On Feb 19, 8:56*am, "Charlie" wrote:
"Kate" wrote in message

...





My home is 11 years old, and it came with a battery-operated doorbell
which has worked great, but now it needs replacing.

I noticed when I took the old push button off by the front door that there
is a red and a white wire behind the button. *Does this mean the house is
wired for a wired doorbell? *The back door area has the same colored
wires.

I cannot find any place where I would install the box inside. *I have
checked all closets, etc.

Can anyone tell me if these wires are indeed for a wired doorbell, and
where the inside wires would be for the box?

I hope I explained this fairly well.

Thanks.

Kate

I too have a battery operated doorbell. There is not now and never was a
transformer to supply power. The only problem we have had (not counting the
batteries wearing out) is that the doorbell button cannot be ythe kind that
lights up. Using one of those, the little lamp in the button acts as if the
switch was already pressed. I ended up having to get a lighted button and
cuting out the little lamp.

The reason we ended up this way was that the builder had not wired the door
postion for a doorbell at all (most people in the neighborhood use wireless
bell systems) but we already had a *bell that gave us about two dozen tunes
that it would play and can be changed with the seaons. It has patriotic
themes, Christmas carols, Hail the gang's all here, Saints go marching in,
etc. It is about twenty years old now and still chiming along.

Charlie- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The best plan of attack was from the poster who suggested finding a
neighbor who has the same or similar house. If this house was built
as one of a series in a development, then they usually are wired
somewhat similarly and it would give you good places to start looking.

Also, how about where a chime would go. What's there? The battery
operated one? Wires behind it? If you can measure voltage between
any of the wires, you could then turn off breakers until you find the
circuit it is on. That could help locate the area where the
transformer might be. If you don't know what the transformer looks
like, go to a HD or hardware store and look at one. They are
typically fastened directly to some type of electric box. An example
would be on the side or top of a single bulb basement light fixture.
Also, I'd focus the search at least initially at the locus of where
the chime would be and the doorbell button or buttons. They usually
don't put the transformer a long way away.