eufy Security Wireless Video Doorbell (Battery-Powered) with 2K HD by Anker

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Sometimes your security camera is enough to keep an eye on the entire driveway. Still, when it comes to people pressing your doorbell, a wirelessly connected device trumps the old ringer. So when eufy offered to send out their new Video Doorbell, I was excited; my wife, not so much.

She was sceptical, “did we need another video camera out front?“

Let’s find out.

Fast Facts

Let me Explain

In the box you get a pretty hefty feeling doorbell, the first thing I noticed was how heavy and robust this doorbell felt. The quality of the product, from the weight and craftsmanship of the doorbell, was insanely gratifying.

Also included in the box was the mount, guides, plates and a HomeBase (as I already have one eufy product, I didn’t need to use this, so I have a spare).

IP65 means dust-tight and protection against low-pressure jets (6.3mm) of directed water from any angle. I, however, honestly think it’s a much better seal than that as over the last few weeks we’ve had some severe storms and rain, and this thing powered through.

The camera is wall mounted (wired into existing doorbell cabling), or wirelessly, the mount is drilled into the wall, and you can then choose to place it directly facing outwards, or slightly angled. I went for the angled approach as I found the sensor very sensitive, even on level 3 (out of 7), plus eventually, I changed it to ring activation only, more on that shortly.

This doorbell isn’t inconspicuous, so people will see it there and go to press that massive button to trigger the ringer, and start the recording. I recently had a DHL delivery driver jump out of his skin when I told him to drop the parcel round back; your voice is beamed directly from the doorbell and projects well.

Startup

As I have an existing camera, setup was quicker than boiling the kettle. Drill the mount and place the camera! The trickiest part is figuring out where you want to place the device!

As I was attaching it to an existing base, I navigated to the eufy app and pressed “Add Device”, then tap the one you want to add, scan the QR code on the back and follow the instructions on the screen.

If you want to know more about the setup process and its ease, check out the eufycam2c review.

I won’t walk through the app specifics, as those are in my other post; however, I will talk through some of my experiences, both good and bad over the last few weeks.

Battery

Now the website notes 180-day battery life, and for me, this isn’t the case.

Yes initially I had it set up with custom motion and power management options; however, I’ve charged this three times since having it over the past couple of months.

Since the last full charge, I have altered the power savings to optimum, with motion detection off (again I have another camera, but this isn’t ideal for most). Auto night-vision on, doorbell ring notification only and optimal battery life (LED off, press button to start recording). 

My biggest issue is the fact that Customise Recording options aren’t very “customisable”. I can’t choose the LED light on or off, and I can only select clip length and re-trigger interval. Maybe some more options would be better? 

I can’t say that I’m 100% sold on the battery life, and maybe a wired version would be a better option for me, however as I have no existing cabling to connect to, I’m a bit stuck.

Performance

Now the stats are fascinating, 731 events total, 600 false events and 131 saved recorded events. But what constitutes a “false event”?

I would like to see a selection of these, so I can maybe help the AI figure out what’s false or not, have I missed somethings happening on my driveway!

The camera, however, is incredible, the quality of the video and still screen imagery is excellent, the face captures are a more hit than miss, but sometimes you get the odd side cheek or back of the head.

One of my biggest frustrations and the reason behind the more extended review period has been the 3 product disconnections. One happened at a pivotal time a couple walked onto my drive, up to my front room window and looked through. Luckily I had the camera above to identify them, but the doorbell was “Offline”, at first I thought they’d smashed or stolen the doorbell. I ran downstairs at around 2 am and went out to see if that was the case (they were gone, don’t worry), but no, it was still there. I left it there and troubleshot it the next day. 

To reconnect the device, I had to remove the device from the app, charge it up for about 20mins and then reconnect via the app.

I took this as a random occurrence and thought something had disconnected somewhere, but it happened again and again. The doorbell disconnected but the HomeBase and eufycam 2c were all working and accessible, then recently it happened when I was in Alton Towers. My camera triggered at an odd time of day, and as I went to play the video footage, it disconnected, this time cutting out all my cameras as I switched from doorbell to surveillance camera.

I also knew my internet was online because my Tado thermostat was responding.

Now having a review unit meant that when reaching out to the support team, I had a few more hoops to jump through, (none of them unfair). They have agreed to replace it, as a potentially faulty unit, but before they do that, I have had to switch it to wifi-repeater mode, with ethernet for backup, and test it some more.

Currently, since doing that, I’ve not had any issues, but the disconnections were so random that I’m tentatively waiting for it to happen again.

Ring Ring… who’s there?

Not wanting to base my review score on the disconnection issues, has been a real tussle for me. Sure it isn’t consistently happening, and eufy offering a replacement is an excellent sign of support and warranty service. Still, those 2 of 3 were pivotal moments that a single doorbell user might’ve needed to capture.

The poor battery performance also is swaying the score lower than I think it deserves to be, honestly when this camera works, it works flawlessly, and the video quality and audio connection is incredible. Possibly the wired version would be better?

Would I recommend this product? (Issues aside)

Based on the incredible camera quality and audio, ease of installation and pairing that with the free local storage and the immediate customer support, I’d say yes.

Rapid Reviews Rating

You can purchase the eufy Security Wireless Video Doorbell (Battery-Powered) with 2K HD from Amazon using the link below.