Recs for security cameras to monitor house?

[elbenn]

I wanted to put a couple of security cameras around our house so we can monitor it while we are away. Any recs? Please specify if the cameras work with an app or with an hd drive or whatever. Thanks!

[specialp]

We hired a company to install everything so I have no helpful details about the cameras themselves, but can say the app we monitor on our mobile devices is NVMS7000. Everything is recorded to a separate hard drive and we can access up to about 2 months or do a live feed to view real time from our computers or devices.

[3isEnough]

I'm about to research it for our house but the Arlo cameras get a lot of love from neighbors.

[smiles33]

What's your budget? How much work are you willing to put in? How easily accessible does the footage need to be? Do you want to record footage for later viewing (e.g., see the face of the UPS delivery guy? investigate a stranger walking onto the property)?

The easiest (and possibly the most budget-friendly) plug-and-play solution is to buy an off-the-shelf system. You can certainly opt for a professional AV installation but that could be several thousand dollars. My neighbor put in a system like that but his fancy cameras STILL have terrible night vision and they can't see license plate numbers on cars that drive by (someone egged DH's car and the neighbor wasn't able to see color/model of the car or a license plate!).

I've seen some modest systems at Costco (e.g., 5-7 cameras for under $1,000), but I didn't want to have to wire anything so I went with a Nestcam. You literally plug it into the wall, set it on a windowsill (or somewhere else), log it into your WiFi, and you're set. The app is easy to use and will send alerts when it detects motion. It's about $150/camera (I think?) so it's not the cheapest system, but it's good enough for a basic easy-to-use videocamera system.

Now there is an ongoing monthly cost if you want to save video footage. I use mine to monitor a vacation home so I don't bother paying the monthly service fee. Most of the time, when I get an alert, I can immediately open the app and check. Usually, it's a neighbor's cat, the UPS delivery guy, or nothing discernible at all (I don't know what set off the motion alert as I don't see anything moving).

Hope this helps!

[elbenn]

Thanks for your answers. Does the nestcam work outside? In my research, I am finding the Arlo, Logi, and Nest cameras seem pretty easy. The Logi is only indoor, but it has free cloud storage for 24 hours. The Arlo and Nests require fees for the cloud storage. Anyone have any other information that I should consider?

[keh602]

We just put up 4 Arlo cameras. You can keep the past 7 days of recordings for free. For us for right now, that is sufficient.

[div_0305]

A relative of ours is really into home security monitoring and also told us to get Arlo.

[avd3875]

This post is quite timely for me - there have been a few recent break-ins in our neighborhood, so we've decided it's time to invest in cameras. I've spent the past few weeks looking at the options.

The Ring doorbell and stick up cam look decent. I like that I can speak to someone through the app so anyone at my door doesn't necessarily know if I'm home. The stick up cam is described as "weather resistant" which makes me wonder just how much weather it can actually resist. Some of the negative reviews are that you have to pay to keep the videos, and the response time (from detecting motion to recording) can be slow depending on the proximity of the camera to your router - it's supposed to be less than 20 feet. They will be coming out with a floodlight/camera combo, but it won't be available until late April.

The Nest cam sounds like it picks up where the Ring lacks, but the problem is that it has to be plugged in. We definitely don't have an outlet on the front of our house, and if we did it would be in a location where anyone can reach it and unplug the camera. From what I can tell the Nest cam is always recording, but only notifies you when it detects motion, so you don't have the issue of lag that might happen with the Ring.

Both the Nest and Ring are available at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but their coupons don't apply.

The Arlo seems to get a decent amount of love, so I picked up the two pack that was discounted at Costco recently. According to the box the set-up takes less than 10 minutes. I had a terrible time trying to get the cameras to sync with the base. After 30 minutes of failing to sync the cameras (while following the instructions closely) I called customer service, which is not an 800 number. The person I spoke to took me through all sorts of trouble shooting techniques, none of which worked. She also suggested that the batteries might be dead - I reminded her they were the brand new ones that came with the system, she told me they might be dead anyway. After over 20 minutes on the phone with her she said she could "escalate" my problem and I'd get a call in a few days. I told her not to bother - they system would be back at Costco by then. Her response was a simple, "Okay, bye". Obviously, I was not impressed with the customer service, and the cameras did indeed go back to Costco.

The next option I looked into was Kuna. It is a front porch light with a camera. Just like the Ring you can talk to a person through the app. A limited number of videos are stored for free. The downside is that it has to be wired the same way a typical porch light is wired, so if you don't have a wall fixture you can't mount it.

We still haven't decided what to get, as there doesn't seem to be a perfect system for us, so I'll likely go with whatever comes closest to meeting our needs and hope it works out.