Cold weather concerns with Nest Doorbell Battery

[fernadno]

Hi,

Similar to some other posters here, I recently noticed that my Nest Doorbell battery (activated 2021-08-28), although wired, had lost much of its charge (down to 3%, indicated a 23 hour time to charge in Google Home app).

The 23 hour recharge estimate remained unchanged for 3 hours when kept wired to doorbell wiring.

From another recommendation on the forum, I decided to try unplugging from the doorbell wires and taking the doorbell indoors to charge via USB cable until 100%.

My doorbell remains plugged into a USB port, showing 2% charged, and an 18 hr 29 min time until full. It has been plugged in now for 1 hour, with no noticeable change in charge condition.

Outdoor temperatures have only recently dropped to below 0 degrees Celsius for longer than a few hours (max -7 degrees C).

Should I be concerned about the battery condition and how this doorbell is reacting to colder weather? Winter has yet to truly begin, and I am worried that this doorbell will not be functional as temperatures continue to drop. I know that ambient operating temperatures fall within -20 and +40 C (as indicated here).

[Brenen]

I'm having the same issue with the nest outdoor camera (battery) but while hardwired. It got to 20F and the camera died and needed to be charged inside due to extreme temperature.

EDIT: I originally said -20 but it was only positive 20. 

[mpb65]

Exactly my scenario.  During warmer weather it accepts a trickle charge through the door bell wires.  As soon as it falls significantly below 0, it will not accept a trickle charge and just drains to the point where I have to remove it and USB charge it indoors.  Kind of defeats the purpose of hard wiring it.  Google???  Any response or solutions?  I've stopped wasting time with Google Tech support because they just take me through the steps to reduce battery consumption.  That is NOT the problem.  The problem is trickle charging during cold weather.  Better insulation?  I don't know.  

[MplsCustomer]

@Brenen 

Our one new Google Nest Battery Camera is plugged in with Google's optional power cable and has stayed at 100% charged with continuous streaming and no problems, with temperatures down to 3 degrees Fahrenheit on a couple of days.

[firmwaredev]

Interesting - thanks for the data point.  I've not had any issue with my Outdoor Camera (Battery) as yet, down to around 16F.   I haven't actually unplugged it though so I can see the state of the battery.    This thread has been mostly about the doorbell camera which is much worse due to some apparent design decisions, and use of the doorbell A/C which can only provide limited charging current.  But clearly, the Outdoor Camera can also end up in this condition.  I'll keep an eye on the battery level on mine as our temps return colder from a recent warmup.

I'm curious, what level of activity is your Outdoor Cam seeing, in terms of events per day?  That's another critical factor, of course.

[Brenen]

I'm starting to wonder if I have a lemon. I have two outdoor cameras, in the front and back of the house. The front one is not hardwired, sees a lot more motion, has only been charged once, is under the same temperature exposure, and is at 80%. The back camera is hardwired to an outlet (confirmed as an infinity symbol in app) and has had its battery drained and recharged twice, and is currently at 49%.

I apologize for this being about another product I just wanted to add to what I thought was the same issue in another Nest product. 

[firmwaredev]

Ah ok..yeah, could be an issue with that one device, then ( or potentially the power supply?)    No worries on chiming in on the Outdoor Camera.  More data is good, and these are of course related products..

[MplsCustomer]

We have not been flagging events for the last 13 days on our Google Nest Battery Camera; prior to that, it was 5 to 10 events per day, sometimes a few more.

I just discovered that, while history is still being recorded when events are not being flagged, we can only access that history by going to History, which starts with the last flagged event (in our case, on Dec. 1), and then slowly scrolling forward.

When using Full History, we can't click on any day for which there are no flagged events. So, in our case, we cannot click on Dec. 2-14, but we can click on Dec. 1, and then, once again, slowly scroll forward to the intervening days.

[firmwaredev]

Are there no events because there just hasn't been any activity, or is that unexpected?   Unless you've set it up for 24x7 recording (which would require the second tier Nest Aware subscription), it only saves away/records triggered events.

[firmwaredev]

Never mind , I saw one of your other posts where you said you were doing 24x7.  Sorry, missed that.  I've not got mine set up for 24x7, so not familiar with how the app works in that mode.  Sounds like something not right though.

[milne]

Ended up getting in on this deal. Will resell battery version. Being in MN I can't be worrying about my wired doorbell not functioning for large periods of time without manual charging. 

https://slickdeals.net/share/android_app/t/15502501

[Namoh]

So far my nest hello battery has managed to stay running hard wired in temperatures -5 to -16 C since purchasing from a black Friday sale. But today it reached -26 C and the camera went offline and no longer reporting it is wired and only on battery mode. The forecasted lows for the next 10 days range from -22 to -29 C in central Alberta.

[mpb65]

Yes, this is typical behaviour for the doorbell.  I have experienced the same several times.

Google?  Are you listening?  Will you recall the product or, if possible, issue a firmware update that solves the problem?

[Chazz182]

I just had the same thing happen. I live in Saskatchewan so I guess it's basically useless for 4 months of the year. 

It won't be turning in for the next month I guess. 

[rmac]

This began happening to us as well, earlier in the week the doorbell would go offline due to low battery (when it was only -15c) but now we touched -20c overnight and it went offline with a cold weather warning. This is hard-wired as well, it's supposed to climb to -14c today so I will see if it comes online then. Glad this happened before Christmas so I can return the one I got my parents and get them something that actually works!

[mpb65]

And still no news or involvement by Google in this issue?  Can everyone please ask the moderator to forward this data we have provided asap?

[Brenen]

Updating on my issue, which is for the nest outdoor camera with similar issues. It turned out to be the cable or the fact that it was plugged in and not receiving enough power. While running on battery alone it's only dropped 2% over the last three days whereas with the cable it would have needed to be charged twice. 

[firmwaredev]

Thanks for the update Brenen.  I suspected yours might be a unique case, and possibly bad cable or supply.  It's looking like the regular nest outdoor (battery) is going to be fine in cold weather, which doesn't surprise me.  It's got plenty of incoming current capability and that would allow them to increase the charging voltage at will to compensate for battery resistance increase at low temps (to a point... that probably won't be enough at extremely low temps..but probably is fine down to the rated -20C).  It probably has a larger battery as well.

[alirahimpour89]

I have talked to google support and I referenced this thread etc and they don't think its a faulthy unit for me and just a weather problem with the doorbell... If the product can't handle the weather Google has specified then I hope they at least will give our money back but who knows... Right now they are telling me to try different stuff etc but I don't think anything will help... I don't think it is a firmware issue either, at least not fully.

[mpb65]

Not really an acceptable response given that they claim operating temperatures that the device is suppose to be able to function in.    It's 13C in Toronto today.  My doorbell is only at 11% battery, despite the warmer than seasonal weather.   These doorbells have a serious issue during cold weather and weather shifts.  Really not acceptable performance for the price.

[Chazz182]

I'm interested to know if you could get a refund. I'm still in the warranty period and I would like my money back to replace it with something that would work. 

[mpb65]

Exactly, check with Customer Service.   I've tried.  They only wanted to send me replacement.  Let's see, replace a dud with a dud.  Don't waste my time Google.

[firmwaredev]

Ug, that's not good.  I figure I'll just sell mine at some point, once I figure out another solution.

[Chazz182]

I just had my Nest Doorbell Battery shut off completely in cold weather. Why are these even sold in Canada if they can't be used during the winter?

[dimedancing]

Having similar issues here in Edmonton. I have a Nest battery doorbell that's wired in, getting 14 volts, and it's been randomly shutting itself off in cold weather. Granted, it has gone below -20C in the last few days, but I figured that on AC power it should still work. Instead I've gotten notifications each day that the doorbell is going offline until it warms up, and then it randomly comes back on even though the temperature hasn't changed. I've noticed, too, that it in the app it alternates between showing the "plugged-in" infinity symbol and then showing the battery draining. I'm on a busy street, so I set it to low sensitivity and restricted the zone size to only my front walk, which helped but didn't totally fix it.

I get that the battery can't function properly below the stated temperatures, but shouldn't the AC power bypass the battery and keep the camera operational?

[mpb65]

Exactly!  Google are you listening???????

[firmwaredev]

It's likely not possible to draw enough from the doorbell A/C to run it without the battery.  The design has to assume that the doorbell is placed in series with the chime solenoid, which means you can't draw very much or you'll ring the chime (and hold the solenoid closed).  The assumption would be that the duty cycle of use is low enough that one can just run off the battery and trickle charge it enough to keep it at full charge (which in this case is only 75% charged to prolong battery life, which compounds the problem).   Unfortunately it appears that it is not able to keep up with demand, even at low usage settings at lower temps.  Mine starts going negative at around 35F or so.

[mpb65]

Should not the Development Team have thought this through?  Maybe tested the device under "live" conditions??

[firmwaredev]

Well, I would certainly think so.  In the product development I do (enterprise computer systems), we chamber test them low to high extremes.   Maybe they did so as well, but didn't stay cold long enough.  They may have just made an assumption that it wouldn't ever stay so continuously cold.  Short periods of cold weather wouldn't be enough to deplete the battery, as long the average temp was 40-ish F or so.   These guys are in California 🙂 LOL.  They honestly just may not have given any thought to the weather in the northern part of the US and Canada.

[mpb65]

Definitely looks like it!  Either a recall or a refund seem to be the best solution.

[dimedancing]

Ha, here it's below 40 for like five months out of the year at least. Before I bought the doorbell I saw that the operating temp was to -20C (that's -4F) and saw a few people saying it was working fine at temps below that. But it obviously doesn't, and it really shouldn't be sold here at all given that. I'm still within my return window, and I'll probably end up taking it back, especially since my free trial will be ending, and there's no way I'm paying $8/month for this unreliability.

[mpb65]

Definitely....Mine is at 8%.....It's 13C today in Toronto.  I give up.

Google, are you listening????

[easycompany251]

Sure if by "live" you mean California conditions year round.

[mpb65]

: )   I guess us Canadians with snow and all shouldn't count on Google!

[grandbeach-ca]

Not the battery products.  I also have a nest hello original and it works great even at -40c.  Google has a big problem on their hands with this battery version.

[mpb65]

You would think so, but no.  Why has this issue not been resolved Google?  There is no trickle charging below a certain cold temperature.  Can you fix this?

[milne]

When was the last software update? We had warm weather in Twin Cities on Wednesday but it has been cold (under 30) for about 40 hours. After recharging on its own through Wednesday, mine is still showing infinity / full charge. Did they issue a fix?

[firmwaredev]

In my experience it shows the infinity symbol when charge is above around 10% or so (or at least I've never seen it show above 10% before switching to infinity).  The only way to know for sure is to cut power to the doorbell A/C.  It will jump to battery only then, and you'll be able to see remaining charge. If it was warm for a day or so, it might have had enough time to get up to 10%.    Mine did similar on the last warmup, but fell back down again to low single digits charge level once it got colder.  My device is at version 1.59 at the moment.  I think that's where it was when I bought it.

[grandbeach-ca]

I believe you wont see the issue till under 10 to 20f  or    -6 to -12  c     . 

[mpb65]

That's correct.  For example, in Toronto today it is 6c and I can see that it has slowly trickled charged to 12% from 7% yesterday.  But if the temperature dips, then forget it.  The trickle charging stops.

Google?  We're waiting for a response please.

[mpb65]

Nope.....