Odd power issue at doorbell box

I've had an issue lately with my doorbell not working. I checked the transformer in the breaker box, and have power to it, and I also have power at the Ring doorbell itself. In the doorbell box, I have two low voltage wires, each with a red and white wire. Out of those wires, a red and white from each of them are tied together, and a red from one and a white from the other are going to terminals on the plungers. If I test the terminals, I have no power. But, If I put a probe on the red/ white that are tied together, and the other probe on either terminal, I have power. I'm not sure what the issue is?

I've not done any changes to anything recently, so nothings been moved or disconnected. It just stopped working.

So I have no power here-

But I have power here-

At the doorbell button, with a screwdriver short or touch both screws or wires together. If the door bell rings, replace the switch.

Ok. If I'm at the doorbell box, and use a screwdriver to touch between the two screw terminals, nothing happens. If I put the end of the screwdriver on the red/ white wires wire nutted together, and the other end on either terminal, it works.

white from the transformer to the trans terminal.
red takes power to the front door, white brings it back and is spliced to a white which completes the circuit at the screw labeled front.
You have a problem at the front door.

That's because the twisted pair are the hot or output of the transformer and by shorting the twisted pair to the screwed terminal, you've bypassed the push button, and your screwdriver is acting like the push button, so now move to the push button and short this two wires together.

Do you have a standard doorbell......or a Ring doorbell?

nealtw said:

white from the transformer to the trans terminal.
red takes power to the front door, white brings it back and is spliced to a white which completes the circuit at the screw labeled front.
You have a problem at the front door.

Click to expand...

This has the oddest looking load speaker I have ever seen.

It’s a Ring doorbell. It’s working fine because my phone beeps when the button is pushed. It’s just not ringing inside.

Does the ring have its own battery or is it powered by the low voltage transformer?

I believe it’s has its own battery, as it had a usb cord with it when I bought it. According to the app, it’s showing 100%.

Looking at the instruction manual it has an internal battery. Does your doorbell, when it is working go ding-dong or does it play a melody?

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004819486-Download-the-Manual-Ring-Video-Doorbell-

Based on your pictures, it would appear your doorbell is a simple ding-dong doorbell. The Ring instruction manual linked above has a diode that you only use if the door plays a tune. It appears in reading the Ring manual that it should be able to operate your doorbell. If you take the wires off of the ring and touch them together the doorbell should ring. If it doesn't you may have broken one of the wires in the installation process. The wires from the transform are a straight switch leg, you are closing the circuit to provide power to cause the doorbell to chime.

Where do the red and black wires that don't go back into the wall go? Your common from the transformer should go to the middle terminal (see Neal's diagram). The hot should be routed through your RING. The circuit is closed when you press the button. You should only show power at the chime when the button is pushed on the doorbell. Just think of the chime as a light bulb, it isn't more complicated than that. You need to have a + and a - for the light to light or chime to chime. When it is not lite/chiming you don't have a complete circuit and shouldn't have power between the terminals. This is all low voltage DC stuff, that's what the transformer does for you.

I have an electronic chime with the added diode and when first installing my ring doorbell, I also didn't get a ding inside, until I removed the diode. Afterwards, the inside bell was intermittent at best, so Ring sent me out their external plug in doorbell, and this is now what I use. Call their customer service, they are great to work with.

One time I was working on a ring doorbell set and I ran into what they call the ring "power kit" which is spliced at the transformer the place I was at had two of them one for each ring. one for the front door ,one from the back .
This client was a recent buyer who inherited them and the fact the didn't function .
So when I got there I had found they had actually burnt out .
All I could find was the small short at the doorbell part of the circuit that MAY have caused it .
The ring doorbell I was working with had a poorly designed back terminal section that would have in my opinion been designed with an isolated section for each conductor.
When the installer made the connections they must have accidentally touched.
These power adapters get placed inside the ring box where the terminal is located ,and from what I could tell the short burnt them out at the transformer in my case .
Maybe your installer should have put a power box in for you if they haven't ?

Https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/a...ring-Pro-power-kit-with-our-existing-doorbell

They say if you don't install this you may not get the proper voltage at the doorbell to work properly.

Again watch out for shorts and ensure you don't create one by accident they seem to be especially sensitive to this .