Nest Camera Battery Drains Too Fast (Not Temperature Related)

[raycope]

Hello, friends. I am having a very annoying problem with my Nest camera battery draining WAY too fast.

First, let me say I've had this problem since the camera was first installed about a month ago. I live in a sunny CA climate and the temp is always well within the Google specified limits. It never gets too cold or hot this time of year.

No matter what settings I try, the battery only stays charged for 4-6 days before it drains too low to even wake-up or connect. The Google specs insist the battery should last at least 6 weeks under normal conditions even with high activity and nominal settings. Even when I change the settings to record NO events and with solar panel attached (see below), it STILL discharges at the same rate. I have never had the battery last even a week before recharging is necessary.

I have even tried adding a Wassenstein solar panel specifically made for Nest cam and, even though it shows it is charging in the Home app, it can't keep up with the discharge rate so result is the same.

Of course I have contacted customer service and the only advice they can provide is to buy a new phone so I can install the latest version of the Home app. With my current LG Stylos 2, I can only run Vers. 2021-Oct-21. I am sceptical that this would fix the problem, not to mention the cost and bother of replacing an otherwise perfectly good phone.

Please, PLEASE, let me know if your battery holds a charge for at least a month of longer as Google claims! I find it hard to believe I am the only person with this problem and everyone else is a happy camper. Also, of course, if you have experienced and resolved this same issue, please let me know what the solution was. If you are happy, it would be helpful to know what android version of Home app you are using.

I would really like to keep this camera as in all other respects it works fine for my application (street monitor), but I will have to give up on it if I can't resolve this problem.

Thanks to all who take time to respond, and best regards to all else.

[Brad]

Hi there,

Thank you for your patience, and sorry to hear that you're experiencing this. I know that keeping your Nest devices charged is very important, and I would love to help you out. When it comes to keeping your Nest Doorbell (battery) or Nest Cam (battery) up and running, here are some articles and troubleshooting guides for the best charging practices:

• This is a great article on general charging times for your devices.
• This helpful article tells you how to save the battery with your doorbell or camera.
• And this last article, will go over charging expectations when you may live in a cooler/colder environment which will address charging temperatures, etc.

I hope those articles help shed some light on charging and maintaining battery levels of your Nest doorbell or camera. Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Best regards,

Brad

[raycope]

Thank you very much for your reply. My problem has nothing to do with charging or temperature. Issue is battery life too short, even with no activity.

[raycope]

Well, I just did another test and finally making some progress. As I mention in my original post, I currently have the camera set to record NO events. When it's posted outside in its normal position, the battery discharges in about 6 days with no events or history recorded.

After recharging to 100%, I removed the charging cable but this time I just left the camera where it was on the charging stand. I left it there all day (about 14 hours) and now when I access on Google Home app it still shows 100%! It's still set to record NO events so this is what I expected.

Now for the $64K question. What's the difference between just letting the camera sit on the charging stations vs. putting it outside in its usual location?

The only difference I can see is distance to the wireless router. The charging station is in the bedroom with only the kitchen between it and the router. When its outside, its about 45' from the front door which is next to the bedroom.

Any idea what is happening or how to "fix" this? Is it excess network activity or what? Must be some reason for this that could lead me to a solution.

ATTN Google: Please reply with a real person vs. automated reply or don't reply at all. Thanks, and I would appreciate if you leave thread open for some more time to garner feedback.

[angrybird]

I just got a Nest Cam and it lost 30% after about 2 days so I found this post. I'm wondering if you've got the video settings set to "high" quality, as I have? I'm worried about leaving it on "max" as it'll drain even faster. I've only had this Cam a few days and bought a solar panel (2.5W) charger to hopefully fix the draining problem. Anyway good luck. Maybe you can try moving the Cam closer to the router and seeing the discharge rate then. Then move it closer to where you want it. Just a matter of testing the location and monitoring the discharge rate. I doubt it's a Home app problem but rather network/distance.

[raycope]

Angrybird, you and I are on the same page. After my last post above, I moved the camera to different positions around the house. Every location was a good 20-25 feet closer to the wireless router. In every position, the battery maintained 100% with no events set for at least 24 hours.

I thought this was the problem, put when I tried to permanently place the camera in one of these network-optimal positions, the battery started draining again just like before! The ONLY difference is I put the camera on the magnet mount again to make permanent. I was stunned at this result but there seems no doubt the magnetic mount is causing the problem.

If a Nest expert could chime in on this one, I'd really appreciate it. The camera is unusable on the magnet mount. Any solution for this?

Crazy!!

[raycope]

OK, to update everyone and maintaining the integrity of this post, I need to backpedal a little bit on my last reply.

It is true that the camera was working fine in this positon without the mount, but for final install I needed to move the camera up to install it on one the roof joists. It seems now that when it's closer to the roof it gets network connectivity issues again, probably because of the radiant barrier that was installed when the roof was replaced a few years ago. (The barrier causes some wierd network issues also when using the cell phone inside.)

Under this assumption, I moved the camera to the other side of the garage with a direct shot to the wireless router. It's not that much closer than the prior positon but it is a better location for network access.

Now the camera is installed in that location and there is no problem now with excessive battery drain. I've had it up for three days and it's only gone down 1%, plus I added an activity zone for people and cars only near my house. Whew!, what an ordeal but I am happy to call this a definite solution.

Would appreciate if Google support could keep this thread open for another week or so, as I will make a final report later after it runs for >7 days.

[raycope]

Ok, here is my final report:

1. Usage 16 days battery only (no solar cell yet).

2. Created one zone to reduce unwanted videos.  Takes ~6 video clips a day on avg with my settings.

3. Battery is currently at 92% with 5 months of estimated usuage remaining.

Everything working to spec now, please feel free to close this thread for read-only.

Lesson learned:  marginal network connectivity will cause excessive battery drain!  To test for this, configure for NO events and check battery every 1-2 days.  If network connectivity is marginal it will show 6-8% less PER DAY even with no events (just on standby).

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Not sure how we missed this conversation, but thank you all for your patience while waiting for a reply. 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. It sounds like many of you may have your sensitivity settings on the higher end if your batteries are still draining quickly. Check out your settings, lower them if you need, add in some Activity Zones if you want to lower the notifications coming through, and can help reduce batter loss. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[EmersonB]

Hello everyone,

@raycope how's it going with your Nest Camera? Were you able to read the information and check the links that Brad has shared? In case you have an update, you know where to find us.
 
I appreciate the help, Brad.

Best,
Emerson

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in on this thread and the activity on it. We'll leave this topic open for another 24 hours in case there are any follow-up questions or comments.

Best regards,
Brad