I’ve now been a Eufy security owner for about 2 years. I tried my best to be positive and work problems and be understanding as to this isn’t a very expensive solution. To this date I’ve purchased
• Home security package plus addition’s. I run 3 door sensors, 3 motion detector and keypad running on a dedicated home hub.
• Eufy 2 Pro x 2 Camera pack with another home hub.
• Eufy Doorbell 2K battery.
• S40 from pre order with C24 which was good so I got another C24.
The home Security package - door sensor and motion sensors. Great battery life, some early firmware’s had issues with the door sensors but this has been resolve. Very strong product. I think is great apart from the push notification element which I will discuss more below. I’ve recommended this to 2 friends who bought this.
Eufy 2 Pro - Battery life is very impressive. Camera’s and picture is great. Detection is a mixed bag. Range detection in my experience is poor… very poor even. Allot of video’s show detection range in the 25m but in reality I’ve not seen this out of either of the camera. What’s more of a problem is the software’s inability to detect “human”
I have a very standard combi boiler at the back of the house and steam from that sets the camera motion detection off to a point simply had to be disabled it. This is a shame as it works great for pets, never goes off for the cats, but steam, bad weather the software just cannot cope with.
The S40, Pretty much the same as the above in terms of the detection. Battery life is VERY poor also, too poor. With the size I was hoping for half decent capacity but that is not the case. This is being sold in the UK with UK weather (which now feels like a bad idea) In the last 4 months the camera has basically not managed (based on an average day usage) to charge a single days usage (mAh) combined. I’ve had a couple dozen charge days registered (the rest are just Zero) with 2,4,7,13 etc and the most in one day getting 110 on perfectly south facing home. This tells me this was not designed for UK weather. On a cloudy day this device simply does not charge. Yet my £2 a unit crappy solar lights screwed to my fence seem to charge and light fine, a different kettle of fish I know but still. The solar panels probably work fine in the US, but your selling this in the UK. This needs more R&D. Sorry Eufy.
C24’s. Really good. Work great. Function and picture are fantastic, The RSTP works well and, this is where the other fall over totally, The smart functionality works pretty much flawlessly. Alexa will show this camera whenever its requested.
This is where I get into the real issues. I’m pretty sure Im not alone and I’ve spent allot of time diagnosing this myself and asking for help with support to no avail. I work in IT networking field, I’m not perfect but I’ve worked in IT for 25 years to understand the basics.
The first issue, while not a total deal breaker. The camera’s do not work consistently with Alexa. You ask to see a Camera and 90% of the time the FIRST camera will connect and work. When you ask for another Camera, 99% of the time will not connect (I’m trying to think of a time when it actually did but I’m guessing to might have) This is obviously on the Alexa show. However, this seems to be exactly consistent with the web https service. The first camera will connect most of the time, if you try another camer, this will not connect. I’ve honestly tried with this ever browser that I could find from, IE (old,new), Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Opera GX, and then some odd random browsers I tried just for fun. Exact same results on ALL.
Next issue which I feel undermines the core product. The notification. Now, as the consequences of this issue, to me, makes the product “broken” I can’t quite understand why, while it seems fairly wide spread in people complaining, It doesn’t seem to be complained about to an extent that it seems endemic with the product. Yet I’ve tried my upmost to diagnose the issue and whatever I change out, swap, replace, the problem persists.
I’m assuming in allot of cases, people either don’t realise the issue due to the low volume of the notification and when It does work, that’s justification that its functioning normally.
Notification on ALL platforms don’t seem consistent. From open a door or getting a doorbell “press”. Sometimes you will get a notification, sometimes you won’t.
I’ve testing 4 phones now. I actually bought a brand new Samsung S21 Ultra from my P30 Pro because Eufy said that was the issue. I’ve tested a few other phones on the same equipment and I get the same inconsistent notification. This for me is the Achilles heel. If you are not getting notification, and the whole product is base on detection rather than the old school record everything and find it after, then the who product falls over. I’ve tried everything with these phone, I understand that each provider has their own slight differences with android and I’ve tried every single power/status/keep running setting on several phones but I cannot get consistent alerts from notifications. I probably get 50% of the doorbell press notification. I’ve endued this for along time hoping this was issue. I’ve replaced everything from 3 phones to my whole home network, Cisco routers and Firewalls (totally open rules) but the problem has remained throughout.
If others don’t experience this and they get 100% of the notification, from door bell press, to anything else they have configured to push, door opening, motion detection then I’m at a total loss to what it could be. But that said, If I do all the above with the application open and being used, it all works. If I leave the application in the foreground/close with EVERY possible setting allowing this app full control, battery saving etc etc its very hit and miss. Allot more miss than hit. Like I’ve said I’ve spent 2 years on and off researching and playing around with this and I don’t think I’m alone.
Last thing I will mention is the lack of a very important feature of the whole security system. Siren. When I purchase this I expect an alarm to sound if anything this was trigged. I know this has been mentioned in the forums, but the fact that nothings been done brings me feel that a lack in confidence in the product, as above, could very well be a reason why we have not got a very basic function in an alarm system. The alarm is pretty much pathetic. I think I read on the forums someone saying if this alarm when off to someone breaking in, they would most likely laugh and carry on. I personally got ask if my alarm clock was going off when it when off a few time. It’s adequate as a door bell or an alarm if your sleeping but not close of an alarm if you are not.
What am I wanting from this post. All the issues I can deal with, apart from the intermittent notifications. I feel this just breaks the entire purpose of this product. Is there any roadmap to fix these issues? or if % of people work then is that ok?
I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.
Regards