I wouldn’t really use the WYZE cameras as Security cameras. I got my first one for Inside of my Garage. my Dad lives with me at my house and we come and go through the Garage Door. Well he’s left the door open a number of times. Generally when I’m at work. BUt one time, he left earily in the morning on a day I was off. By the time I got up, and went to the garage, the door was open. I don’t live in the best area of town and anyone could have just walked into the garage and robbed me blind or walked right into the house while I’m sleeping!!!
I can control my Garage door with Siri or a app. So now I get a alarm if the door is left open for 5 minutes and another at 10 minutes. Before I wouldn’t know if he was home and just working in the garage or he took off and forget to close it. So I could look at the video from the WYZE cam and know for sure. I have sense then added outside security cameras. But the WYZE camera also is good to be there for Amazon In-Garage Delivery which is pretty nice. Packages are left inside of my garage so I don’t have to worry about Porch Pirates. Looking at the video, the workers and In/Out pretty fast. No messing around or looking around. I like this way much better then Front Door Delivery, which wouldn’t really work for me since I have a security gate. To many locks. Besides I wouldn’t want someone just walking inside my house into the family room while I or my Dad is sitting there watching TV. The garage though, much better.
These Cameras though are not really for outside use. You can get 3rd party housings to put them in, but you still have to plug them into power. Where do you get that power? They really don’t make the best security cameras, at least outside. Inside, OK. If someone breaks in, maybe you get them in camera and on the cloud before they grab it?
I ended up getting a real Security Camera system that I installed myself. It uses 5MP POE (Power Over Ethernet). Plus a NVR. (Network Attached Storage) DVR’s are Digital Video Recorders which are used for older Analog Type Camera systems. So with POE camera’s, all that is required is running a Ethernet cable to each one. That wasn’t that hard. Drilling a small hole just large enough to run the cable through and then attaching the Jack after makes for a small hole. That single cable handles Video, in my case Audio also for the Mic, and Powers them. They don’t have a speaker so I can’t talk back.
I have my NVR in a Lock Box mounted up high and out of the way. I have 6 cameras currently, one is a DOME PTZ camera which I can move around at the front corner of my house. I plan to add 2 more in the future to get the last couple blind spots. All the camera’s are plugged into my NVR, and my NVR is plugged into my Home Wired Network which I did a number of years ago with this in mind for the future. It’s recording everything 24/7 right now. I have about 3 weeks of Data. I can watch my Cameras on my Desktop, or my iPad or iPhone anywhere. Costs me ZERO per month.
I have a couple of their camera’s I have this older one sitting next to me that I need to figure out what I’m going to do with it. I also just got their Scale. In general I’m a Homekit house. I like the Security/Encryption of Homekit devices. I have a few Alexa Devices, including my newest Echo Show 8. my Echo 4, and my Dot’s 2nd and 3rd generation. I also have a Google Home Mini. This way I can play around with all 3 of them. I don’t really see Google going much of anywhere. When was the last time they released a new device? Apple really only has their HomePod, but I throw in the Apple Watch which works everywhere I’m at to control my Home. Alexa has a lot of support and a ton of devices, but it’s really wordy on some things, and a lot of times I forget what I’ve setup. For my 72 year old Dad, it’s just to complicated compared to Siri at least when it comes to home control devices.
All 3 have their Pro’s and Con’s. If you’re a Android person, then Homekit is ruled right out for you leaving just 2 options. Google and Siri really work pretty similar. Alexa seems dumber. you have to Ask or Tell it to do something and with what. If you don’t say things exactly right, it’s clueless. So you need to figure out what type of Smart Home you want to be, and see what kind of devices you can get that will support what you want to do now and in the future. Some devices support all 3 and I have then setup for all 3, though I really only use Siri, like the Ecobee and the Rancio 3.
I can’t wait to see what new things WYZE is working on in the future. They are really getting into a number of different areas now besides low cost cameras. It is pretty Amazing how low of a price and all the features they can sell their products for. If they just had Homekit support, I’d be buying some of their other products. 50% of the U.S. have a iPhone. So it seems strange to me to not support Homekit. You’re ignoring half the population. iPhone users are known to spend more money.
There’s really no one solution for everything and everyone. Just have to figure out what works best for YOU.