Discussions

Do you own any of these products?  
Thinking about the Nest Cam Outdoor security camera.  
Any comments you can share !!!!!!

We have the pro by nest.  
Works great, runs off our wi-fi so we had to upgrade our internet package

We have nest. Absolutely love it. Don't know why you would need to upgrade your internet package.  
 
Did have to install a signal booster so the internet signal would reach the garage.  
 
Would only use nest. Going to be installing the smoke alarms next.

GoWheatiesGo said "We have nest. Absolutely love it. Don't know why you would need to upgrade your internet package.     Did have to install a signal booster so the internet signal would reach the garage.     Would only use nest. Going to be installing the smoke alarms next. "

We have a Canadian product, Ecobee which works fine. Not sure why you would need to upgrade your internet as the previous poster stated. We have the "up to 7mbps" plan and it works fine.

Curious if the ones needing to upgrade internet live in the country with data caps?

Well considering the OP asked about security cameras and your talking about the ecobee thermostat. Nest offers a wide range of different products then just a thermostat

Of course the thermostat wouldn''''t have much impact on your internet plan, but the OP is talking about cameras if you take the time to actually read. If you subscribe to the Nest cloud service it is constantly uploading HD video (depending on the video quality you set), this can have a definite impact on what is usually a much lower "upload" cap you get with most internet plans. I can absolutely see the need to upgrade your internet plan depending on what you are on and what other bandwidth you are using.  
 
To answer the OPs question, we have a Nest outdoor and quite like it. I picked it up over Christmas on a good sale. It''''s important to factor in the Cloud server (Nest Aware) into your budget as without that you only get live viewing and "stills" when it detects movement. Its $5/$10/$30 per month (some savings for paying for a year at a time) depending on how many days footage you want to keep (5/10/30 days). You also get Zones, time lapses and other features with that service. Without that you really aren''''t getting the full camera experience IMO but it''''s yet another subs:cription to pay for.  
 
Edited by allice, 2018-04-04 09:15:52

We got the Arlo Pro HD set. Got 2 cameras and we don't have to pay monthly or yearly monitoring like the Nest. The initial cost up front was a little more than Nest but its nice not to have to get sucked in to paying continuously just to review the video. I would suggest comparing the Nest and Arlo Pro if you have not already bought one. We did not have to upgrade our internet, we are with BellMTS and have unlimited so we just use the max resolution. Cameras take great video.

Daisy, just curious how you find the batteries hold up in our cold winter on the Arlos? My understanding is the Arlo is completely wire free, so uses batteries, which in my experience have a very short lifespan in our not so friendly winters.

allice said "Daisy, just curious how you find the batteries hold up in our cold winter on the Arlos? My understanding is the Arlo is completely wire free, so uses batteries, which in my experience have a very short lifespan in our not so friendly winters. "

I can't say for certain but the batteries do quite well in our cold temps. Probably get 80 - 100 days out of one in the winter before it needs charging. If it gets really nasty -30 and below occasionally will get a low power warning and video feed may cut out for a few minutes here but very rarely. I don't believe we charge them at all last Summer or at least I didn't. I would say you likely have to charge them 2 or 3 times a year. I debated buying a spare set to have on standby but its really not that big of an inconvenience to charge them a couple times a year for a few hours.  
 
And yes they are completely wireless we move one around in the backyard, bought a separate mount on Amazon. Really happy with them.

GoWheatiesGo said "Well considering the OP asked about security cameras and your talking about the ecobee thermostat. Nest offers a wide range of different products then just a thermostat "

Yup, read it quick this morning and replied, your all correct was thinking only thermostat, but the OP was basically asking about cameras.