I recently purchased the outdoor camera kit based a recommendation from a friend. He has been raving about Wyze for two years, then what sold me was a personal vandalism story that I saw on the local news. Some kids destroyed a neighbors fence and the footage the news showed was a Wyze camera. Sharp clear picture, I was sold.
However, my experience has been anything but. I bought the Wyze 2 outdoor camera kit, with solar panels. I put up one on the outside of my house pointed at my driveway. Yes, because of the location, there is a lot of activity.
I was first unhappy about the video scheduling. I can only schedule for a few short day’s, then I have to remember to get back on the app and set up the schedule again, and yes I have the 32G SD card. But I’m really unhappy because the battery keeps draining to zero, even with a solar panel in full sun. I will check the app and see the battery at 100%, then a couple of day’s later, its down to zero. Over the weekend, I lost connectivity. The camera was marked offline. I have not yet had the chance to go out and power it off and back on, that in itself makes me unhappy because that involves a ladder. This morning, I checked the app and the camera is back online, but the battery is 0%.
I am very unhappy with my purchase. The camera quality is not what I thought it would be, and I have since learned that my friend, the one who was raving about Wyze, has indoor only camera’s connected to a power source.
I have three of the four cameras in place and I’m not sure if I want to put the fourth in place if this is the type of product I purchased. I’ve submitted two tickets and they only response is to purchase their paid service. Why should I put more money into this product or company.
The outdoor battery powered camera is severely limited in functionality to preserve battery. You will find this with any brands battery cams.
If your using the scheduling in continuous mode, the cam will die in a few hours. Many users have had success with event only recording, but depending on activity that also may drain the battery.
If you purchase cam plus lite (pay what you want, even $0), you can get 12s event videos with 5 min cooldown. If you purchase cam plus, you can get unlimited recording, but you can set a cool down or max event length.
If your able to power the camera, a v3 would be a MUCH better option, but if not just aim the camera in a place where it won’t see much activity, set detection zones and sensitivity settings, and set the microSD card recording to event only.
I experience the same problem with charging. one day the battery will be at 100% and the next day will be o%. I have 4 of these solar panels. I have found that the plug on the back of the camera comes out of the socket just enough to keep the solar panel from charging. That might be your issue. one way to check to see if your solar panel is charging is to shut the camera off during the day with the sun shining and see if the % of charge goes up. This might take a few hours.
I hope you didn’t set the battery powered camera for continuous recording
You can set scheduled recording for up to 30 days, MOTION ONLY, no cooldown period and a max. duration video length of up to 5 minutes. If you did set it for continuous I would be surprised if it lasted 6-8 hours.
