Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot suitable for use with a 4G mobile router
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 January 2023
I have been trying to use this outdoor stick-up cam (with rechargeable battery) to help monitor the front of an empty property that is over 50 miles away. I have two cameras, one indoors that is plugged into an electrical socket and the other outdoors (that uses a rechargeable battery). I am using a 4G mobile router for wi-fi at the property as the property does not have a regular broadband connection. The indoor Ring camera works fine (most of the time - occasionally it drops the wi-fi signal) but the stick-up cam is proving to be a pain. It keeps dropping the wi-fi connection and the problem with that is that you cannot reset the device without being physically present in order to press a button underneath the cap of its base. No doubt I will have to experiment with the location of the mobile router in order to get a stronger signal, but it does not help that the stick-up cam appears to work at first only for it to drop its wi-fi connection after I have travelled back home. It is also annoying that nowhere in the literature regarding this camera does it tell you the size of drill bit you need in order to install it in brickwork. (You need a 7/32 inch drill bit, by the way.) It is only once you start installing the camera that the installation app itself tells you that you need a 3/16 inch drill bit (however, for the plugs supplied I found that a drill bit size of 7/32 inch was better - this gave a tight fit to the wallplugs, which I had to tap in with a hammer). That information should be provided on the web page and on the leaflets included in the packaging - you should not have to wait to be told the drill bit size you need just as you are actually going through the process of installing the camera. (A drill bit is not included in the packaging.) As far as I am concerned, so far this is proving to be an unreliable product, which is awkward to reconnect to wi-fi: not what you want in a security camera.
Update two weeks later: I have been back to the house (that is over 50 miles away) to try to get the stick-up cam to work. This time I moved the position of the mobile router and of the stick-up cam. I moved them so that they are only around 6 feet from each other, with just a wooden garage door in between the stick-up cam and the mobile router. Again the indoor Ring camera (that is in the same garage as the mobile router) continues to work most of the time (sometimes though it does drop the wi-fi only to recover later in the day), but the outdoor stick-up cam still has problems. The rechargeable battery in the stick-up cam was down to 30% capacity after just 2 weeks - so I replaced the battery with a fully charged one - and (frustratingly) the same unreliability with the stick-up cam has recurred, even though it is now very close to the router with only a wooden door in between: I got it working fine while I was physically there (after much faffing around) only to find after I got back home that it had dropped the wi-fi connection yet again! I can only assume that I would need a much stronger wi-fi signal for the stick-up cam to work and I cannot provide that with my 4G mobile router. I was notified (by the Ring app) that the replacement battery that I inserted 5 days ago, when it was fully charged, is now down to 10%. I can only assume that the cam has been continuously trying to reconnect to wi-fi and depleted the battery in the process. I think I will have to abandon the outdoor stick-up cam and just keep using the indoor Ring camera: disappointing.
Update 10 days later: I think the main problem is that I am using a 4G mobile router and that does not provide a strong enough signal for uploading video on a consistent basis. That is not the fault of the stick-up cam. What may be the fault of the stick-up cam, however, is that when I checked in Device Health it told me that the wi-fi signal was strong enough. Maybe the signal was strong enough for downloading but it certainly was not strong enough for uploading video.
I have taken the stick-up cam down from the house that is 50 miles away and am now using it outdoors at home. So far it is working absolutely fine and consistently with my home broadband so I do think the problem is that the 4G mobile router is not designed for uploading video and I was just asking too much of it.
