What’s The Best Smart Home Security Camera For Cold Weather?

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A smart security camera for your front door or your garden is good and all, but what about winter? After all, you don’t want to monitor your property only in summer, but all year round. It is very annoying if you bought a security camera and after half a year you bring a frozen and destroyed camera into your house. That’s why in this article I introduce you to the best Smart Home security camera for cold weather so that this doesn’t happen to you!

The best Smart Home security camera for cold weather is the Blink XT2*.

The Blink XT2 can also record HD videos at sub-zero temperatures, has a battery life of up to 2 years, motion detection, and many other features. In this article, you can find out what these are and why this security camera is so convincing in cold weather.

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Installation and Setup of the Blink XT2

I think that is important that Smart Home products can be easily installed and set up. Once you know which area you want to monitor from your property, it won’t be long before the camera is ready for use.

Mount it, connect it to your wifi, adjust the settings – done!

I installed and set up my 3 camera system* within one evening. I could have been a lot faster if I hadn’t tried all possible features and settings 😉

Installation

The Blink XT2 security camera can be installed virtually anywhere. Due to its small size, it is hardly noticeable and also has room in small corners and niches.

In addition, it does not require electricity or a network connection as it is battery-powered and connects to the Smart Home via WLAN. The only thing you have to pay attention to is that at the place where you install the camera either the WLAN signal is still good enough, or you can easily install a WiFi extender inside the house.

Setup

The Blink XT2 smart security camera works with a sync module, which is connected to the router and manages the data between camera and WLAN. One sync module can manage up to 16 cameras at oncve.

To install the camera you have to connect the sync module to the router, turn on the camera and download and install the app. The installation instructions in the app are quite intuitive and easy to understand.

First, you scan the QR code at the sync module or enter it manually. Then it’s the camera’s turn. And that was it, actually!

Now you can adjust many different settings to perfectly adjust the functions of the security camera to your situation.

After a power failure, the Blink XT2 smart security camera quickly reconnects to the Sync module.

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App and Smart Home Integration

The Blink App for Android and iOS systems is very simple and intuitive to use. There are many features you can adjust, but these are very clearly displayed and easy to overview.

The only disadvantage of the app, I think, is the thumbnail of the camera. This is unfortunately not a live image but a manually taken image which you have to take with the camera icon. I guess this is one of the drawbacks of the incredibly long battery life. If you had a live picture all the time, the battery would be empty much faster.

The Blink XT2 can also be controlled with Alexa by voice command. In addition, it supports IFTTT (IF This Then That), which opens up many possibilities in event control. You can combine various events, such as triggering the motion sensor or reaching a certain temperature, with other functions of other Smart Home devices. The motion detector could control the light or the temperature sensor the thermostat.

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Weather Resistance

One of the main reasons the Blink XT2 is the best security camera for cold weather is that it can withstand weeks of extreme cold or seemingly endless cold rain or wet snow as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

With many other security cameras for outdoor use, a limit is reached at some point at which moisture can no longer be prevented or you have to constantly change the batteries.

It is well known that batteries do not last too long in cold weather. Due to the low power consumption of the Blink XT2, it lasts considerably longer than many competitors.

So you can rely on this security camera even if it gets really uncomfortable outside! So you know what is going on in front of your house without going out into the cold or wet.

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Video Quality in Cold Weather

The Blink XT2 records videos in 1080p HD. Among other things, this significant increase from 720p to 1080p distinguishes the Blink XT2 from the classic Blink camera. So the pictures are of high quality, even in the cold. I was really astonished by the quality of the pictures because I thought that with such a robust camera you have to cut back at least somewhere. Nevertheless, the video recordings can keep up with other high-end security cameras.

At night, the camera makes use of its infrared LEDs, so you can get good videos even in the dark. At night the quality is of course not quite as good as during the day and you can for example only recognize faces when they come relatively close.

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Battery Life in Cold Weather

Blink advertises with a battery life of 2 years. As with the consumption data for cars, it must be assumed that these two years apply to the most energy-efficient settings.

But these two years can also be realistically achieved by limiting the video clips to less than 10 seconds and using Energizer lithium batteries.

The Blink XT2 has an unbeatable battery life of 2 years! And that also with hard winters in between.

No matter if one or two years – this battery life is considerably longer than many competitors. The Arlo Pro 4* works for example with rechargeable batteries which only last three to four weeks in cold weather. A smart home is also about atomization. The constant replacement of batteries is not considered automation in my book! Another plus for the Blink XT2.

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Configurable Motion Detector

Within the app, you can activate the motion detector. As soon as the Blink XT2 smart security camera has detected a movement, it sends an alarm with a small video clip to your smartphone.

So you can see directly whether it is a false alarm or not and can react to the situation accordingly. Of course, you can vary the length of the sent video clip.

The notifications you get on your smartphone have a few seconds delay. The duration of the delay also depends on the reception.

The sensitivity of the motion detector can also be adjusted. It takes a few days until you have found the right settings for your environment to filter out false alarms and only be notified of interesting movements. You’ll be amazed at how many animals are running around!

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Temperature Sensor

The camera also has a temperature sensor that measures the ambient temperature. This is displayed in the app and you can set it to get a message when the temperature goes above or below a certain threshold.

One way to put this feature to practical use would be to connect this Temperature Alarm via IFTTT to a thermostat to start heating as soon as the temperature drops below a certain level. During strong cold waves where pipes can freeze, you can save a lot of money this way.

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Video Library and Cloud Storage Space

There are many security camera manufacturers that charge an extra fee for cloud storage. With the Blink XT2 this memory is included in the product.

You can then save up to 120 minutes of video files. You can view all clips within this library and then either download them, forward them or delete them as a false alarm.

Inside the video library, you can see how much of the storage space you have already used.

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Advantages and Disadvantages

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Bottom Line

The Blink XT2* convinces all along the line and is unbeatable in its price-performance ratio. While there are other great security cameras that provide good images in the cold, the Blink XT2’s overall package is almost perfect.

I would even recommend it also for indoor use aswell. With its package of practical features, the HD videos and its inconspicuously small design, it is suitable for any location. Outside or inside!

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Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
Disclosure: This website is the property of Martin Lütkemeyer and is operated by Martin Lütkemeyer. Martin Lütkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to enable Web sites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Links marked with * are affiliate links.