Eufy Cam 3 Update - Solar Panel Flaking
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- **Eufy has reached out stating that they knew about this a while back and have changed and improved their solar panel or the coating that they used for their solar cameras. The new Eufy Cam 3's will not have this issue**
Today is just going to be a quick update of my the Eufy Cam 3 which had issues with declining battery charge even when exposed to the sun last November. I also noticed flaking and peeling off of the outer layer of its solar panel. Check the video on what I did that it is currently working and charging good with just a few hours of sun everyday.
Eufy Cam 3 Review - • Eufy Security EufyCam ...
geni.us/LHeufy...
#lifehackster #eufysecurity #eufycam3
🛒🛒LH Amazon Shop - www.amazon.com...
🎥My Camera/Studio Gear - kit.co/lifehac...
➡️Don't forget to sign up for notifications @ lifehackster.com
- enter your email on the right upper corner - Join Notification List
Lifehackster is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program & Brand's Affiliate Program, which are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com or brands' website.
*Eufy has reached out stating that they knew about this a while back and have changed and improved their solar panel or the coating that they used for their solar cameras. The new Eufy Cam 3's will not have this issue*
New in like 6 months? Or new as in now? Im considering changing from google cameras.
So do we go back to where we bought the camera from and they will replace them with the newer cam?
@@nicknz100 I bought a two pack and both started flaking and the batteries were dying. I took them back to where I bought them from and got them swapped out. I can confirm that they have improved the solar panels. I only installed it yesterday so I will see how it goes
That is untrue about new eufy cam3 , mine has done exactly the same eufy tried to say no longer under warranty I told them about consumer rights act stating unfit due to badly made
Have agreed to exchange all my cameras
@@scoty_does I ordered mine last month and the panels are the same dimensions but have a different texture than the one he has in the video so I guess I got the updated.
I put car wax on my outdoor eufy cams to prevent this. The sun is so damaging so I use chemical guys V07 spray on the entire camera including solar panel then wipe off. V07 has a strong UV resistant properties and is safe on all plastics. Been using it on all my outdoor plastic items. P.S *I do a healthy coat once every 3 weeks to maintain UV resistant coating*
That's a genius idea. Thank you.
Yes I agree....Excellent thing to do
Is it worth it having to maintain the camera every 3 weeks versus just installing a wired one under an eave? Or is it not too inconvenient to access?
@aw They're easy to access for me but I did think of this, if I had one that was going to be hard to access I thought about Ceramic coating it
I have to check and test this option too...together with spraying a clear lacquer coat. Thanks for sharing.
Just about to pull trigger on buying the Eufy 330 Solar system and 6 cameras, then saw this. Nice to hear they think they fixed, but trust is lost now. So sad! Too much money to only get a year or two of reliability. Preferred wireless, but now will install a POE system.
He mentioned in the comments they updated the panel, and I guess they did because I just got mine and the panel has a different texture than this on video, I would almost say procrastinating worked out for me but then again my car got broken into while I was busy looking into other options then procrastinating on ordering them, ugh 😩
I’ve had this happen on solar lights and hadn’t even considered it would be the cause for the Eufy suddenly failing to charge since I have it high up and out of sight! Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
The flaming should have nothing to do with not charging.. if anything without the clear it would charge better as less resistance between sun and panel..
It is a bit disappointing that Eufy uses a cheap clear coat on a fairly sophisticated outdoor cam. It is not like buying cheap set of 4-5 garden solar lights for $20 at Costco or Home Depot.
I noticed the same with all of my Eufy 3's... I was about to make a video about it and here your's is. My understanding the coating it an AR coating which supposedly helps make the panels more efficient, but it looks like yours are working great with the coating scraped off.
Yes, it is now working good. I will eventually try out the recommended products in the comments though to help protect it a bit.
@@LifeHackster I am having one of my two solar Eufy cams with same issue, failed after almost exactly one year. Have you, or anyone else come up with product to add for protection in future?
i bought a 4 pack of 330's in june 2023 and that top layer came off on it's own on all of them. it did not flake it just came off as one piece. the other outdoor cam i have (s40 i think) is peeling/flaking though. we have a lot of wind where i live so that's probably a contributor. they are still charging so that's good.
It's the same issue garden lights have. Definitely get a good clear cut to keep the solar panels from corrosion
Thats Eufy Cam off my list now
Also the clear coat on my solocam s40 looks worse than this but still charges like a champ so I have no complaints with it just yet.
I just checked my S40 and it does show signs of same peeling. It does charge ok though.
Exactely the same to my S40.
Thanks for sharing my friend. I have the same problem too.
This was one of my concerns as soon as I saw the coating. Haven’t had an issue yet, good fix though.
I've seen this problem on just about every small solar panel. I've never tried it but i heard you van spray krylon crystal clear over it and works pretty well
I have to check and test it out. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing. 👍
Thanks for watching!
Yes, it happened to my Eufy SoloCam S40
It seems like there are a lot of S40 that have this issue.
Thank you for sharing this video. I have also noticed solar cell flaking on one of the cameras.
Have a similar problem on my 5 month old S340, panel is white around the edges about half a cm thick, but still charging well-maintaining at 100%
Great! Thanks for the advice!
I didn't have the flaking on my Eufycam 3 yet but with my Eufy PTZ camera it did stop holding a charge. It's in great physical condition, never been dropped and hasn't been exposed to too much extreme temps. I contacted Eufy and tried a few things but I was suggested by someone in the Eufy FB group to powercycle/reset the unit and it started working flawlessly again. Just an FYI if anyone runs into my issue.
Thanks for sharing this. My S340 is working pretty good no issues yet as to its charging.
My 15 month old S40 also flaking off completely 3 months ago, but it did not affect charging yet (touch wood)… but it remains to be seen if this cam can survive another 15 months… All my other Eufy batteries cams are either dead or dying slowly, from battery leakage to lens condensation. I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again - I will not buy another Eufy cams with built-in batteries again until Eufy implement replaceable batteries…
I thought this was fixed after the S40...the s40 was terrible with leaks and peeling. Man thank goodness I didn't buy these supposedly updated solar cams.
Had the same on a S40.
Also I've already replaced the S40 twice under warranty due to internal leakeage (water would somewho get in to the camera and tint the LEDs yellow). The one I got today (2nd replacement) seems to have a different coating. Let's see...
I noticed this same issue on all my S330 cams. Contacted Eufy within warranty - for a couple they sent me brand new S330s, and for another that happened later they sent me an external panel (this actually worked great, as this camera historically did not get very good sun where it was at but this allowed me to "extend" the solar panel to an area that gets more sun)
One of my Eufy S40 did the same thing and lost all of its coating. It’s still charging but not as efficiently as before. Poor quality combined with slow connection times have turned me off from Eufy
Looks like it's hazing over like car headlights do when they oxidize. You should try one of those graphene ceramic coatings after you polish the plastic a bit more with one of those headlight polishing kits like the one from 3M. The graphene ceramic coating will be much more durable than wax, just make sure you do a good polish/cleaning first. Leaving it unprotected will cause it to haze over again fairly quickly.
I have the same camera with the same flaking issue. I bought my camera in January 2023 and notice the flaking late last year and pulled off what I could. The rest of the coating was easy to remove in January 2024. It appears to be charging getting down to 15% and now at 19%. I was just about to pull it down but noticed it is charging but slowly possibly due to the issue along with short winter sunshine. I am not happy but still like Eufy cameras.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have had the same issue in my s40 and my e340 but didn’t dare to scrape it. I wasn’t sure what this coating was and I was too scared to ruin the solar panel. Actually, my camera’s panel protection looks so ugly now I would love to share the pictures with you. Also would be great if eufy can comment on this and advise us on what’s the best action to take with this regard.
You can scrape it off and spray some clear lacquer/sealant spray which I will probably do on mine.
I will keep my Wyze v3 cameras 👍🏻😁
great to know, mine has the same issue
You might want to coat it with some car wax as cars also have clear coats. I would suggest a carnuba type of wax if you have it on hand. Otherwise, any car wax will suffice to protect it after you scraped off the crap Eufy put on it.
I have to check on that. Thanks.
Yes mine is flaking. Will scrape off the coating and see how it goes
Eufy should pay you! Thanks for your advice as always.
Get some clear lacquer spray. Just like solar lights, the UV protection degrades and you need to reapply protection.
I'll probably be doing that. Thank you.
Hello Lifehackster, thanks for the video. I hope you keep us updated on the status of the camera. I know that you have the Eufy E340 on your driveway so I’m curious what settings and notification times do you use on your S330 camera? I know you use Reolink 24/7 recording so I’m curious to know which of your battery powered camera do you set to the longest customization recording. For instance on some of my Eufy S330s I have two minutes recording at 5 seconds intervals between triggers. Which is the max Eufy allows.
I currently have left this at optimal surveillance mode...which when getting in and out of our cars, it will record around 15 seconds of it. Before November/December I had set it to record 1 minute per detection and it was working and charging fine until late November. As to intervals, I set it also to the lowest...every 5 seconds.
have the same issue with s330 and s40
Use a ppf clear film to maintain your solar charger in good condition
I have to check it out. Thanks.
@@LifeHackster I have some leftover, I can send that to you
the coating on the top layer looks very similar to the type used on portable or foldable solar panels under 20 pounds. my guess is the coating is etfe or ethylene etrafluoroethylene its basically a fluorine-based plastic polymer its supposed to help with light transmission to the solar cells and repels dust debris better that other coatings and makes it easier to clean. It can flake or peel after long exposure to outdoor elements and light transmission won't be good anymore. that looks to be the issue here which is why the battery can't charge. If you want to reapply a coating of some kind I think using something etfe formulated would be best as since that is best for solar panels. other coatings like the ceramic kind for cars should also work but I don't know how well light will pass through. it might even reflect some light and recharging wattage is a bit less. with adequate sunlight time it won't make much difference for a camera battery anyway. otherwise just leave it naked and see how it holds up in the sun.
Thanks for the info. I'll look into it..my S40 is showing the same thing.
I noticed my eufy cam 3 having the same flaking on the solar panel top side.
This is also happening to my Eufy S220 bought 6/23 and just started flaking 7/24.
Thanks LifeHackster for another good no great video!😊
Thanks for watching!
Noticed this after 2 months and returned this back into store. The new one feels more bumpy and textured on the solar panels. Very annoying having to mount this on again
Instead of using a blade scrapper, which could have cut up the plastic cover, you should have used a plastic polish. Like the kind for plastic headlights. But this Sun dulling of the clear coat on plastic products is a pretty common thing, the Sun is brutal.
I just had my Eufy Solar security system delivered today and luckily I saw this new posting by LH! I am returning it until Eufy resolves this issue. Thank you LH for posting and would have saved me lots of headaches in the future. Keep up the great and informative videos!
Update: I went ahead and bought the three Eufy Solar S340 cameras with HomeBase 3 because some nice person alerted me that Eufy upgraded the solar panels. Love the cameras!
Thanks for watching!
Your cameras may have an updated version. The original cameras had a smooth finish and were completely flat. The updated solar panels have a rough bumpy exterior finish to them. You can feel the difference by rubbing your hands along the solar panel. If there are any bumps at all then you have the new version of the solar panel. You should check before you send the cameras back,
This is a dumb thing to do… I’ve had my original ones since 2 weeks after them came out in MN winter and they look perfect still.. his are messed up cause he probably tryed to wipe something off them or scrape some snow off maybe or dirt etc..
@@byrondelgado5521 Interesting to know, I'm pretty sure I must have the bumpy updated texture but will have to double check (no charging issues...yet). Even so, I guess I should periodically check for this issue; we live in a VERY sunny part of CA, so I'm guessing more likely to run into this issue than the typical user.
@@p-forest i live in the Bay Area in Northern California, I originally had the cameras with the smooth exterior on the solar panels. I called customer service and within 20 minutes they sent out an order to replace my cameras, and I received them within two days. They also sent me a printed label in my email so that I could return free of charge the original cameras. There was no pushback and no hassles from customer service. They explained to me that the original cameras were mistakenly made with old solar panels, and that the new cameras would have newer updated panels on them.
Why do they make them not. To with stand UV. They literally need full sun to charge. Here in Australia they replace them. 1 camera here cost $400 each. My two lasted less than a year.
Yes I had it happen to me to I exchange in the new model doesn’t have that flaky film on it
Eufy Cam 3. Does this camera continuously record videos when the subject is in motion, or will it only record a 20-second clip?
Hi did you ever find out ?
The glass on my Eufy doorbell cams have been falling off. The whole front face on my S40 camera has fallen off and is rusting near the leds.
@lifeHackster do you know if we can add the extension solar panel for the s330?
Yes.
Had same issue on Arlo Solar Panel for floodlight 3. Didn’t scrape the flaking clear coat and somehow battery started charging again.
This is probably why fewer cameras now show a battery history chart in the app. eufy doesn’t want to give customers knowledge that proves solar panels are to blame.
I used to have this battery chart for some of my cameras, now none of mine have it.
You can always put some film over it
LifeHackster can you please make a installing video for the solar panel for wyze doorbell pro
Absolutely correct the solar panels on my eufy cam 3 and my eufy cam solo have all started to degrade and break away - do not buy the eufy cam Solar cameras - very poor quality
💐👍👏thank you👏👍💐
Welcome 😊
Salamat sa Tip! 🤙🏽
So Eufy does not make "net powered WiFi camera's"?
Hi @LifeHackster, we have bought multiple Security Cameras after watching your reviews.
Just bought the Eufy S330 last week & have 2 questions as below & need your valuable input, if you please:
1) The Scraper you used, does it have a metal blade or a sharp plastic one like the one used to remove stickers? Could any particular brand that mat be easy to buy from say Amazon?
2) My camera is placed at such a location that it does not receive direct sunlight all in one go but at different times of the day it would receive sunlight for different periods of time, so I would like to know how long does your Eufy S330 take to say charge from 50% to 100% under continuous direct sunlight? Thanks!
Wow.
The 3 sucks. Have 2 of these for a year. Lots of issues often just don’t record, have to resync them etc. One finally stopped working entirely one day looks like charging/battery issue but just bricked itself. The second around the same time the floodlight comes on constantly even when the camera is OFF and this was apparent while OFF and charging. My solocam 2… all still going strong years later no issue. Eufy really sliding in quality.
My eufy E40 keeps going off line when its get cold out .. the camera shuts off untill i bring it inside and let it warm up... I still think the best set up is POE
Eufy changed the solar panels to more rough coat on top of the panel.
Where did you buy that red blade scraper from? Do you have a link for the blade scraper? I would like to buy one. Thank you.
Both mt original Eufy Cam 3's have failed in less than 2 years. They're really poor quality given their price.
Had to stop buying eufy cams. The solo cam I have worked fine for about 1.5 years, but over the last 6 months fails to stay connected to wifi. Have tried everything including upgrading to a mesh system. It's a shame because We really like the cameraUntil this issue popped up
I solved this by going hardwired.
I have the same problem
Well I was about to invest heavily with a total coverage on our home until this video popped up. Entirely too much money for this issue to occur.
Hi! Is the s330 compatible with a eufy standalone solar panel?
They should give you a new camera that’s complete bs for how much them cost
Had the same issue on my S220. Bullshit quality. The coating was so bad that I can't clear the surface and threw the cam in the garbage...... A solar panle which can't resist the sun....What a joke! This happened exactly after the 2 year warranty period.
Even dollar store solar devices don't get dmg. This is pretty poor quality tbh.kibda shocked. Id label the video as a (fix) I mean you restored it
I just encounter this issue with the same camera! but doesn't the scraping off the film damage the solar panel with scratching it!? I just did the same thing you suggested; and while it removed the thin film coating by scraping it very carefully; it now has scratched the whole solar panel; very disappointing results. Would the inevitable scratches left lessen the performance of the solar panel!?
Well, after scraping, my eufy cam 3 has been in the 95-100% charged ever since I did it.
@@LifeHackster I am still charging the unit on a charger for now! lets hope the scratches left on the surface of the solar panel from scraping the thin film does not affect the charging of the solar panel from the sun!? thank you for your quick response!
Threw mine away didn’t know about scrapping
You threw the Eufy Cam 3 or even the S40? worse comes to worse, you can always hook up a separate solar panel on them.
Slow lol
I got a 3 pack and only one did that.
It’s weird because my eufy cam 3’s do charge off and on but on the Home Screen they are supposed to be green when they are charging and mine are never green and never show they are charging? I’ve talked to eufy and they don’t know why either. Buddy has same cams and his are always show in green when sun is out cause they are wirelessly charging from the solar panel. I like my cams but lots of weird glitches and the base updates all
The time.. almost too much
Crappy cameras even the siren sucks
first
I PUT UP permanent outdoor lighting under my eves but it burned out the eufy solocam s40 cause it couldnt determind between people or light movement from the blinking lights
it still works but wont alert or spot loight wont come there is actually two burn spots on the lens
Everyone Should really stop Stop supporting eufy. After the eufy data privacy scandal, no one should be using eufy on principle if not for privacy concerns due to the abhorrent way they handled the proven true accusations.
Privacy??? You are on the internet now probably on a cell phone and you think you have privacy? You probably stream tv or watch cable and think you have privacy??? Yea 🤔😂
I would have cleaned it with some solvent and then applied some wax to protect it.
Exactely the same to my S40.