I imagine you're aware of this but Ring have a deal with police where they can view your doorbell's footage without a warrant. Idk if this is the case for other brands but certainly worth keeping in mind
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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I have a blink camera, not a doorbell camera, but just a regular outdoor camera that I have near the front door. The batteries in it lasted nearly a year before they needed replacing. Curious how long it was lasting in your doorbell camera? I would expect it to be similar unless it's basically recording constantly or something.
Batteries can get quickly depleted when the wifi connection is unstable. My camera had to be recharged every month until I got a dedicated wifi extender in the hallway by the front door. Since then the battery lasts about half a year.
Mine are only lasting about 3 weeks. We live on a fairly busy street. Also, it only rings the doorbell and app if you hold the bottom for 2-3 seconds.
I have a Eufy. The only good thing about it, IMO, is the local storage and no required subscription. That’s exactly why I bought it. Aside from that, I find it’s incredibly unreliable and frustrating to use and configure. I also have the Smart Display, which is supposed to integrate seamlessly and turn on automatically when someone rings the doorbell, and it simply doesn’t. It often turns on minutes later, if at all, well after the person left.
The doorbell’s video quality, while supposed to be 2K, is crap. It’s completely jittery, not smooth at all - which means I’ll see a person approach my door, start walking away, and then they’ll simply disappear because of how inconsistent and jittery the stream is. Useless if you care about actually seeing what’s going on outside.
When someone presses the button to ring the doorbell, it rings maybe 50% of the time. The other times it doesn’t make a sound, but still registers the person in the log. Which is completely useless for a doorbell.
On paper, Eufy checks all the boxes. In practice, I’ve been entirely unhappy with it.
Would you trust Eufy? A few years ago, they got in trouble because their cameras might only store footage locally but they stream to the cloud. They claim to have fixed the issue, but it is unclear if they mean that the footage is no longer being sent or if they just tightened security so that only they (and trusted partners) can watch it.
See: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/more-eufy-camera-flaws-found-including-remote-unencrypted-feed-viewing/ https://www.cnet.com/home/security/eufy-says-software-bug-that-exposed-users-video-footage-to-strangers-has-been-fixed/
My Eufy is super reliable. I have the older doorbell and the newer basestation which I upgraded from the last generation. Is your base sation not getting a good connection? Ours is 1.5 floors up and maybe 30 feet away from the doorbell. The walls are all interior but most of what's between the doorbell and base is stairwell. We have a security camera farther away and outside an exterior brick wall that also works reliably.
As far as the Eufy app and doorbell and camera we have, they work really well. We don't have any other addons like the screen.
I have my mine integrated with home assistant but the integration unofficial and super hacky.
Its nice because we can have a shot from the camera pop up on our TV and smart screens (hacked echo shows running view assist) but setting that up in a way that was reliable was NOT intuitive.
I purchased this setup for the same reasons, all local.
Costco had the Eufy doorbell and a solar camera on sale. Maybe I'll try them, knowing i can return them if needed.
Just another chipping in on the Eufy solar. I've been pretty impressed so far with a few minor niggles.
Generally it works well, connects nicely to the repeater and rings ok. Solar works great no issues with battery power on our south facing front.
The main selling point for me was no subscription or remote server connection.
It's annoying if it loses connection to the WiFi. I've actually turned the security mode (which makes it scream if taken off the wall without turning that off first in the app).
I bought a Reolink a few months ago, and I quite like it.
I've been a fan of Wyze, https://www.wyze.com/products/wyze-video-doorbell-v2. Comparably inexpensive equipment. Has a micro sd card slot. Does not require a subscription. I can access recordings on the sd card through the app. They do offer a subscription, however it mostly seems tied to better auto detection of objects
My blink doorbell camera lasts like a year on the batteries, make sure they are non-rechargeable lithium ones. And I'm in northern Alberta, so -40 winters. I like that it has no monthly fee needed with the usb stick in the inside module thing.
I really enjoyed my Blink for the first two weeks, but I didn't really want to buy another 24 pack of batteries to keep it running for another two weeks.
Now it just hangs out by the front door and makes people think we're recording them.