Best tips on how to extend your Eufy camera’s battery life

Eufy’s wireless, battery-powered cameras offer great flexibility at a good price. However, a major drawback of wireless cameras is that battery life is limited, which can be a problem.

This is not specific to Eufy, this is for all battery-operated cameras.

Eufy specifies either a 365-day, 180-day, or 120-day battery life for all of its products.

This is quite impressive! However many people have trouble achieving the stated battery life as advertised.

The reason for this is often that things are not ideally configured or set up, and the manuals of Eufy are sometimes quite limited.

However, with a little practice, it is possible to achieve Eufy’s stated battery life.

Here are some good tips on how to maximize the battery life of your Eufy security camera.

Tip: We also wrote a detailed article about how long it takes to charge a Eufy camera.

Overview Eufy Cameras Battery Life

Camera Model Battery Life
eufyCam 2 365 days
eufyCam 2 Pro 365 days
eufyCam 2C 180 days
eufyCam 2C Pro 180 days
eufy SoloCam S40 120 days
eufy SoloCam L20 120 days
eufy SoloCam L40 120 days
eufy SoloCam E20 120 days
eufy SoloCam E40 120 days

1. Save battery via the Modes-configuration in the EufySecurity app

The Modes-configuration is an important setting for your video camera’s battery life: after all:

Should your cameras (or all of your cameras?) be motion-detecting and recording video during the day at home? Probably not. This costs unnessary energy.

It’s up to you to fine-grain this to your needs and wishes under the Modes settings for each camera.

Unfortunately, the Modes menu is a bit tucked away, but you find it by clicking “Security” at the bottom bar in the app, next to selecting the HomeBase, and then the settings wheelbarrow for each Mode.

1. Go To Security At The Bottom Bar in the App

 

2. Select your HomeBase

 

3. Select the wheelbarrow of the mode you want to configure

 

4. The “Home” mode can be configured as desired

For example, we don’t need any recording or detection for this office camera when we’re at home.

 

5. Compare the “Home” mode settings with the “Away” mode settings

Below is an illustration of the same camera, but when we are “Away” and out of the house, we want it monitored. This saves us a lot of battery energy.

 

So take your time to play around with the Modes for optimal configuration.

You can also create your custom modes and completely geek out!

2. Are your cameras optimal positioned?

Placement is important for several reasons:

  1. First, do not place the camera too close to a window because the glass will reflect and give you terrible footage.
  2. Second, if your camera is placed in a room where people often walk by (e.g., a hallway), it will consume more battery because it will constantly be detecting motion.
  3. Please ensure the camera is in a place where it can receive a good WiFi signal; otherwise, it will consume more battery trying to connect.

Do you put your camera in the front yard facing the road and all the traffic? Are you getting many false alerts?
Or do you put your camera facing your house’s entrance door?

This will take trial and error and some practice to get it right.  Still, it will pay off in eventually reaching Eufy’s promised battery lifetimes, which are counted on 10 detections per day and a recording time of 30 seconds per detection.

It’s crucial to have detections as efficiently as possible, so you don’t have too many false detections. Because too many false detections also make you numb and don’t watch your notifications anymore!

3. Via the Settings -> Power Manager in the EufySecurity app

The most obvious and user-friendly solution is to toggle with the “Power Management” settings within the app for the device and choose “Optimal Battery Life.”

eufy power manager
eufy power manager

Be careful if you choose “Customize Recording” as it notes: Battery Life decreases significantly in this mode.

4. Via the Settings -> Motion Detection in the EufySecurity app

Here you can configure whether or not motion detection is needed, tune the activity zones, its detection sensitivity, and detection types: Human Only or All Motions.

eufy motion detection
eufy motion detection

Activity Zone: The larger the activity zone, the more battery power will be consumed, though its impact is relative to the battery.

eufy activity zone
eufy activity zone

Detection Sensitivity: The higher you put it (on the scale from 1-to 7), the more battery power will again be consumed. Though its impact is quite relative, why not tweak it if you can.

Detection Type:

  • Human only: this means that only humans will try to be detected during daylight, and all motion will still be recorded at night time. This saves battery consumption.
  • All motions: this setting means it will try and detect all activity both during daytime and nighttime. This mode consumes more energy.

5. Via the Settings -> Spotlight Brightness in the EufySecurity app

You can adjust the spotlight from low (40%) to high (100%). Obviously, the higher the brightness, the more battery will be consumed.

eufy spotlight settings
eufy spotlight settings

For our own convenience and recording quality of the videos, we personally leave this setting always at 100%. But you might have different needs.

For example, when you’re on holiday and see your camera running out of juice and are using the spotlight regularly, this is a smart setting to reduce battery usage.

6. Via the Settings -> Video -> Night Vision in the EufySecurity app

Here we can configure how the camera behaves when it’s dark:

eufy night vision
eufy night vision

B&W Vision: The infrared LED turns on when motion is detected when it’s dark (not just at night) and will record things in black and white (B&W). This is ideal for most users. In addition, detection is fast and uses less battery power than the next option, “Spotlight Night Vision.”

eufy night vision black and white
eufy night vision black and white

Spotlight Night Vision: Spotlight turns on when motion is detected and will record in full color. It needs another form of lightning nearby to “detect” fast enough for best results. This mode uses the battery more intensively, but the recording is in color.

eufy night vision spotlight
eufy night vision spotlight

Turn off: This turns off the infrared LED and spotlight when it’s dark. This option is the most energy-saving one but might make your camera quite useless, too – it all just depends on your particular needs for that particular camera at that particular place. You’ll have to turn on the Spotlight manually.

7. Disable Apple HomeKit

Apple Homekit and Apple Home Kit Secure Video are notorious for energy consumption. So it might be better for your battery-powered wireless cameras to switch it off altogether.