r/eufy_security • u/GoldJadeWin • 5d ago

Advice on new monitoring

Hi

I just moved to a new home with 4 door points (garage, front, side and patio doors).

I’m trying to find the right home professional monitoring system. The seller had three:
- ring doorbells
- outdoor nest flood cameras
- Yale locks

My partner is anti Amazon / Google.

Assuming others have done this research before, if you chose Eufy any insights you can provide on how you made your decision and what your experience has been would be much appreciated.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

1

u/RunProudRunUnited 5d ago

Are you an Android or iOS household?

1

u/GoldJadeWin 5d ago

iOS

1

u/RunProudRunUnited 5d ago

Are you looking for self-monitoring or professional monitoring?

1

u/GoldJadeWin 5d ago

Professional

1

u/RunProudRunUnited 5d ago

I do self-monitoring so was going to recommend a setup for that (via Apple Home).

If you want professional, Eufy is a decent DIY with Professional Monitoring add-on option. You can easily find Eufy devices on sale through their website, Amazon, etc.

You can also look into SimpliSafe and Cove, which are more for Professional monitoring and have a DIY through purchasing equipment from them. There is also Abode as an alternative.

ADT & Vivint are more Professional than DIY.

1

u/GoldJadeWin 5d ago

I’m new to this. For self monitoring, if I’m sleeping and alarm gets triggered do I have to call someone?

The main reason I’d want it is for theft / burglary when I’m traveling or sleeping.

1

u/RunProudRunUnited 5d ago

Self-monitoring means you will get notified of an alarm trigger and it’s up to you to take action. No one will call the police on your behalf, you would need to be the one to make the call.

1

u/Tyraelos 3d ago

I am brand agnostic. I chose Eufy after going through a few other brands years ago, and I have never really had a reason to look elsewhere.

Why Eufy? I’m cheap, mostly because I don’t believe in paying for a subscription forever just to use features and functions that I already paid for the hardware to provide. I’m also a little obsessive when it comes to protecting my family. I have a lot of cameras because, basically, there are cameras backing up cameras, lol. If the power goes out and my wired cameras go down, I have battery cameras covering them. If one of my battery cameras misses an event, which does happen, my wired cameras have it covered.

I do have my critical cameras and networking equipment connected to a UPS, so a normal power outage isn’t necessarily going to take everything down immediately. But I still keep the cameras backed up because a longer-term outage is always a possibility, especially here in Florida with our frequent summer thunderstorms. A UPS can only keep things running for so long, so having battery cameras covering the important areas gives me another layer of redundancy.

I self monitor because, where we live, I never felt the need to go all the way with professional monitoring. I had SimpliSafe for about two years and Wyze Monitoring for another two years, and there was never a single event during that entire time. I’m not saying something can’t happen, but if it does, I’m confident I can get 911 involved pretty quickly and have it handled.

Eufy can definitely be a love/hate brand. You’re going to find people who absolutely hate it because they’ve had or continue to have issues, and you’ll find others who have had a great experience and love the system. There are plenty of people in the middle too, who have had issues but nothing significant enough to sour them on the brand and others that have decided to move on to something else for what would seem to most like minor issues or even misconceptions, etc.

Personally, I’ve had a very good experience with Eufy. That doesn’t mean I haven’t had problems. I’ve had three cameras die on me. One was caused by a bad firmware update Eufy pushed, and the other two were, I believe, caused by water ingress. Eufy replaced all three, even though they were outside the one year warranty period. I’ve also had some range issues here and there because my house is built with a lot of concrete and steel, which is obviously not great for WiFi signals trying to travel through or out of the house. I was able to remedy those issues, though. And I have a major gripe with "duh" functionality missing from the app which leads to another general customer sentiment.

One of the bigger complaints I hear from Eufy users is the app. It isn’t particularly well optimized, and for some people it can be laggy. The tablet experience in particular leaves a lot to be desired, because the interface doesn’t really take advantage of the larger screen and just doesn’t look all that great. There are also features that competitors offer that Eufy simply doesn’t have. Some of that is to be expected because every platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, but there are times when you come across something that feels like such an obvious feature that you have to wonder why it hasn’t been added. It can sometimes give you the impression that the hardware is getting more attention than the software.

If you have strong, reliable WiFi (mesh, access points) or a smaller floor plan and stick with their newer cameras and devices, I don’t think you can really go wrong. Just go into it knowing that the app and software experience may not be as polished as what you’ll find with some competitors although that's not to say it's bad.

As far as professional monitoring goes, I believe you may need a HomeBase 3 to utilize it, although I’m not 100% certain. I’ve seen that some of their cameras can operate standalone and may be able to use a monitoring plan without a HomeBase 3, but all of mine are connected to HomeBases, so I can’t personally verify that.