Eufy Cam 3 4 Pack with HomeBase 3
VerifiedMPNs: 194644103866 and T8873TW15 reviews
Purchased the 4 pack kit November 2023. System operates great for the first year, then... prepare yourself for needing to replace ALL your cameras. Eufy have replaced all 4 of the cameras in my kit, and today I now have a 5th camera (one that Eufy sent me as a replacement).
Camera 1 (replaced): sudden unexplained drop in battery level, camera ‘offline’ status on app. Camera accepted recharge and app shows battery full, but unable to play live video on the app, and unable to get any notification. Camera completely useless. Eufy replaced with a new one. Camera 2 (replaced): cloudy weather in Brisbane with lots of wind gusts, camera pointed at tree which normally not an issue but under heavy wind detected movement and drained the battery to flat (we happened to be away during this time). Once completely flat, battery is DEAD and wont accept recharging by cable, camera completely unresponsive. Eufy replaced with a new one. Camera 3 (replaced): Similar to camera 2 above, lots of activity in backyard/pool over Christmas due to family visiting with kids, camera battery drained within 3 days. Plenty of sun thought nothing of it as solar panel should recharge it. Camera went offline on the app, and fails to reconnect. Recharged by USB-C cable (indicator lights flashing so camera is responding) app fails to connect. Removed it from the app to re-add it per suggestion from Eufy troubleshooting, follow the pairing procedure but fails to pair with the app – most likely because the camera still thinks it is paired to a HomeBase but the HomeBase has the camera removed. Seems to be a communication issue between the two. Eufy replaced. Camera 4 (replaced): sudden unexplained draining of the battery. Fails to recharge via solar or USB-C. Eufy App says camera is offline and to refresh. Refresh does nothing as camera is dead. Eufy replaced. Camera 5 (one of the replacements Eufy sent me): positioned at front door under an awning sheltered from sun and rain – manual recharging by USB-C required which I was ok with. I had to recharge the camera once manually after watching the battery level, completely paranoid about low battery and then it dropping off connection from HomeBase like the others… then yesterday, despite healthy battery level, camera suddenly goes into offline mode on the app. Took it down to recharge via USB-C cable… nothing… camera is dead, no lights flashing, pressing reset buttons does nothing etc. Tried multiple USB-C cables and different adaptors. Left it exposed to direct sunlight to try recharve via solar. Nothing, camera is dead.
This product is absolutely appalling. I rarely write negative reviews but feel compelled to inform the community about this product and its flaws per my experince and would recommend to direct anyone reading this review to an alternative product. I would expect with a price tag $1400 at the time that the product would work for more than what I have got out of it. I will be raising this with the ACCC as a formal complaint, I feel like I have been robbed and regret my purchase. Eufy support have provided replacement cameras but informed me that I am now out of warranty.
Follow-up · My number one purchase regret is these cameras. I would recommend to anyone shopping for home security systems to seek out: 1. an alternative brand (poor support from Eufy) 2. a wired camera system (the wireless convenience isn’t worth the bass tle if failed cameras, dead batteries) Once the cameras die in 12 months time I will be replacing them with a different brand. I will NEVER touch a Eufy product again.
Purchased in at Bunnings Warehouse for $1,480.
I was having trouble with another brand which required constant re-setting and had limited detection range. As a consequence an item was stolen from my shed, but the event was not detected. To replace the system I was worried about some of the Eufy negative reviews here, but two friends have installations and said they have had no problems, so upon their recommendation I purchased a Eufy S330 4 camera system some six months ago.
It was very easy to install and set up, complete with what I think is great software. The Wi-Fi connection has an excellent range, the cameras have excellent depth of range, and the 4K image resolution is simply brilliant. I have just added an additional camera, which again was simplicity itself to install.
Storage in the Home Base works well. The cloud storage facility if required is $5.99pm, but note that it only covers one camera. To cover more than one camera the fee jumps to $22.99pm ($276pa), which in my opinion needs consideration.
I note most of the reviews refer to problems occurring after a period of time, but for me, so far so good, and I am happy with my purchase.
Does it work? Yes. Does it do what I want it to do? Sometimes. Mounting the cameras is simple. No cable required. But I have a hard time to make the cameras record events that I need to see. It keeps missing events for no reason I could figure out. Impossible to set the cameras up to record 24/7 even though I connected USB power. In a simple situation like the back yard the results are good and the battery lasts well. However, at the front facing the driveway and road it's a struggle. Too many events to deal with. Looking into connecting e330 cameras now while keeping the same home base. More to come as I work though the problems.
Edit 9/25: I added a E330 camera for 24/7 recording. I am using this one for the busy areas. Of course I had to use a 240v/12V power supply and cable which is really not a problem with the a power point within reach of the supplied 5m cable. The batteries of the S330 cameras cope well. Even in winter they reach 90% capacity. The Home Base with cameras use their own WiFi (No SSID). However, it does compete with other WiFi channels in the 2.4G band. It moves the channel where it thinks it's best. Shame I can't fix the channel myself. If it wasn't for the lack of flexibility with 24/7 recording and the chosen WiFi channel I'd give the system 5 stars. Though I haven't fully explored the AI and some other features yet.
I purchased this system in 2023 and it has worked well unti April 2024. At that point one of the cameras stopped working. On investigation it was clear that the camera was not updating its software, which the other 3 cameras were doing. I contacted the Australian distributer, which is a company called Directed Australia. A very helpful person said to log the issue with their support centre, but that they would "probably never get back to me". I did log the problem with them, and indeed they have never responded (after 2 months). I also stumbled upon what turned out to be the USA parent company who were extremely helpful online. They diagnosed the problem and advised me to get the camera replaced at point of sale (Bing Lee). Bing Lee called Directed Australia who advised that they would not replace it and would not provide any support to fix the problem. This is a camera worth $600 to replace and has 1 year warranty. While it is out of warranty I would have expected that a software issue could be easily fixed. There is nothing physically wrong with the device. Just appalling support.
Purchased in at Bing Lee for $1,589.
Extremely unreliable on all fronts – Extremely unreliable on all fronts. A) 1 second power outage = your system will completely cease to function until you manually reset it - good luck if you're not home to do so. B) Eufy App will just stop loading clips or images. Requires full uninstall/reinstall to resolve every time this happens, which is at least once a month. This ALSO stop the entire system from working for up to several hours. The support team at Anker seem to think this is fine.
C) If you can actually retrieve a video clip, it will take 10-20 seconds to buffer every 2 seconds of video. Trying to watch a 1 minute clip from start to end via the app will take about 10 minutes sitting and waiting. And you need to do this for every clip if you want to see what triggered your cameras, because the thumbnails are NOT TIMESTAMPED. Also, the thumbnails are frequently not even synced to the right video frame, so it'll just be an empty picture of your porch - not the person who was just standing on it.
D) Bad support. The reply I got to the above issues was to reset my security system and my phone every time there is an issue, eg they think it's no problem for you to have to micromanage this crappy system on an almost daily basis, just to make sure it hasn't sh*t the bed in the last 24hrs.
E) Panic functions/modes are non existent. If you need to raise the alarm or start everything recording in an instant, you can't. There's no panic button on the base station, in the app or on any of the devices. And the separate keypad eufy had that did have a panic button? Yeah not supported anymore. In fact it won't support a keypad of any type. Use the phone app, or get lost.
F) The solar recharge for wireless cameras is abysmal. If you completely disable the camera entirely, turning it into a useless brick, it MIGHT recharge 5% of it's battery over an entire day, in summer, in Australia. More than 20 days to recharge to full. Even in the most optimal battery saving mode, you will have to manually recharge these cameras every month or so just to keep them functional (or leave them turned off for weeks for solar recharging).
G) Wireless cameras don't activate quickly enough. Takes them about 10 seconds to figure out they've spotted something and start recording. I had to add a supplement the system with another $300 fully wired camera and expensive 1TB SSD to record everything 24/7, because the wireless cams were incapable of capturing most activity until it was already over.
I now have a $1500 camera system that works occasionally and gives me the same approximate level of security as having no security cameras at all. I could have gotten similar results from a much cheaper alternative, or much better results for the same money if I'd chosen another brand.
ProductReview.com.au has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence our content moderation policies in any way, though ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions for products/services purchased via affiliate links.