubbing alcohol before applying your adhesive tape:
Make sure to let the rubbing alcohol fully dry before you apply your Ring device’s adhesive tape. This should ensure quality adhesion between your sensor and the wall, door, or window that you're connecting it to.
