Smart Home Cameras for Extreme Climates

James Falconer

James Falconer

Administrator
I've been looking for smart cameras to place in and outside of my home - for some time now. The problem I have is the temperature ranges the cameras will have to deal with based on where I live. It's quite the range (can get up to 40C in the summer and -40C in the winter!). When you take a closer look at consumer brands, most aren't rated to withstand these temperatures.

I've looked at Nest, Blink, Wyze, Arlo, Ring... all the usual players.

Would a commercial grade option be the safer bet or would you recommend one of the brands above? Or perhaps a brand I've missed?
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Well-known member
I don't have an answer, but am likewise interested in what people think. There are some 6 and 8 set packs (with also the controller/recorder) from Costco and Amazon that I've been eyeing. The ones at my local Costco I assume would be suitable for a 40 above to 40 below range, given that's basically also the environment the store has to endure and for what anyone in my area would be needing if buying them. However, I'll have to check the actual brands and specs next time.
 
Yamahammer

Yamahammer

Member
James Falconer said:
I've been looking for smart cameras to place in and outside of my home - for some time now. The problem I have is the temperature ranges the cameras will have to deal with based on where I live. It's quite the range (can get up to 40C in the summer and -40C in the winter!). When you take a closer look at consumer brands, most aren't rated to withstand these temperatures.

I've looked at Nest, Blink, Wyze, Arlo, Ring... all the usual players.

Would a commercial grade option be the safer bet or would you recommend one of the brands above? Or perhaps a brand I've missed?
Click to expand...
One thing that is very important for these wireless camera systems is being able to have access to house current and be able to plug them in, otherwise you'll be changing batteries in the -40 cold. I'm still using an old 4 Camera wired DVR system that performs extremely well in Winnipeg.Screenshot_20221130-210147~2.png
 
Yamahammer

Yamahammer

Member
Yamahammer said:
One thing that is very important for these wireless camera systems is being able to have access to house current and be able to plug them in, otherwise you'll be changing batteries in the -40 cold. I'm still using an old 4 Camera wired DVR system that performs extremely well in Winnipeg.View attachment 2
Click to expand...
Also comes in handy for making fun of myself when falling on the way to the Shed-Bo..

 
Tom Kaminski

Tom Kaminski

New member
I bought Dahua IPC-HDW5442T-ZE cameras for around my house (which can be found on Amazon as EmpireTech branded cameras). They are officially rated from -30C or +60C but I haven't had any problems with them even on days colder than -30C. The key is the cameras shouldn't be powered by battery, otherwise it will die really quickly. I recommend POE for power + data in a single cable, but that means having to run cable to where you want the cameras installed (which may or may not be possible in your case).

Just a note, that this camera isn't a plug and play system (like Nest or Ring)...it requires configuration and setup to get going, especially if you want to enable all the advanced features.
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Well-known member
Thought I could maybe get to Costco today but that never happened. I took a quick look at what Costco.ca offers and concluded that only a few of them might be suitable for what I was thinking of. Here are two of the product lines:

Defender Cameras
- https://www.defendercameras.ca/products/
- Sentinel 4/8 Camera Kit
- 4K Ultra 4 Camera Kit
- minus 40C to plus 50/60C
- wired, PoE

Swann Cameras
- https://us.swann.com/swnvk-886804fb/
- 4 and 8 kit options
- minus 30C (Ifigure that is probably close enough) to plus 55C
- wired, PoE

As Tom indicated, I'd also suggest staying away from wireless and instead go with a PoE based system, PoE provided directly from the controller/recorder box. Its a better installation and in the end should be more reliable (one single low voltage cable run to each camera), in my opinion. However, one has to be comfortable with that kind of work (running and terminating cat5, or preferably cat6 shielded) or you'll be paying an installer. That's probably why wireless ones are so popular, easier for anyone to just plug and play near an electrical outlet, and then connect to an SSID, things that almost everyone nowadays is capable of doing. It really depends on each person's situation. Another thing I'd suggest to think about is if the system must work with an online service. Online services are great for remote viewing of feeds from a phone when one is away from home, and even for cloud backup. However, do you really need to get tied into yet another account and another company having your data? Some of that is almost impossible to completely avoid nowadays, but having the ability for local only monitoring (not having to be facilited by also a connection or a call home signal to the company's servers), is in my opinion mandatory.
 
Yamahammer

Yamahammer

Member
If anyone has an old DVR wired security cam setup and has found out that you can no longer access your cameras on Windows 11 drop me a line.
 
Sarek1701

Sarek1701

New member
I have Wyze cams inside viewing all entry points, as well as one attached to my front window to see the driveway/front area of my house. It works great in my extreme Winnipeg climate, and with the window mount it gives me a clear view regardless of light levels after adjusting the settings. I'd recommend installing a 32GB micro-SD card to record sound/motion rather than paying for the cloud storage option. It's all viewable through their app.
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Well-known member
James Falconer said:
I've been looking for smart cameras to place in and outside of my home - for some time now. The problem I have is the temperature ranges the cameras will have to deal with based on where I live. It's quite the range (can get up to 40C in the summer and -40C in the winter!). When you take a closer look at consumer brands, most aren't rated to withstand these temperatures.

I've looked at Nest, Blink, Wyze, Arlo, Ring... all the usual players.

Would a commercial grade option be the safer bet or would you recommend one of the brands above? Or perhaps a brand I've missed?
Click to expand...
For an extreme climate they actually make camera boxes with heaters in them to protect the camera. This also gives the camera extremely good protection against the weather and vandalism.
 
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