Wyze Home Security Systems
Wireless Security For Home and Business
WYZE PAN REVIEW
Figure 1 Wyze Pan Camera v1 and v2
WYZE CAM PAN and the improved Color Night Time Vision WYZE CAM PAN v2
Over the years I have used and evaluated security cameras for both home and business and the installation cost, maintenance, and off-site recording capability had been both costly and complex. There has recently been a revolution in camera systems and additional components since then that have made them easy to operate and very affordable for both homes and small business.
The Wyze Company was created many years ago from a spinoff of several Amazon Tech Employees who wanted to create a better mousetrap (so to speak) for American households at incredibly affordable prices. And to that extent they were wildly successful! They began by first acquiring production rights to a well established camera produced overseas, and added a vast amount of new Firmware and Software for the American market, along with Wyze APPS for Android and Apple smartphones, a free 14 day cloud storage plan and a 32gb SD Card that could provide a double backup of events.
WYZE V2 and the newly improved WYZE V3 (waterproof with superior nite vision)
There are three cameras available; The original Wyze V2 ($19.99) which is a small Cube which zooms but does not pan or tilt but has a very flexible mounting base; and the Wyze Cam Pan ($29.95) which is twice as tall, but mounted on an electrically rotating tracking base, and can zoom, pan and tilt through your Wyze APP. Both of these must be plugged into AC power with a slim usb power wire (up to 25 feet long) but are otherwise wireless and require no physical connection to your internet router.
And finally, the new Wyze Cam Outdoor “WCO” ($49.95) which is a fully weather resistant and completely wireless battery powered unit (3-4 months between charges) with even more advanced PIR with 8 Infrared LED night sensors. Instead of connecting to your router wirelessly, this unit uses a very small Base unit that must be physically connected to your router (it handle most of the functions that would normally require a lot of battery power) and the Base unit itself then connects wirelessly to your WCO unit. This new WCO unit also has a very unique travel mode that allows you use it while completely away from your internet router and base unit (such as to watch your parked car while at a hotel, to use as a trail cam for hunters, to use as a dash cam for your car, and as a security cam for a home under construction, and open house showing by a realtor, or a commercial jobsite). These are factory direct prices and an additional $8-10 for shipping may apply. Others vendors simply add in the shipping cost to their pricing for simplicity.
Wyze Cam Outdoor “WCO”
Figure 3 Wyze Cam Outdoor WCO
I have installed and evaluated the Wyze Cam Pans at three sites on a daily basis over the last 2 years. I installed 1 Wyze V2, 5 Wyze V3's, 7 Wyze Pan’s and 2 WyzeWCO’s at a residential site in Florida using 7 inside and 8 outside as well as in an enclosed Lanai (along with 5 Arlo Exterior Cameras); 15 Wyze Pans and V3's at a second remote residential site in Florida with 4 of them inside and 11 of them mounted outside in protective enclosures (Pan’s are not guaranteed weatherproof), and 25 Wyze Pans at a remote commercial site out of state with 12 mounted inside and 13 mounted outside. In all this time, I only had a single camera fail at the end of the 2 year period, mainly because it was mounted high up on a 50 foot antenna structure and was constantly subjected to heavy rain showers and thunderstorms. All those mounted in $15 protective enclosures or under the eves of roof lines have been unaffected. Wyze does not provide free warranty replacements on the V2 and PAN units for outside use, but the cost for replacing 1 of these many units was just $29.95, which was only a very minor inconvenience for 2 years of outside operations! The new WCO unit which just came out in August was specifically designed for outside use (as well as inside use of course).
Wyze then went on the add a complete line of compatible home and office products which all work together and can be controlled thru the same Wyze APP on your smartphone. PIR Motion Sensors and Door Sensor Contact Kits ($19.99 per pack) which notifies your smartphone and turns on any cameras you select when motion is detected; Wyze Lightbulbs ($7.99 per pack) which light up when any camera or sensor detects motion (or to program your lights while you are away; Wyze Plugs ($14.99 for a 2-pack) that you can program from your smartphone to turn on or off at any time or to turn on anytime a camera or sensor detects motion; Wyze Door Lock ($99.00) which can lock or unlock your home or rental unit remotely from your smartphone; Wyze Lock Keypad ($19.99) which you can program with codes to give family members, renters, or service contractors to manually access your Wyze lock without keys; Wyze Scale (19.99) which also gives you readouts on your smartphone and stores all of your weight and BMI data; and Wyze Band ($24.99) which you wear during sports training or workouts and receive all your health data on your smartphone. I have evaluated half of these other products, but they will be covered in another Review.
A FEW OF THE CAMERA FEATURES
- The Original V2 and the new WCO do not Pan and Tilt, but the Wyze Pan unit allows you to Pan, Tilt, and Zoom (PTZ) remotely thru your Wyze app so you can see every angle of your room while you’re away. The Wyze PAN can also be set to rotate horizontally to monitor a very wide field of vision and lock on to any motion detected. Panning has a 360° left/right rotation range and tilting has a 93° vertical up/down range, (or you can program it to pause at up to 4 waypoints momentarily instead of constant scanning).
- All three units can provide Live Stream in 1080p from anywhere in real time to your mobile device (many competitors are still using 720p). While you are live streaming, you can also use two-way audio to speak back and forth with your friends and family (or a delivery person) through the app.
- All three units offer automatic roll-over Motion/Sound Recording with 14 day Free Cloud Storage – in a series of recorded 12-second video clips 5 minutes apart when motion or sound is detected and saves that video to the cloud for 14-days, for free. Most competitors charge $10-$30 per month for this service. If you want 24-7 Constant Cloud Recording there is a plan available for $1.50 per month per camera (for the V2 and the PAN only). Mobile push notifications can be enabled so you’re only alerted when something is detected without having to constantly monitor the app.
- Also, all three units allow you to locally record 24-7 continuously or in time-lapse mode to a MicroSD card (sold separately) regardless of motion and sound. Compatible FAT32 MicroSD cards only cost about $10 each and can record 3 days worth of 24-7 action before beginning to re-write the oldest video. So in addition to the 14 day rolling cloud storage of alerts (and optional 24-7 paid cloud storage), you also have another set of 24-7 removable full recording videos at home in the unit itself.
- See in the dark – Night vision lets you see up to 30’ in absolute darkness using 8 infrared (IR) LEDs on the WCO ( the PAN has 6 and the V2 has 2) . Note: the sensitive IR itself does not work through glass windows but the V2 and PAN can be mounted inside a window and detect movement from the cameras detection of changes in scenery. The WCO has an even more sophisticated PIR heat seeking Infrared system and Led lighting.
- All three units have Zone Protection so you can eliminate false alerts from moving bushes or trees during windy days, cars passing by, or pets moving around inside the home. For each individual camera you can set the area you want alerts and recordings for, and also adjust the sensitivity of movement and sound as needed for a specific area.
- The V2 and PAN connect directly to your Internet WIFI Router wirelessly. All of the other home appliances such as locks, PIR Motion Sensors and door Alarms actually connect to the nearest V2 or PAN camera thru a little 1” x 2” Transceiver “Bridge” which plugs into the back of the Camera. So the range of the other external devices can be extended about 30 feet farther than the camera you are connecting with.
- All three units can be Voice Controlled with Alexa and Google Assistant (US only) so you can use your voice to see who’s at your front door, check on your baby or office workers, etc. The Wyze units are only compatible with the 4 GHz WiFi network frequency (they do not support the shorter range 5GHz Wi-Fi), and they all operate on Apple (iOS) and Android mobile devices through the WYZE APP
- All three units can be controlled by standard IFTTT Shortcuts, which allows you to automatically program one or more devices to activate under certain conditions (such as leaving home or arriving back home, turning on or off the cameras, lights or Smart Plugs at certain times, etc.
- All three units can be Shared with multiple family members thru a Wyze APP on each smartphone so everyone can have access to its live stream and audio-video recordings. You can give each person full access, or just partial access to specific cameras and other Home Devices. Camera sharing can also be removed as easily as it was added.
- There are HUNDREDS of accessories for the Wyze Cams such as a variety of indoor and outdoor mounting brackets, weatherproof enclosures, long USB cables, solar chargers and much more.
- Wyze maintains an End-User Forum and a Technical Support Department to assist users in as many ways as possible
While there are much more sophisticated, elaborate and expensive camera and security systems available, it is hard to imagine any others that are so simple to set-up, easy to use, and exceptionally affordable. I would highly recommend these Wyze products to anyone considering a new system for their home or small office.
For More Information
Wyze WCO
Wyze Accessories
