Door bell wiring

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I'm considering adding a second door bell sounder to the house because our kitchen is being moved to the back and wife may not be able to hear the bell. I don't want to move to a wireless bell since I already have an existing wired bell setup and transformer.

Will a second bell require any bell wire cable going from the actual door bell push to the bell sounder, or just the mains transformer to the second bell sounder?

I ask because the mains transformer is in the stairs cupboard and is half way / centre distance between the second sounder in the new extension and the front door bell push and I am trying to avoid a new visible bell wire cable run from the transfer to the door bell push (if it is required).
 
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It will depend on how the bell,push and transformer are wired.
Essentially, the second bell will go in parallel with the first bell.
Your issue may be that the transformer is not powerful enough to drive two bells. this is often a problem.
Why not abandon the existing set up, and buy a wireless door bell system that has a bell push and two sounders. (Look, no wires!!)
Something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/1byone-Wireless-Doorbell-Receivers-Melodies/dp/B00PVBWH7M

or Google "wireless doorbell two chimes one button"
 
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Many years ago I got an electronic door bell designed to have an extra speaker connected and two door pushes with a different tune played for the back door. So the wiring was supply from transformer, connection to front door push, connection to rear door push, and connection to second speaker 8 wires in all. Over the years the white plastic went yellow, I tried to find a reasonably priced replacement, however either they were more than I wanted to pay or were wireless, so I bought three wireless door bells from Lidi and programmed the same door push into all three. One placed front of house, one in kitchen, and one upstairs. The door push button cells last a long time, did get some water in the push, but clearly two spares now on second. And because three sounders even when one pair of AA cells goes flat we will normally hear the other two and change the batteries on the one with discharged cells.

I do think the originally hard wired was better, however my wife is into craft so spends a lot of time upstairs, so the third sounder upstairs is good.

My late mother the problem was in a wheel chair it took too long to get to the door, here we went for a different method, the large door bell can be either battery or main powered the latter needs a 12 DC power supply, this is what we used, the door push is rather large, it could hold two D cells, the sounder looks like a cordless phone, and pressing a button on the sounder allows you to talk to who ever is at the door, it even has the option to expand it, and be able to release the door from the sounder. The instructions say you can in fact use a cordless phone as the sounder, I did try but it would not work with mothers BT 6500 phones. Like any cordless phone the sounder sits in a cradle so batteries never get discharged. And like any cordless phone you can carry it around the house with you. See here for more details

One does have to be careful with wired door bells, the electronic type use very little power, and having two connected together is likely not a problem, but the ding dong door bell often has a huge load, in fact more than the transformer is rated for, it relies on people not pressing the button for long, fitting two of this type you will likely have a problem getting a transformer big enough, volt drop on the wires, and door pushes burning out.

I think you will find you have no option but go wireless, however that does not mean it has to be battery powered.
 
I'm no fan of things wireless, but I'd be surprised if these days you couldn't get some doohickey to connect to a sounder that alerts you via your smartphone or tablet.

And like any cordless phone you can carry it around the house with you.
You just have to remember to do that.

Most people these days have developed that habit with their phone.
 
I have a wireless door bell, two sounders.
Never had a problem with it.

Is there a smartphone app that will detect the presence of The Watchtower people, and disable the sounder until they have gone nextdoor??
 
Is there a smartphone app that will detect the presence of The Watchtower people, and disable the sounder until they have gone nextdoor??
It would be more public-spirited if the app could disable the sounders of all your neighbours' doorbells until they had left the area :)

Kind Regards, John
 
Thx Eric for the detailed responses. How would I know if I had an electronic door bell? If mine has the option of multiple tone selection, does that mean it's electronic rather than single ding dong type?
 
Thx Eric for the detailed responses. How would I know if I had an electronic door bell? If mine has the option of multiple tone selection, does that mean it's electronic rather than single ding dong type?
In a word, yes!

Kind Regards, John
 

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