Google’s Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam will stop charging when it’s too cold outside

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Has your doorbell stopped working when you hooked it up to the wires, or has it been draining its battery faster than normal? It doesn't like being left out in the cold. A new support page published this week confirms that the new smart video doorbell and its battery can't charge at temperatures below 32 degrees.

The update comes on the heels of complaints by users in the forum that their Nest Doorbells were draining their batteries faster than normal this winter, even when hooked up to doorbell wiring to maintain their charge. The cold weather will affect the batteries. If the camera is connected to a wired power source, there won't be any issues with charging at lower temperatures, as the wire powers the camera directly.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The doorbell problem is caused by a small but important difference between battery-powered and wired doorbells. The doorbell battery is being charged by the power from the doorbell wiring. The battery will eventually run out if it is too cold to hold a charge. If you use a solar panel to keep your camera charged, it's the same thing. The camera will run out of juice in the cold, because that trickle doesn't power it directly.

While its battery-powered cameras can operate in temperatures as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit, the minimum charging temperature on the new support page is 32 degrees. The battery can still power the device at lower temperatures, but it won't charge and may drain faster, according to the support article. In warmer weather, the battery could have less life than it does at the minimum operating temperature.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

If you live in a part of the country with sub-freezing temperatures, what can you do? You should take the entire doorbell down and put it in a warm place to charge it.

If you don't know if your device is affected, you can check in the Google Home app where the device will say "charging paused" or "charging slowly" with a long estimated time.

This problem is not unique to the cameras. The batteries struggle in cold weather. Ring's doorbell and camera batteries are affected when the temperature drops. Most Ring cameras have swappable batteries that are easier to bring indoors to charge.

The batteries for the Nest camera can be charged up to 104 degrees.

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