Wyze Cam Outdoor - Battery Life

The one thing I was worried about on Outdoor Cam is the battery life and also how weatherproof it really is?! I haven’t gotten to the second test just yet. I received two outdoor cams and two bases. Everything I did was simultaneous to both cams Unboxed, charged fully until light indicated and 100% charged. Synced both to one base. Put all settings exactly the same on both cameras. Sat right next to one another, about two feet away from base and router, inside my home. I allowed the cameras to do their thing. If I walked by the cameras, I made sure both detected the movement. One cameras battery remained 100% the other dropped to 89% within three hours. Defective? I also noticed one cameras picture is darker than the other. I have not yet tested them to the elements because I want to exchange or return the one camera. Wyze has yet to respond to me personally and it’s been four days! I was sent here to “ask the community.” So anyone else have battery issues? Not that the community can refund my money or anything and I believe this is a waste of my time. Nonetheless, here I am asking.

Seems to be common around here. Some users have major battery drain for what seems to be no valid reason. Others like myself have had low battery drain. Looks like you got one good and one bad. It might be good to try charging the one back up fully and see if it continues to drain fast, or if it possibly just didn’t fully charge the first time.

Looks like you would be a great candidate for comparing two samples! Would love to hear results of a few side-by-side tests!

I would definitely test Wyze products. I think with some time and adjustments the outdoor cam could be great. I just hope that we the guinea pigs, so to speak, are addressed accordingly and issues resolved with our cameras without cost.

| mark55
August 18 |

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Looks like you would be a great candidate for comparing two samples! Would love to hear results of a few side-by-side tests!

The good news is that when they finally get back to you (probably in two weeks) they will tell you that they have fixed the problem. The bad news is that they will not have fixed the problem. Return the bad camera. Then think hard before buying a replacement. Or return both cameras and choose a company that has some customer service and does not have contempt for its customers.

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I installed mine on 8/1. it is currently at 85% battery remaining. 8-10 notifications a day.

Can you share what settings you’re using? I’m getting a little over a week before I need to bring it down and charge it.

Motion detection on, all notifications on, Detection distance 90, sensitivity 100, auto night mode, 1 min cooldown, not backing up to base station. running a Asus ZenWifi AX mesh setup, about -35 dBm at the base station. Camera is about 25 ft away from the base station, through 1 interior, plaster wall, one external, block wall.

Cameras atm are about two feet from base and router. Base is ran hard wire directly into the Nighthawk Router. Both cameras on one router. No scheduled recordings. Motion detect on. Person detection that costs monthly is activated on both. No as card in either cameras or base as of yet.

Had mine a week and down 11%. Get about 2 notifications a day and check in for a few minutes a day live view. So not much at all but that is looking like 2 and a half months life for me. Everything usually happens at night which draws more power with the ir lights. Not very impressive

I don’t even want to go through the hassle of installing them outside. Everywhere I would have to install would require a ladder. I’m not dragging the ladder out every week to pull them down to charge when it’s 12 degrees and snow outside. I’ll box them right back up and send back. I knew I should have waited until a second version.

| jjfacejj
August 18 |

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Had mine a week and down 11%. Get about 2 notifications a day and check in for a few minutes a day live view. So not much at all but that is looking like 2 and a half months life for me. Everything usually happens at night which draws more power with the ir lights. Not very impressive

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I’ve got two new Wyze outdoor cams, each on their own base station. Both cams see very low activity levels. Here in Arizona it’s been very hot (105 - 115 degrees F) and full sun all day long, every day for the last several weeks. So far, I’m not happy with the battery life in both cams! A full charge lasts only 3-5 days. I’m going to try hooking up one of the cams to a new solar panel (Ring brand) I’ve had sitting around in the box for some time. Will report back next week or so. Stay tuned…

I have a WOC that has been setup since I got it in Early Access, it see 5 or 6 events a day and is still at 77%. I do not do any live viewing through it. It has been 90-100 the whole time it has been deployed. If you are only seeing it last 3 to 5 days there is either something draining the power that you dont realize or they are defective.

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Same here, mine is still at 85% but I have it set up out back so there are some days where it gets 0 notifications and some where it will get 5 or 6. I have cool down set at 1 min, detection settings maxed out, IR lights on, etc.

Jason - how do we verify if we got a bad unit? I’m getting about 2 weeks on a single charge, is there some place within this forum where we can go and or call to get our cams checked?

Days is not really a good metric for determining battery life since there are so many variables. How many events are you getting over the life of the charge? Are you using time lapse/continuous scheduled recording/manual recording? Is the camera being streamed/connected to/live viewed a lot? Is the camera being left in travel mode?

For example my most recent stats are 100% → 15% battery used, 1092 events generated, no timelapse/scheduled recordings/manual recordings/travel mode, minimal live streaming, a moderate amount of accessing the camera to view/adjust settings, Night IR lights are OFF.

With the same setting, the “Side Yard” does not look normal. Have you live streamed it frequently and for an extended period of time ? using wyze app, alexa, google, tinycam etc ?

If you have a Micro SD card, would you be able to insert one to the “side yard” cam, and wait for the battery to drop for a few hours ( as long as you see significant drop like 5% above ) , then it would be great to get the log file from the SD card. You can DM to me.

I would either get hold of support (and I know they are currently a bit behind) or talk to @WyzeDongsheng in this thread and see if he can help you.

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