Technical Advice

This section is intended to provide some education about how doorbells work, the problems they can develop and some clues about how to go about servicing them. If you are trying to assess how to save a vintage chime, or just want to understand what’s going on inside your chime this is where to start. See the other Tech Advice topics in the blue tabs to the left.

How Doorbells Work

Illustrations below describe how the simplest single solenoid doorbell works.

Most chimes have two solenoids to provide signal for both front and back doors. In most chimes, the upper solenoid exclusively serves the front door signal, and the lower solenoid exclusively serves the rear door. The solenoid providing the single note for the rear door is stopped short on the rebound stroke so as not to strike the second bell. Illustrations below show the sequence of action for the back door solenoid.

Information about multi-note chimes coming soon.