Doorbell Wiring for Dummies

Wiring a doorbell

Though eHow's contributors are infamous for either publishing insufficient detail or insufficient accuracy, you can also tell when one is talking through his hat because of  the overly-detailed instructions for simple tasks. According to the site's L. P. Klages, for instance, "How to Wire a Doorbell"¹ takes a whoppin' eleven steps. Hell, we could've told you how in one step: "Buy a wireless doorbell!" That's because unless your home's walls are bare studs, it's darned near impossible to run those wimpy low-voltage wires to your front door. 

Klages gives it a go, however, with detailed (overly so) instructions about cutting this wire and connecting that wire and finding this box, etc. The actual instructions are surprisingly simple:

1. Connect the input side of the transformer to household current.
2. Connect the output side of the transformer to the bell with low-voltage wire
3. Connect the bell to the button with low-voltage wire

But L. P. thinks you need to be told to find spots for the bell, etc.: does he think you're as big a dumbass as he is? However, when push comes to shove, L. P. demonstrates his dumbassery in several ways. For example, here's his step 3:

"The low voltage transformer that came with your doorbell system has black and white leads coming out of it. Twist the black wire onto the black wire from your circuit using a wire nut. Do the same with the white wire."

Wow: there's some wiring that won't meet code! At least it won't meet code unless those wire nuts are inside a junction box, but Klages never mentions that detail. Moving right along, we find lots of mention of 18-gauge wire, though doorbells are typically wired with 20-gauge. We'll let that slide, for now... Then, L. P. "tells" us how to wire the bell itself...

"From the 18-gauge cable you just ran, connect the black wire to the hot screw, and the white wire to the neutral screw. Choose a spot for the bell portion of the system somewhere along the path of the the wire you ran. It doesn’t matter where, just make sure you can hear the noise of the bell from wherever it is. Cut the 18-gauge wire at the spot you chose for the bell. Reconnect the black wire using another wire nut. Connect the two remaining loose ends of the neutral white wire to the two terminal screws on the bell apparatus."

Errrm, there'd be no power to the door chime if you were to follow Klages' butchered instructions - it's sitting all by its lonesome on the neutral wire. Sure, pressing the bell closes the circuit, but the bell is nothing but a resistor on the neutral wire! No, a doorbell chime has a terminal labeled "transformer," and one strand of the low-voltage wire must run from that terminal to the transformer. As Bugs would say, "What a maroon.".

Of course, anyone who just bought a wired doorbell for new construction would have a wiring diagram in front of him (or her), and wouldn't need Klages' kludged instructions - thank heavens. 

Did we need to say anything else? When we're looking for candidates for the Dumbass of the Day, it makes our job so much easier when we find this combination of overkill and underinform. Thanks, L. P!

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_6695444_wire-doorbell.html

copyright © 2015-2022 scmrak

DDIY - WIRING