Nest Cam with Floodlight Wired actually has a battery?? really!! :)

[LoveMyNest]

Dear Fellow Nest Lovers,

Having an issue with a Wired Nest Cam with Floodlight.  The unit is two years old and no longer under warranty. 

Device worked perfectly and met all my security needs until two weeks ago when it started saying "Device offline because of an empty battery".

It makes sense that there is a backup battery in these devices; however, it was never stated anywhere in the manual or box when purchasing it. 

So I was chalking this up to an S/W error.  Because the Floodlight and Camera are hard wired into an electrical box.

Therefore, can some please confirm if these devices actually have a battery? It does say (battery) in the device info; however, I honestly cannot remember that being there when installed.

The issue is now that camera is flaking out.  Sometimes it is perfect and now at other times it will show a battery symbol in the upper right hand screen when viewed.  And whether this is related or not but sometimes the screen when viewed is pink or completely whitewashed out via the google home app.

Given the cost of these devices I was hoping it would last more than 2 years. 

Also, does anyone know if I can just take an external Nest Cam and swap it onto the Nest Cam with Floodlight? They look similar but have not tried.

Would be a shame to have to toss the whole unit. 

At least the other one that is 6 months old is still working...hopefully it does not flake out next year as it also says (battery) in its device info.

Yikes....

[MplsCustomer]

@LoveMyNest 

The camera for the Google Nest Floodlight Camera fixture is actually the same as the Google Nest Battery Camera, which we've had since Sept. 2021, plugged in with the optional power cable. Ours is always "Live" and online, and if we unplug it (the only way to check the battery level), it's always been between 77% and 100%.

Unless it is defective, the only reason that the battery in the floodlight fixture should run down to empty is if your floodlight fixture is on a switched circuit and you sometimes turn off that circuit.

I think you could replace your camera with a regular battery camera (Google Nest does not seem to document this anywhere), but if you do so, during the install process you would need to be sure to specify that it's a floodlight camera when prompted.

I don't know why your live view should be pink or whitewashed at times.

It's a mystery to me why Google Nest uses the battery camera in the floodlight fixture, or why they don't disclose that anyplace except in the Tech Specs, where they mention "Built-in rechargeable 6 AH, 3.65V lithium-ion battery" with no further explanation.

[LoveMyNest]

Many thanks for the prompt reply.  This helps a lot.  It makes sense to actually have a backup battery for potential power outages.  However, this is not mentioned predominately anywhere. And google should use the same camera to keep costs down. However, I am in Canada and don't want to pay $400 for a complete camera and floodlight kit if just the camera fails.  So a little help from Google here would be nice.

Will check our electrical lines.  Hopefully there is nothing that has caused a short throwing the device into battery mode. As expressed this is hardwired.  Worked great for two years. Liked it so much even bough another one.

From a few searches the pink hue and washout have potentiality been linked to hardware:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nest/comments/8pugd8/colors_off_on_my_nest_cam_everything_is_a_pink/

but given it is working perfectly again am wondering if it had to do with not enough power to the unit.  Just a guess.

If it flakes our again will try just buying an external camera and adding it to the floodlights as I don't want to spend another $400.00.

We post any updates or resolutions here.  Do you know if anyone has tried to crack open the camera and replace the lithium-ion battery?

With thanks from the Great White North

[MplsCustomer]

@LoveMyNest 

I haven't seen any posts about someone replacing the battery in the battery camera, nor do I know if anyone makes a replacement camera. Google Nest's cameras and doorbells are not designed to be serviceable.

I have seen a few posts in this forum from customers who discovered that someone in their household inadvertently turned off the circuit for their floodlight camera, causing the battery to drain.