I never love making a negative video, but when I figured out everything that was going on, I knew I had to. Next video is another fun smart home tour, subscribe so you don't miss it!
The truth is important to get out there. If someone is willing to put up with the downsides then at least they know up front and are able to make an informed decision.
this is exactly the public service that a channel on YT we need. Exposing these awful products and making buyers aware of the shady tactics some companies will resort to. Thanks for all your effort on our behalf.
Imagine 15 years ago HAVING a doorbell that provides HD video you can access from anywhere, notifications, and recording along with backup cloud storage. For free. And the company actually stayed in business. Now THAT would be ridiculous.
@@slottybadfast8826I grew up with a knocker, no bell. I now have a bell with no camera - I'm still alive, nothing bad has happened. Imagine being so scared you need a doorbell with a camera.
I appreciate you calling this stuff out. It’s not fun being negative, but we do need to call out the problems and most of us don’t have the effect you do with your platform and reach.
It's working how they want it... it makes them money more than the sale of the product... and most of them have no way to run it without their service... which even the free gives data they can sell (geolocation, how often you get packages, how often people come/go, how often the button is pressed... and also time of day...), with cellphone, it can track your location...
The eufy issue was also unencrypted video feeds being transmitted to their servers regardless of what settings you said even though they said it was all local. Not just snapshots…
@@1jzMKIII You need to tell that to some seriously reputable tech channels...they all apparently are wrong. With your backdoor knowledge, you need to educate them.
Well done! These camera subscriptions need to stop! DO NOT BUY ANY PRODUCT WITH A SUBSCRIPTION. They will change when their sales drop off a cliff. The problem is... this info needs to go viral.
There are a few options...charge more for the product, pay for it with ads, or pay to use it. The third option, sell a product at low profit margin and provide free and ad-free services for life...well, their sales will still drop off a cliff because they'll not be in business for long.
I'm glad to hear this. I have the V2 door bell and I haven't noticed this yet. The problem I had with the V2 door bell is I didn't read in to it enough to know that it wouldn't work with the v1 chime. It never said it did but being that it is a V2 product I assumed it wouldn't remove features.
Hard to believe this one. Nice damage control though. Already returned mine and getting ready to transition away from all Wyze products. Your shift to subscription first mindset has ruined the good thing we had going. The Wyze glory days are over :(
Good video, I love my Reolink Wifi doorbell, it may not have a ton of features, but at least its not tied to subscription, works with Home Assistant, and isnt sharing my video.
As an owner of the Eufy Doorbell you featured I agree that it is great and I have the Homebase so all the videos are stored in my home. I don't use the notification thumbnails and can open the app and see whats up in seconds. The cloud issue was way overblown in my opinion and I am very happy with all my Eufy Cameras and lights.
i'm here because Ring are putting up their subscription cost again, £60 a year to record 30 second clips! I'm specifically looking at the eufy doorbells and I agree, i don't really care if the Chinese government know what time I get home from work and how many times a week I get an amazon delivery.
So, Eufy+Homebase doesn't require anything outside the house? I might need to revisit that. I tried Eufy, didn't get the result I wanted, set it aside and tried an Amcrest doorbell. What I was looking for was a bell that would stream video to a 3rd party thing called zonekeeper, that I was trying out. It manages multiple camera streams, with alerts, and you can designate zones in the camera view that should be ignored. That stops it alerting on plants waving in the breeze.
Wish Eufy had more Ram than 8gb so you do not need a homebase. Too expensive with Homebase unless you everything is Eufy imo. New 2024 Wyze-Nope. Tapo D225 did not pick up motion. May try a wired Reolink with Wifi.
It doesn't have notification thumbnails without paying though. Sure, that's fine if you can compensate with home assistant or something. But I'd never get one for my parents.
Thank you for the honesty here. Ecobee burned a lot of trust on this one at the announcement. This is strike two after the door and window sensors also require a subscription.
I have had a Eufy doorbell camera for a couple of years now. Amazing , no monthly fees and you can add extra cameras if you want for other doors. Eufy is the only way to go , great camera and no extra monthly fees.
Highly unlikely. First of all some one would have to break into the house , which is possible, then they would have to locate then remove the base , which is also possible , but putting all scenarios together highly unlikely. You could make it easy for the thieves and put the base at the front door for them , but thats only if they know what the base looks like, so there again highly unlikely but possible.
Yeah no, I don't trust any company that was so insecure with their shit that, at 1 point in time, literally all you needed was a browser link to get live feed of people's cameras. There's no room for fuck ups when it comes to data security, they fucked up once already and deserve to be canned for their failure.
@@hosseinsabouri3121If you buy the doorbell with a repeater or a homebase then no. The data storage can be inserted into either of those and will be placed in your house.
Moving from Ring to Reolink was a gamechanger for me. Even without offloading to a NAS, the local storage has been more than enough. PoE or AC, LAN or WiFi, local storage (SD) or NAS, mobile and desktop applications. It took a little more time and tweaking to get it right, but but it's been great so far.
For the Wtyze doorbell, you mentioned clicking on the notification only goes to a snapshot but from there is there an icon you can click that brings directly to the motion event video on the microsd?
There is indeed. It's a button that says "jump to SD" and it takes your directly to that point in the full 24/7 recording. Thus it's not really a drawback but a feature, to me.
Thanks for raising some of these pitfalls. I think all of the doorbell systems are missing support for apartments. Needing to have a doorbell unit down as the main building entrance but also one next to the apartment door. Well thats how it is in my part of the world. Not sure if on the other side of the Atlantic you have the same requirements for Condos and Apartments for two doorbell units to work as one. Maybe there is a system which can be paired.
Dude I really appreciate it. I was using my Wyze robot vacuum just now and saw the ad for the doorbell. I’m glad I searched Wyze vs Eufy doorbell and found your video. I have two Eufy doorbells and I really like them.
The eufy one you ticked in the thumbnail I actually used 2 days ago, and when the person was talking back to me I could hear myself echoing with about a 5-10 second delay lol but the features are good with no subscription, because one thing that worries me about getting into smart home renovations is subscriptions. I don't wanna be paying a monthly fee for something I buy.
Thanks Reed, tired of features you want being tied behind a paywall! Love to see you make a video showing the best outdoor doorbell cameras that give you all the goodies without a monthly fee! Thanks!
I really don't like how so many companies are pushing subscriptions. Like it's a video doorbell. We've had cameras and doorbells for a long time. Why is it so hard to just make something slightly more expensive so it doesn't require a subscription. And the things that are behind a paywall are just ridiculous. Sure, 24/7 video recording. It makes sense. The companies have to maintain their servers, which costs money. But a cooldown on notifications? Like does it really cost that much more money to send a notification?
I had the first Wyze doorbell, which was great with cam plus, but it would constantly drop from the network or take forever to load. even with a WAP less than 20 feet away.. I changed to an Amcrest AD410 and it's rock solid. the night quality is worse with IR/"night vision", so I leave my porch light on at night using a shelly relay and timers, but I've been happy with it.
I have an outdoor POE camera at my front door recording 24/7 and then I have a plain simple door bell button connected to the alarm input of the camera. A push on the door bell button gives a notification on my phone and then I just open 2 way audio. as simple as that.
A good topic to cover. I paid more for a Nest doorbell as it does all the basic stuff I needed without subscription. As an added bonus it alerts me on multiple google devices around the house, and my watch.
I commented this YESTERDAY on felllow UA-camr Technithusiast’s video about how their home was attempted to be broken into, and how they felt their smart home had failed, but I think it’s relevant here too… “ I think it’s insane that you need a subscription for any kind of recording with your camera like, I wouldn’t mind if they would 1. Give you a limited amount of time to mark your records as important with some kind of limit to the amount of saved ones you can have, and any not marked as important would delete after the short period of time! Or 2. Some way to allow on site recording to your own storage even if it’s not something your average user my do! I mean don’t purposefully obfuscate it but it doesn’t necessarily need to be plug and play But it’s insane that they can put such a major feature of a camera, recording behind a monthly paywall especially for something that can prevent crimes!!!!!! ”
The eufy issue wasn't so much that the thumbs and video were stored on the cloud it was how they were stored. Not being encrypted and easily viewed made the lie about storage so much worse and destroyed trust. Since then they made it clear where they are stored and encrypted things but it's real hard to get the trust back.
I live in Montreal, Canada. For my 1st doorbell camera I received the Aosu doorbell cam. It has an sd card. I figured out my settings. And haven't had a problem in over 7 months. Not yet at least. $60 bucks & no monthly subscription needed. Although they do push it. Lol😅
2:50 Hi Reed, Wyze has changed the Cooldown to 1 minute to solve the Issue with the doorbell, I have a Wyze Cam Including the Wyze Doorbell V2, I had a SD Card for 24/7 Recording and It works fine
I use Blink for doorbell and external cameras with local USB storage on my router. I get notifications in real time when motion is detected. No monthly fees required. You can view all clips with the Blink app on your phone. They have the “press to talk” option. I just have to remember to disable the system when I am working outside so I do not get tons of notifications.
I would definitely get the Eufy doorbell and there Camaras because it's like a One time payment. You pay for it once, and it's yours for life. Just how i like it. 😌💰
The Wyze is kinda a Chinese company too. Also, you should have included the Reolink doorbell, it runs locally so you don't need internet and has on board storage with an SD card and 24/7 recording or you can use an NVR and the SD card is on the back so it's not easy to steal, also you need a special tool (or any pointy tool like a small screw driver in case you lose the tool) to remove the doorbell unlike the Wyze which you can just pop off. Last but not least it has 2.4 and 5 ghz wifi and even has ethernet if you want to prevent interference or deliberate jamming of the wifi signal and a much higher resolution. It doesn't have as tall an aspect ratio for seeing packages under it which is the only real downside. I guess you could say it's a Chinese company as well. Cloud recording is option for a fee or free trial which you can extend indefinitely but you don't need the cloud other than for rich notifications (and as additional backup to SD card and NVR).
Wyze, is a U.S. company based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in smart home products and wireless cameras. Wyze Labs is a small start-up, formed by former Amazon employees..
This is why I have moved to Reolink. No monthly subscriptions. Only thing I still have is a ring doorbell because it rings all my Alexa devices and shows me who’s at the door.
This is why I ended up going with the Ubiquiti Unifi Protect ecosystem. It doesn't integrate as well with other smart home tech. But, all the recording/features are on-prem and you pay once. No recurring monthly fees or anything. They're more expensive but I'm not paying for them forever. And you get new features as they add them to the Unifi Protect included with your purchase.
What has been your experience with human recognition? Facial recognition? I enjoy that Eufy *locally* processes the video and I do not have tons of unnecessary clips of myself.
I have a "Ring" door bell which is now owned by Google. The original was returned after several months because it didn't work and it was replaced for free. The present one when someone pushes the button, it rings in the house, but not on my phone. Both Rings that I've had are slow to start recording, so if someone comes and steals a package, by the time it starts recording the person is out of range. The audio is also not good at all, I would not buy a "Ring" again. The Ring also has a yearly subscription which I pay. Thanks for your review.
I agree with you that it's deceptive to auto enroll people in a trial and not call out that features will be lost when it ends if they don't subscribe. But after looking at the subscription cost and comparing to Google and Ring (which are the two platforms I would go with since I don't want a Chinese company to run my smart home devices, thanks), they are all pretty similar. My home also has two Ecobee Premium thermostats and I like that I will be able view the doorbell on them, that they chime, and any Homepod or Echo devices I add will also chime. The Ecobee subscription is $5/month. A cup of coffee each day costs that so people kind of need to keep it in perspective.
I have an older Eufy doorbell. It is so slow to send notifications to my phone that it is unusable as anything more than a normal doorbell. I hope this new one is better.
I have been struggling with the whole doorbell/camera issue for some time and I have switched products more often than is even healthy. I'm still looking for the ideal solution. Nest - Expensive plan, ridiculous cool-off period between notifications, unreliable service since Google purchased them Ring - poor, compressed 1080p footage, issues with live view even with a strong connection, no 24/7 recording option, expensive plan, inaccurate people detection Eufy - Issues with live view, even with a strong connection, inaccurate people detection Wyze - Expensive plan, horrible AI detection, notification issues I looked into Unifi, but aside from the cost of replacing all of my hardware, the individual camera prices are kind of high. I appreciate you making this video as you pointed out a lot of the same problems I have noticed with these products, but I'm no closer to finding a good solution for my needs.
I fully agree. All these companies are looking for recurring revenue streams and turning their products into services. I'm fine if it's really cutting edge features, but not for basic ones like notifications or watch the footage from the day or last few days. I finally got rid of the Ring 2 I bought 5 years ago because of that and was looking for a doorbell where I didn't have to pay for most features. I finally bought the latest doorbell from a small brand called Aosu. It's quite a clever set up: the 5MP doorbell (can be wired or battery) connects to a chime inside the house. All the footage is stored inside the chime so there's not chance of getting an SD card stolen. They do have a paid cloud offering that also has AI detection, but it's completely optional. I travelled abroad and was able to access video recordings for free very quickly. Notifications work well and are fast. The only slight downside is the battery if the motion detection is set to very sensitive. It lasted 2 months. But with adjustment it seems to be much better and hopefully will get close to the promised 5-6 months. It's not the cheapest doorbell at £120 or $150, but still worth it without monthly fees.
I have a BUNCH of Wyze cams in two different states, and in three separate locations. I subscribe to the Cam Plus unlimited plan on a yearly plan to cover ALL of my cams. It's worth the annual expense because no other setup can come close to what I get (including hardware and subscription fees). If you only want a doorbell, I completely understand the reaction you demonstrated in this video, but for someone like me, this option is an incredible deal! 😃 The point in that the Wyze cam has an easily accessible micro-sd card, if you're a Cam Plus subscriber (not necessary in all situations), then if a person walks up and somehow knows this specifically is a Wyze Doorbell v2, and goes to remove the memory card, the video will have already been uploaded to the cloud. No memory card is needed because of the elapsed time from being triggered by the person's presence, and the video is being uploaded to the cloud. All things considered, I believe your review was a bit on the shallow side of not considering other situations where the Wyze option could be a good option for someone in my situation. I do appreciate that you did the review. It's not easy to stay on top of the ever-changing available options.
We've got the Eufy Security 2K doorbell and its detection and alerts are both amazing and atrocious at the same time. What's excellent? Well, it very quickly detects cars, people, pets, moving tree limbs, stationary car tire rims, sunlight reflecting off of the packaging sitting on the porch...... and you get near-immediate notifications! Often four or five times within a single minute for the same detection! So it has excellent detection and notification speed. Our prior doorbell was a Google Nest and the notifications were very slow, up to 30 or 45 seconds after a detection had actually occurred, and then it might take well over a minute to actually connect to the doorbell to view the event, so by then the person who rung your doorbell is already leaving. But as for Eufy, I love how fast the detection is but the actual detection itself is often times complete garbage. My tire rims on my truck are five spoke, and for some reason I guess the doorbell thinks that a gingerbread man is standing in the yard? Or it'll detect a bright spot on a piece of tape on an Amazon package as a "human"..... but supposedly this thing has machine learning.... And there's no way to decrease the number of detections per minute like you have in most any other doorbell I've ever used. There were times we'd literally get identical "human" notifications twice within a ten second span, and there's zero way to stop this! I think Eufy is probably the best of the best as far as detection and notification speed as well as how quickly you can access an event's footage after it happened through the app, but the detection itself is just absolute dog shit.
OMG finally someone talked about the cooldown time. I got 2 camera from wzye and I learned later the cooldown time.. I was like WTF? too late to return them but I will never touch Wzye again
I just ordered a replacement Eufy doorbell. The first one would not connect live view away from home & the chime just worked when it felt like it . It also has evidently affected the Eufy indoor cams which ALSO no longer work in live view away from home. Just trying to avoid subscriptions & finding something that actually works like it should is exhausting. 😡
I opted for the Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4. No fees incurred after original purchase. No time restricted features implemented. Can record video 24/7 to SD card stored on internal chime device. Or can opt to save video to NAS. Some people don't like the look or size of it. I do. So, I am a happy customer.
If you haven't purchased yet, I'd still recommend the Wyze doorbell. Owning the Wyze v2, the only drawback that really resonated with me in this video is the SD card location. But I dotn expect anyone to steal ym SD card, and even if they did, I'd still have a full-length video of them doing so lol. But the subscription is $20/year. Pairing that with the cost of th camera, I'd have Cam+ service through the end of 2033 (9 years out) before I meet the cost of his subscription free camera purchase (the Unifi doorbell is $240). His point about the notification taking you to a snapshot is also rather misleading. It does take you to a snapshot, but from that snapshot, there is a button ("jump to SD") that takes you directly to that same point in the full context of the 24/7 recording. It's by design and makes logical sense to me. Anyway, those are. Ym 2 cents to anyone who tool this video as a reason not to purchase a wyze doorbell, if they were otherwise thinking about it.
4:06 you overlooked that the whole unit isn’t secured to the wall so not only is it easy to steal the sd card, but with a little yank you can steal the entire unit!
Tell me if I have the right idea, purchase a very cheap video doorbell mainly for the notifications and snapshots and then an rtsp capable camera and just record using motioneye feel like I could do everything for a one time $80-100 bucks
what about the compatibility with an existing door chime? Are there any video door bells that rely on your home WiFi local network (NO cloud) along with recording to an external USB hard drive that could be plugged into your router?
An important part of the Ecobee value proposition is how it fits into the integration of sensors and cameras that are used for multiple purposes. If you value the integration then the Ecobee may be an excellent choice. I like how it uses the temperature sensors and camera and doorbells to provide energy conservation, monitoring doors, doorbell and security when away. It provides viewing within HomeKit and doorbell signaling. Display on the thermostat is something easy to do but very limited value. Overall, I am happy so far.
I am confused all variants of Eufy doorbell on amazon. I want it to be wired and work with existing old bell chime. plus i want a local storage and store clips in home assistant. Please guide
I got the Wyze Doorbell V2 on release day (as I have the full compliment of their products). I have been testing it using the micro usb under the back rubber cover but could not for the life of me figure out why it would notify on the first door bell press but not subsequent. This is the first Wyze product I'll be returning. Lets hope this is not the start of a bad thing, not looking forward to reconfiguring my whole home :(
Got it at the same time too. Upgraded from v1 to v2 and transferred CamPlus. Unfortunately, event recording and notifications stop after several hours. SD card continues to record, but doesn't notify/mark events. When I restart device, it notifies for a few hours and stops. No response from support on their forum.
The cloud is someone else's computer. I am trying the Hikvision variety that works with my NVR for local storage and will install it soon. I am sure it has goofy stuff about it too
Can't you automate the bell, (with node-red or something to circumvent cool down) by setting the time 5 minutes later and back after each button press?
I never love making a negative video, but when I figured out everything that was going on, I knew I had to. Next video is another fun smart home tour, subscribe so you don't miss it!
At this point, is there a smart doorbell that doesn't suck?
If I see a review with no negative points I know that it's a paid-for review and I'm not likely to trust it. So I appreciate your honesty. 👍
Great job on this video.
The truth is important to get out there. If someone is willing to put up with the downsides then at least they know up front and are able to make an informed decision.
You did a great job!
this is exactly the public service that a channel on YT we need. Exposing these awful products and making buyers aware of the shady tactics some companies will resort to. Thanks for all your effort on our behalf.
Imagine if you'd been told 15 years ago that you'd need to pay a subscription for your doorbell. You'd think it was the most ridiculous idea ever.
Imagine 15 years ago HAVING a doorbell that provides HD video you can access from anywhere, notifications, and recording along with backup cloud storage. For free. And the company actually stayed in business. Now THAT would be ridiculous.
It's not just cloud storage though is it.
@@slottybadfast8826I grew up with a knocker, no bell. I now have a bell with no camera - I'm still alive, nothing bad has happened.
Imagine being so scared you need a doorbell with a camera.
@@thebrowns5337I love the “knocker”
@@slottybadfast8826i guess a few more years and the only way to use a fridge is by subscription. Crazy world.😢
I appreciate you calling this stuff out. It’s not fun being negative, but we do need to call out the problems and most of us don’t have the effect you do with your platform and reach.
Great call outs Reed! These are so easy to miss when deciding on a doorbell.
Thank you for being honest and real. Companies need to be called out on their BS. Putting this out there is the only way we will get this stuff fixed!
It's working how they want it... it makes them money more than the sale of the product... and most of them have no way to run it without their service... which even the free gives data they can sell (geolocation, how often you get packages, how often people come/go, how often the button is pressed... and also time of day...), with cellphone, it can track your location...
that cooldown is insane
The eufy issue was also unencrypted video feeds being transmitted to their servers regardless of what settings you said even though they said it was all local. Not just snapshots…
Exactly, crazy that this was overlooked in this video.
That was speculated and never confirmed... This has been talked about and basically debunked.
@@1jzMKIII You need to tell that to some seriously reputable tech channels...they all apparently are wrong. With your backdoor knowledge, you need to educate them.
@@1jzMKIIIthat’s completely straight up false. Weird you’re simping for them
@@claycassin8437 Watch the video from the hook up, and then come back with all of your knowledge...
LMAO!! I love how you did the Spouse Approval droppage!
Reolink Video Doorbell is now the best option. 5MP and works with NVR, ONVIF, Blue Iris....
Well done! These camera subscriptions need to stop! DO NOT BUY ANY PRODUCT WITH A SUBSCRIPTION. They will change when their sales drop off a cliff. The problem is... this info needs to go viral.
There are a few options...charge more for the product, pay for it with ads, or pay to use it. The third option, sell a product at low profit margin and provide free and ad-free services for life...well, their sales will still drop off a cliff because they'll not be in business for long.
Love the honesty in this video since I've been looking at door cam's and have always been skeptical on which ones are actually worth paying for
Which one you are getting ?
Videos like this make UA-cam a more precious place. Keep up the good work
Woah. Thanks for the heads up on this, the 5 minute delay on doorbell presses is actually a firmware bug. Our team is working on this right now.
I'm glad to hear this. I have the V2 door bell and I haven't noticed this yet. The problem I had with the V2 door bell is I didn't read in to it enough to know that it wouldn't work with the v1 chime. It never said it did but being that it is a V2 product I assumed it wouldn't remove features.
Hard to believe this one. Nice damage control though.
Already returned mine and getting ready to transition away from all Wyze products. Your shift to subscription first mindset has ruined the good thing we had going. The Wyze glory days are over :(
Was about to say that 5 minute delay is some shady mcshady stuff
The update to fix this is going into Beta release today. Thank you so much for flagging this @SmartHomeSolver!
LOL😂🤣Bug, yeah right!!, what you wanted was more 💰💰💸💸🤑🤑from people you thought were potential sucke.....im mean customers!!!!
Great video! I was actually looking at the ecobee doorbell, but I’m running the other way now 😂
THANK YOU for the info and honesty. I get that companies need to make money, but subscriptions have gotten out of control.
I use the Reolink Video Doorbell PoE and I'm very pleased with it.
did you try out the reolink doorbell yet?
I have eufy and happy with it .
Left ring 3 years ago just because of their monthly subscription and 1080p 🤦
1080p is 2k.
@@MrPHUCKYOURSELF 2K resolution (QHD) has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, while 1080p (Full HD) has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels...
Good video, I love my Reolink Wifi doorbell, it may not have a ton of features, but at least its not tied to subscription, works with Home Assistant, and isnt sharing my video.
As an owner of the Eufy Doorbell you featured I agree that it is great and I have the Homebase so all the videos are stored in my home. I don't use the notification thumbnails and can open the app and see whats up in seconds. The cloud issue was way overblown in my opinion and I am very happy with all my Eufy Cameras and lights.
i'm here because Ring are putting up their subscription cost again, £60 a year to record 30 second clips! I'm specifically looking at the eufy doorbells and I agree, i don't really care if the Chinese government know what time I get home from work and how many times a week I get an amazon delivery.
So, Eufy+Homebase doesn't require anything outside the house? I might need to revisit that. I tried Eufy, didn't get the result I wanted, set it aside and tried an Amcrest doorbell. What I was looking for was a bell that would stream video to a 3rd party thing called zonekeeper, that I was trying out. It manages multiple camera streams, with alerts, and you can designate zones in the camera view that should be ignored. That stops it alerting on plants waving in the breeze.
@@jezhayesdid you buy a eufy? I am looking to get away from ring and their subscription basic plan of 50 a year. Would like your input
I have a Eufy cam in my house and have found it to largely reliable but connecting to it from my work is hit or miss.
Wish Eufy had more Ram than 8gb so you do not need a homebase. Too expensive with Homebase unless you everything is Eufy imo. New 2024 Wyze-Nope. Tapo D225 did not pick up motion. May try a wired Reolink with Wifi.
loving the reolink poe, records to sd card and blue iris nvr with great quality video. Has a wealth of control in home assistant.
It doesn't have notification thumbnails without paying though. Sure, that's fine if you can compensate with home assistant or something. But I'd never get one for my parents.
You have to pay for rich notifications thumbnails that's just so wrong especially if you have the camera NVR system
@@obi1998 that's a bummer, makes the google wired gen2 more worthwhile
Thank you for the honesty here. Ecobee burned a lot of trust on this one at the announcement. This is strike two after the door and window sensors also require a subscription.
Appreciate the honest reviews Reed!
I have had a Eufy doorbell camera for a couple of years now. Amazing , no monthly fees and you can add extra cameras if you want for other doors. Eufy is the only way to go , great camera and no extra monthly fees.
In case of theft, you would lose all your data and all recordings are gone right????
Highly unlikely. First of all some one would have to break into the house , which is possible, then they would have to locate then remove the base , which is also possible , but putting all scenarios together highly unlikely. You could make it easy for the thieves and put the base at the front door for them , but thats only if they know what the base looks like, so there again highly unlikely but possible.
Yeah no, I don't trust any company that was so insecure with their shit that, at 1 point in time, literally all you needed was a browser link to get live feed of people's cameras. There's no room for fuck ups when it comes to data security, they fucked up once already and deserve to be canned for their failure.
@@hosseinsabouri3121they don't need to steal the unit to steal your data when you have 1 of the least secure door cams on the market.
@@hosseinsabouri3121If you buy the doorbell with a repeater or a homebase then no. The data storage can be inserted into either of those and will be placed in your house.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again (and again): I love the cutaway scenes/gags. So creative and amusing.
Kids plus subscription! We need this dude.
Love the Spousal approval decreasing part of the vid!
Moving from Ring to Reolink was a gamechanger for me. Even without offloading to a NAS, the local storage has been more than enough. PoE or AC, LAN or WiFi, local storage (SD) or NAS, mobile and desktop applications. It took a little more time and tweaking to get it right, but but it's been great so far.
I have a Reolink PoE and I'm really happy with it.
For the Wtyze doorbell, you mentioned clicking on the notification only goes to a snapshot but from there is there an icon you can click that brings directly to the motion event video on the microsd?
There is indeed. It's a button that says "jump to SD" and it takes your directly to that point in the full 24/7 recording. Thus it's not really a drawback but a feature, to me.
So without a subscription, do you still get a notification from motion triggered events or only from doorbell presses?
Disgusting consumer practices! Your reviews can save so many people from these predatory companies. Thanks
What do you think about the Reolink doorbell cam?
Thanks for raising some of these pitfalls. I think all of the doorbell systems are missing support for apartments. Needing to have a doorbell unit down as the main building entrance but also one next to the apartment door. Well thats how it is in my part of the world. Not sure if on the other side of the Atlantic you have the same requirements for Condos and Apartments for two doorbell units to work as one. Maybe there is a system which can be paired.
Thanks, really helpful video, i've put off getting a video doorbell for a long time because there are so many traps out there when buying.
Dude I really appreciate it. I was using my Wyze robot vacuum just now and saw the ad for the doorbell. I’m glad I searched Wyze vs Eufy doorbell and found your video. I have two Eufy doorbells and I really like them.
Hey Reed, nice job! You forgot to include a link to your Unifi doorbell! Details please..
The eufy one you ticked in the thumbnail I actually used 2 days ago, and when the person was talking back to me I could hear myself echoing with about a 5-10 second delay lol but the features are good with no subscription, because one thing that worries me about getting into smart home renovations is subscriptions. I don't wanna be paying a monthly fee for something I buy.
Ring doorbell gone and Eufy is amazing!!
Thanks Reed, tired of features you want being tied behind a paywall! Love to see you make a video showing the best outdoor doorbell cameras that give you all the goodies without a monthly fee! Thanks!
I really don't like how so many companies are pushing subscriptions. Like it's a video doorbell. We've had cameras and doorbells for a long time. Why is it so hard to just make something slightly more expensive so it doesn't require a subscription. And the things that are behind a paywall are just ridiculous. Sure, 24/7 video recording. It makes sense. The companies have to maintain their servers, which costs money. But a cooldown on notifications? Like does it really cost that much more money to send a notification?
I had the first Wyze doorbell, which was great with cam plus, but it would constantly drop from the network or take forever to load. even with a WAP less than 20 feet away.. I changed to an Amcrest AD410 and it's rock solid. the night quality is worse with IR/"night vision", so I leave my porch light on at night using a shelly relay and timers, but I've been happy with it.
I have an outdoor POE camera at my front door recording 24/7 and then I have a plain simple door bell button connected to the alarm input of the camera. A push on the door bell button gives a notification on my phone and then I just open 2 way audio. as simple as that.
Would love to hear your thoughts about the Reolink. Just bought it but haven't moved into my new house yet.
The only negative I can think of is that they don't use pre-existing chimes.
A good topic to cover. I paid more for a Nest doorbell as it does all the basic stuff I needed without subscription. As an added bonus it alerts me on multiple google devices around the house, and my watch.
When hard wired the battery works like a power backup. Eufy is by far the best doorbell security by far.
I commented this YESTERDAY on felllow UA-camr Technithusiast’s video about how their home was attempted to be broken into, and how they felt their smart home had failed,
but I think it’s relevant here too…
“ I think it’s insane that you need a subscription for any kind of recording with your camera like, I wouldn’t mind if they would
1. Give you a limited amount of time to mark your records as important with some kind of limit to the amount of saved ones you can have, and any not marked as important would delete after the short period of time!
Or
2. Some way to allow on site recording to your own storage even if it’s not something your average user my do! I mean don’t purposefully obfuscate it but it doesn’t necessarily need to be plug and play
But it’s insane that they can put such a major feature of a camera, recording behind a monthly paywall especially for something that can prevent crimes!!!!!! ”
The eufy issue wasn't so much that the thumbs and video were stored on the cloud it was how they were stored. Not being encrypted and easily viewed made the lie about storage so much worse and destroyed trust. Since then they made it clear where they are stored and encrypted things but it's real hard to get the trust back.
I live in Montreal, Canada. For my 1st doorbell camera I received the Aosu doorbell cam. It has an sd card. I figured out my settings. And haven't had a problem in over 7 months. Not yet at least. $60 bucks & no monthly subscription needed. Although they do push it. Lol😅
2:50 Hi Reed, Wyze has changed the Cooldown to 1 minute to solve the Issue with the doorbell, I have a Wyze Cam Including the Wyze Doorbell V2, I had a SD Card for 24/7 Recording and It works fine
The end is so cute. Love it!
1:48 that's a missed dad joke opportunity there: Ecobee carefull!
what about the reolink doorbell? thinking of getting that one
I use Blink for doorbell and external cameras with local USB storage on my router. I get notifications in real time when motion is detected. No monthly fees required. You can view all clips with the Blink app on your phone. They have the “press to talk” option. I just have to remember to disable the system when I am working outside so I do not get tons of notifications.
I would definitely get the Eufy doorbell and there Camaras because it's like a One time payment. You pay for it once, and it's yours for life. Just how i like it. 😌💰
Unless they go out of business. Then their servers will no longer be active so you won't be able to remotely view the camera.
Bingo. This is why 100% local is the only way (for me, at least).
@@ACAIDC They are owned by Anker... They wont go out of business... They may be bought out... but they will be around for many years
The Wyze is kinda a Chinese company too. Also, you should have included the Reolink doorbell, it runs locally so you don't need internet and has on board storage with an SD card and 24/7 recording or you can use an NVR and the SD card is on the back so it's not easy to steal, also you need a special tool (or any pointy tool like a small screw driver in case you lose the tool) to remove the doorbell unlike the Wyze which you can just pop off. Last but not least it has 2.4 and 5 ghz wifi and even has ethernet if you want to prevent interference or deliberate jamming of the wifi signal and a much higher resolution. It doesn't have as tall an aspect ratio for seeing packages under it which is the only real downside. I guess you could say it's a Chinese company as well. Cloud recording is option for a fee or free trial which you can extend indefinitely but you don't need the cloud other than for rich notifications (and as additional backup to SD card and NVR).
Wyze, is a U.S. company based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in smart home products and wireless cameras. Wyze Labs is a small start-up, formed by former Amazon employees..
Appreciate the work here. Yes Ecobee was a hug disappointment.
Thanks. I got the Ring doorbell and Eufy cameras , I got notification galore lol
This is why I have moved to Reolink. No monthly subscriptions. Only thing I still have is a ring doorbell because it rings all my Alexa devices and shows me who’s at the door.
Integrity ✅ I applaud your courage for helping so many people starting out from getting bait and switch by all these companies. Sub'd!
I understand the main point was to talk about the paywalls, but curious how the Wyze V2 Doorbell holds up if we're already subscribed to Wyze.
This is why I ended up going with the Ubiquiti Unifi Protect ecosystem. It doesn't integrate as well with other smart home tech. But, all the recording/features are on-prem and you pay once. No recurring monthly fees or anything. They're more expensive but I'm not paying for them forever. And you get new features as they add them to the Unifi Protect included with your purchase.
What has been your experience with human recognition? Facial recognition?
I enjoy that Eufy *locally* processes the video and I do not have tons of unnecessary clips of myself.
I have a "Ring" door bell which is now owned by Google. The original was returned after several months because it didn't work and it was replaced for free. The present one when someone pushes the button, it rings in the house, but not on my phone. Both Rings that I've had are slow to start recording, so if someone comes and steals a package, by the time it starts recording the person is out of range. The audio is also not good at all, I would not buy a "Ring" again. The Ring also has a yearly subscription which I pay. Thanks for your review.
I agree with you that it's deceptive to auto enroll people in a trial and not call out that features will be lost when it ends if they don't subscribe. But after looking at the subscription cost and comparing to Google and Ring (which are the two platforms I would go with since I don't want a Chinese company to run my smart home devices, thanks), they are all pretty similar. My home also has two Ecobee Premium thermostats and I like that I will be able view the doorbell on them, that they chime, and any Homepod or Echo devices I add will also chime.
The Ecobee subscription is $5/month. A cup of coffee each day costs that so people kind of need to keep it in perspective.
What's the doorbell that you chose to use @6:52 ?
It's the Ubiquiti UniFi Protect G4 Doorbell (UVC-G4-DoorBell)


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My Wemo door bell has been great! I just wish it had color night vision
I have an older Eufy doorbell. It is so slow to send notifications to my phone that it is unusable as anything more than a normal doorbell. I hope this new one is better.
I have been struggling with the whole doorbell/camera issue for some time and I have switched products more often than is even healthy. I'm still looking for the ideal solution.
Nest - Expensive plan, ridiculous cool-off period between notifications, unreliable service since Google purchased them
Ring - poor, compressed 1080p footage, issues with live view even with a strong connection, no 24/7 recording option, expensive plan, inaccurate people detection
Eufy - Issues with live view, even with a strong connection, inaccurate people detection
Wyze - Expensive plan, horrible AI detection, notification issues
I looked into Unifi, but aside from the cost of replacing all of my hardware, the individual camera prices are kind of high. I appreciate you making this video as you pointed out a lot of the same problems I have noticed with these products, but I'm no closer to finding a good solution for my needs.
Try out the reolink been brilliant especially being poe with extetnal recording to eg blue iris
reolink or unifi
Great video! Yet another reason why having fully local functionality is better.
What camera doorbell do you use?
I fully agree. All these companies are looking for recurring revenue streams and turning their products into services. I'm fine if it's really cutting edge features, but not for basic ones like notifications or watch the footage from the day or last few days. I finally got rid of the Ring 2 I bought 5 years ago because of that and was looking for a doorbell where I didn't have to pay for most features. I finally bought the latest doorbell from a small brand called Aosu. It's quite a clever set up: the 5MP doorbell (can be wired or battery) connects to a chime inside the house. All the footage is stored inside the chime so there's not chance of getting an SD card stolen. They do have a paid cloud offering that also has AI detection, but it's completely optional. I travelled abroad and was able to access video recordings for free very quickly. Notifications work well and are fast. The only slight downside is the battery if the motion detection is set to very sensitive. It lasted 2 months. But with adjustment it seems to be much better and hopefully will get close to the promised 5-6 months. It's not the cheapest doorbell at £120 or $150, but still worth it without monthly fees.
I wish you would have mentioned what Brand/Make/Model your video doorbell is. I would like to know.
The outro on this one was *chef’s kiss* 🤌🏽
I have a BUNCH of Wyze cams in two different states, and in three separate locations. I subscribe to the Cam Plus unlimited plan on a yearly plan to cover ALL of my cams. It's worth the annual expense because no other setup can come close to what I get (including hardware and subscription fees).
If you only want a doorbell, I completely understand the reaction you demonstrated in this video, but for someone like me, this option is an incredible deal! 😃
The point in that the Wyze cam has an easily accessible micro-sd card, if you're a Cam Plus subscriber (not necessary in all situations), then if a person walks up and somehow knows this specifically is a Wyze Doorbell v2, and goes to remove the memory card, the video will have already been uploaded to the cloud. No memory card is needed because of the elapsed time from being triggered by the person's presence, and the video is being uploaded to the cloud.
All things considered, I believe your review was a bit on the shallow side of not considering other situations where the Wyze option could be a good option for someone in my situation.
I do appreciate that you did the review. It's not easy to stay on top of the ever-changing available options.
We've got the Eufy Security 2K doorbell and its detection and alerts are both amazing and atrocious at the same time. What's excellent? Well, it very quickly detects cars, people, pets, moving tree limbs, stationary car tire rims, sunlight reflecting off of the packaging sitting on the porch...... and you get near-immediate notifications! Often four or five times within a single minute for the same detection! So it has excellent detection and notification speed. Our prior doorbell was a Google Nest and the notifications were very slow, up to 30 or 45 seconds after a detection had actually occurred, and then it might take well over a minute to actually connect to the doorbell to view the event, so by then the person who rung your doorbell is already leaving. But as for Eufy, I love how fast the detection is but the actual detection itself is often times complete garbage. My tire rims on my truck are five spoke, and for some reason I guess the doorbell thinks that a gingerbread man is standing in the yard? Or it'll detect a bright spot on a piece of tape on an Amazon package as a "human"..... but supposedly this thing has machine learning.... And there's no way to decrease the number of detections per minute like you have in most any other doorbell I've ever used. There were times we'd literally get identical "human" notifications twice within a ten second span, and there's zero way to stop this! I think Eufy is probably the best of the best as far as detection and notification speed as well as how quickly you can access an event's footage after it happened through the app, but the detection itself is just absolute dog shit.
OMG finally someone talked about the cooldown time. I got 2 camera from wzye and I learned later the cooldown time.. I was like WTF?
too late to return them but I will never touch Wzye again
The trial window thing got me with the Ring. Amazon still agreed to a return
I just ordered a replacement Eufy doorbell. The first one would not connect live view away from home & the chime just worked when it felt like it . It also has evidently affected the Eufy indoor cams which ALSO no longer work in live view away from home. Just trying to avoid subscriptions & finding something that actually works like it should is exhausting. 😡
I opted for the Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4.
No fees incurred after original purchase.
No time restricted features implemented.
Can record video 24/7 to SD card stored on internal chime device.
Or can opt to save video to NAS.
Some people don't like the look or size of it.
I do.
So, I am a happy customer.
This is why the Reolink 5MP is the way to go. It has RTSP so you can add it to your NVR or Home Assistant. No monthly fees!
What is the doorbell you use? You mentioned it was local but did not say which one it is.
The Eufy would be almost perfect if it was compatible with Blue Iris. Check out the Reolink doorbell camera!
Wyze just released their Duo Cam Doorbell today that looks oddly like this, with improvements.
What about the Reolink doorbell, seems like it checks all the markers, but have narrower field of view?
so what is the best doorbell camera with no subscription and has a sd. night vision too?
Great video! I was looking at the Ecobee and Wyze doorbell.
Side question, love the shirt, can I ask where you got it from?
If you haven't purchased yet, I'd still recommend the Wyze doorbell. Owning the Wyze v2, the only drawback that really resonated with me in this video is the SD card location. But I dotn expect anyone to steal ym SD card, and even if they did, I'd still have a full-length video of them doing so lol. But the subscription is $20/year. Pairing that with the cost of th camera, I'd have Cam+ service through the end of 2033 (9 years out) before I meet the cost of his subscription free camera purchase (the Unifi doorbell is $240). His point about the notification taking you to a snapshot is also rather misleading. It does take you to a snapshot, but from that snapshot, there is a button ("jump to SD") that takes you directly to that same point in the full context of the 24/7 recording. It's by design and makes logical sense to me. Anyway, those are. Ym 2 cents to anyone who tool this video as a reason not to purchase a wyze doorbell, if they were otherwise thinking about it.
4:06 you overlooked that the whole unit isn’t secured to the wall so not only is it easy to steal the sd card, but with a little yank you can steal the entire unit!
I have Lorex door bell cam works great with my Lorex camera system - reasonable cost and NO monthly fees ever.
Do you have it linked to an NVR? if so, have you had any issues work with it?
@@oscarc.1656 I have linked many Lorex Door Bell cams to owners and even my personal NVR - never a problem!
I just connect the new wyze and notification come quick even the phone ring like phone call for the price is amazing
Tell me if I have the right idea, purchase a very cheap video doorbell mainly for the notifications and snapshots and then an rtsp capable camera and just record using motioneye feel like I could do everything for a one time $80-100 bucks
Yeah that's a great setup right there.
what about the compatibility with an existing door chime? Are there any video door bells that rely on your home WiFi local network (NO cloud) along with recording to an external USB hard drive that could be plugged into your router?
An important part of the Ecobee value proposition is how it fits into the integration of sensors and cameras that are used for multiple purposes. If you value the integration then the Ecobee may be an excellent choice. I like how it uses the temperature sensors and camera and doorbells to provide energy conservation, monitoring doors, doorbell and security when away. It provides viewing within HomeKit and doorbell signaling. Display on the thermostat is something easy to do but very limited value. Overall, I am happy so far.
Can Eufy endure cold winters up to -20 degrees?
I am confused all variants of Eufy doorbell on amazon. I want it to be wired and work with existing old bell chime. plus i want a local storage and store clips in home assistant. Please guide
I got the Wyze Doorbell V2 on release day (as I have the full compliment of their products). I have been testing it using the micro usb under the back rubber cover but could not for the life of me figure out why it would notify on the first door bell press but not subsequent.
This is the first Wyze product I'll be returning. Lets hope this is not the start of a bad thing, not looking forward to reconfiguring my whole home :(
I am in the same position, I go mine on the release day but I noticed no many features missing
Wyze has made a reply to this video saying this is a bug not a feature. Weather this is true or PR who knows but hopefully they will fix it soon.
Got it at the same time too. Upgraded from v1 to v2 and transferred CamPlus. Unfortunately, event recording and notifications stop after several hours. SD card continues to record, but doesn't notify/mark events. When I restart device, it notifies for a few hours and stops. No response from support on their forum.
I have a few of the WYZE cams and just got the V2 doorbell all with memory cards. So far no problems without cam plus.
Great video, keep it up 👍🏾 💯
The cloud is someone else's computer. I am trying the Hikvision variety that works with my NVR for local storage and will install it soon. I am sure it has goofy stuff about it too
Thanks Reed.
Hi, Great video. If I am away will I still get notifications on my cell phone if someone is at my door?
Can't you automate the bell, (with node-red or something to circumvent cool down) by setting the time 5 minutes later and back after each button press?