Ring Steplight Review
Ring Steplight Review
Ring has introduced an entire line up of smart lighting to complement their smart doorbells, smart cameras and smart security system.
The Ring Steplight is one of their most compact smart lighting devices in their smart home lighting lineup and is designed to provide completely wire free lighting with built in motion detection to light up steps on your home as you approach. The Ring Steplight is fully sealed and is intended for outdoor use but could also be used inside if you had a stairwell you wanted to light up.
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Ring Pathlights installed along walkway in front of house.
Ring Steplight Review : How It Works
The Ring Steplights are completely wireless and are powered by 3 C batteries that will last typically up to 1 year with normal use. Ring defines normal use as 8-10 triggers per night at with a 20 second light duration.
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 Steplights are wireless but connect to your home network through the Ring Bridge which is a wireless network designed to work with Ring Smart Lighting to optimize battery life and communication. The Ring Steplights require a Ring Bridge to work so you can either buy a bridge separately or buy a package system like the Ring Pathlights that come with a Bridge. Once you have the bridge you could just buy Ring Steplights to expand the system with your existing Ring Bridge.
Ring Steplight Review: Best Uses
The Ring Steplight has a different uses than the multi purpose Ring Pathlights which are meant to be placed in landscaping.
The Ring Steplight is designed to be mounted on a hard surface like a walkway wall, steps to your home or deck steps to provide illumination when walking up. The also can be placed indoors to illuminate a stairwell and could be a good option for providing lights on your stairs without the need to turn on a major light at night while the rest of your family is sleeping.
The do add some level of design lighting to your home by illuminating your steps but they output about half as much light with 35 lumens of light compared to the 80 lumens of light provided by the Ring Pathlight landscape lighting.
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Not only do they provide good lighting for stairs 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 Steplight is are paired with the Ring 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 Steplight 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 Steplight Review Features:
Battery Powered - 3 C Batteries
1 Year Battery Powered
Wireless
Brightness 35 Lumens
Motion Detection Range 15FT
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 Steplight Review: In App Lighting Control
Ring Steplight Review : Value
The Ring Steplight typically offers a better value than what it would cost you to run built in landscape lighting to illuminate the stairs on your home. It also gives you the built in step lighting look and the added safety of lighting illuminating your stairs at night. However they Ring Steplight requires you to replace the batteries after a year so there is an ongoing maintenance cost with these smart lights.
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 Steplight Review : Installation
The Ring Steplights offer incredibly 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 Steplights power them on and place them on the steps or vertical hard surface you want to illuminate. They don’t require any wiring so once you connect them through the Ring App they are ready to be placed.
Ring Steplight Review Summary:
What we like about the Ring Steplight 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 Steplight has customizable brightness and motion detection settings that can all be changed through the Ring App. You can also turn the Ring Steplight 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 easy to install 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. It also can add safety to your home by illuminating your steps at night and preventing falls or trips. In the winter we see how they could be helpful to shine light on icy steps or walkways to prevent you from slipping.